Year-End Evaluation & Reflection Resources
As we come to the end of the year, it’s a valuable time to reflect on the work God has done in 2023 and look forward to the work he will...
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UPSTREAM BLOG
The Upstream Blog is published two times a week and contains content from missions leaders, pastors, missiologists, and the Upstream team on a wide variety of topics pertaining to being a sending church. Leave us some comments or questions!
Anna Daub
- Nov 20, 2023
- 4 min
Global South: Church Engagement Strategies
As the church has moved south and east, the face of Christianity has changed.[1] If Western Christians want to work towards fulfilling...
Mike Easton
- Oct 23, 2023
- 4 min
Questions for Evaluating On-Field Partners
My parents did a great job of teaching me how to work at a young age. In fourth grade I had an after-school paper route. (For those of...
Joshua Bowman
- Oct 19, 2023
- 4 min
Cross-Cultural Missional Partnership: Some Perils of Neglect
The one-sided reality of failed cross-cultural partnerships may lead to the following errors.
Bruce Mewbourne
- Oct 16, 2023
- 5 min
How to Choose the Right Partners
“We seek partnership with your church in reaching souls with the Word of God in …” If you’ve led your church in missions engagement, you...
Mike Easton
- Oct 9, 2023
- 4 min
Why Empower National Partners
One of the great joys of being a missions leader is getting to travel and see the work of God in the least-reached places of the world....
The Upstream Collective
- Oct 5, 2023
- 4 min
Mobilization Requires Partnership
This post was originally published in 2016 as part of our "Ask a Missiologist" series. With years of experience as a church missions...
Matthew Hirt
- Oct 2, 2023
- 5 min
Building Healthy Multinational Teams
A young man from a West African country asked me, “How can I be a missionary? Missionaries do not come from my place.” The only...
Larry McCrary
- Aug 31, 2023
- 4 min
Marketplace Workers: Fuel for Limitless Sending
Limitless sending from the global church for the glory of God among the nations? Yes, please! If that’s the goal, myriad pathways will be...
Shirley Ralston
- Aug 28, 2023
- 5 min
Mobilizing Marketplace Workers in Your Local Church
As a returned global worker, I occasionally get this request from our church’s mission’s office: “We had a visit from someone about to...
Hatley Hambrice
- Aug 21, 2023
- 3 min
Sending BAM Individuals from Your Church
How do you know if you are qualified and ready to practice business as mission (BAM)? Many members of our churches already have...
The Upstream Collective
- Aug 17, 2023
- 2 min
Assessing Marketplace Worker Candidates
It is wise to assess members of your church who want to live and work overseas with intentionality.
Sean German
- Aug 14, 2023
- 6 min
Marketplace Opportunities in Missions
“What do you mean I don’t have to choose between work and missions?” Michael* (name changed for security) was initially perplexed as I...
Larry McCrary
- Aug 10, 2023
- 4 min
Global Professionals Can Reach the World for Christ
Let me tell you a little about Joe. Joe was a business student at a university in the U.S. He spent one semester studying abroad in an...
Hatley Hambrice
- Aug 7, 2023
- 4 min
Using BAM to Impact Unreached Peoples
Business as Mission (BAM) is becoming a popular strategy in countries around the world today. BAM is a holistic ministry model that...
Larry McCrary
- Aug 3, 2023
- 7 min
Don’t Quit Your Day Job: The Value of Marketplace Workers
The following article is a correspondence between our Executive Director, Larry McCrary, and marketplace worker Seth Kelly about his...
Shirley Ralston
- Jan 16, 2023
- 8 min
Five Reasons to Revisit Your Partners
Trips with Purpose - Intention to Care Last year, two of my family members participated in a short-term trip to one of our church’s...
Mike Easton
- Dec 12, 2022
- 3 min
Letting Go of Partners
In our previous blog post, “Year-End Partner Evaluations,” we gave a template for evaluating partners. What do you do if the evaluation...
Mike Easton
- Dec 5, 2022
- 4 min
Year-End Partner Evaluations
In October, our theme was partnerships. What agency we partner with, what local field workers we partner with, who we partner with to...
Ellen Livingood
- Oct 31, 2022
- 4 min
Choose Your National Church Partner Wisely
The following is adapted from Your Focus on the World by Catalyst Services. This book includes guidelines on building church-to-church...
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