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....
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UPSTREAM BLOG
The Upstream Collective 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!
Matthew Bennett
- Feb 27
- 4 min
Three Keys To Witness as Worship: Evangelism in a Marketing-Weary World
Today, everything is marketing. Everything about you can be monetized. Your social media accounts gather data to be sold to advertising...
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The Upstream Collective
- Feb 20
- 2 min
Overcoming the Distance: Crossing Barriers to the Gospel
This article is provided by guest contributor Ernest Goodman. It originally appeared under the same title on Missions Misunderstood and...
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Matthew Bennett
- Feb 16
- 4 min
Three Reasons to Make Disciples in Local Languages
Here are three reasons that we must be committed to language learning and disciple-making in the language of the heart.
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The Upstream Collective
- Nov 28, 2022
- 6 min
Adventures with Larry & Caleb: What Are the Key Things That Help You in Contextualizing the Gospel?
Upstream co-founders Larry McCrary and Caleb Crider are living in very different places: for Larry, Madrid, Spain; for Caleb, Richmond,...
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Anna Daub
- Nov 21, 2022
- 5 min
How to Do Missions in the Global South
Christianity continues to blossom in the Global South.[1] Our missions strategies and methodologies, while remaining unyieldingly planted...
1460
Matthew Hirt
- Nov 14, 2022
- 5 min
Why and How to Do Missions to the Global South
As we come alongside brothers and sisters around the world to engage in the missionary task, we need new terms and categories to describe...
2210
Larry McCrary
- Oct 24, 2022
- 5 min
Exploring Alternative Pathways to Missions
Fourth Church is situated in a midsize city in the midwest. Their city has seen a lot of growth the last few years as people have moved...
440
The Upstream Collective
- Sep 26, 2022
- 6 min
The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. III
THE FOLLOWING IS A GUEST POST FROM JOSH BAYLOR (@JOSHBAYLOR). JOSH SERVES AS A CHURCH PLANTER IN DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY. (Continued from...
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The Upstream Collective
- Sep 22, 2022
- 7 min
The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. II
THE FOLLOWING IS A GUEST POST FROM JOSH BAYLOR (@JOSHBAYLOR). JOSH SERVES AS A CHURCH PLANTER IN DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY. (Continued from...
750
Bradley Bell
- Sep 19, 2022
- 7 min
The Dangers of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. I
No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there is someone who hasn’t heard it once. –Oswald J. Smith Occasionally it hits me...
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Anna Daub
- Aug 7, 2022
- 4 min
Leading Your Church to Think About the Global Church
The global church offers Western Christians hope in what feels like hopeless times; however, because many Western Christians do not see...
1350
Ryan Martin
- Jul 31, 2022
- 6 min
Cultivating Missions Awareness
A little over a year ago, my family and I transitioned churches. This was not the first time either my wife or I had sought a new church...
660
Joshua Bowman
- Feb 17, 2022
- 4 min
Avoiding Paternalism
Parents are God’s kind provision to infants and children who have no concept of personal safety and cannot provide for their own basic...
1790
Anna Daub
- Jan 31, 2022
- 4 min
Troubled Waters: Reasons International Partnerships Go Awry
In today’s connected world, churches, missions organizations, and missionaries work with partners from nations around the globe. Some of...
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Bradley Bell
- Jan 17, 2022
- 5 min
Missionary, Choose the Posture of a Learner
Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop reading your Bible. Each time you take a sip of your coffee, you notice a stranger staring at...
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Anna Daub
- Nov 22, 2021
- 3 min
What’s Happening in the Global Church
The news lately has been bleak. A global pandemic, racial tensions, political division, environmental issues, hatred . . . the list goes...
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Meredith Cook
- Nov 4, 2021
- 4 min
"God Can Use Me Right Where I Am." Encouragement or Excuse?
The phrase “God can use me right where I am” is a reminder to steward our time well and make disciples of all nations wherever we are.
870
Bradley Bell
- Nov 1, 2021
- 3 min
The Pro's and Con's of Church Planting Movements
In the early 2000s I (Bradley) played an active role in a church planting movement (CPM). Within only a few years of that movement, tens...
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Meredith Cook
- Nov 1, 2021
- 5 min
Sharing the Gospel Cross-Culturally: You Don't Have to Be an Expert
You don’t have to be an expert to share the hope of the gospel with someone who is much different than you.
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