top of page
Upstream Blog
The Upstream Blog has a range of short articles on various topics around sending. Look through the tags to discover articles that meet your need.



Developing Sent Ones: Their Stories Part One
Written by Andy Jansen with Terry Irwin This is the beginning of a series of four interviews zooming in on the development stage of the...


Cultivating Self-Awareness in Potential Sent Ones
Written by Bradley Bell, Director of Content Development Imagine if all the Avengers had no self-awareness. Yeah, go ahead and watch...


What Church Leaders Should Look For in Potential Marketplace Workers
With many alternative pathways to missions, churches can and should assess marketplace workers. Here are a few things to look for.


Learning Dependence
By Derick Sherfey, Director of Content Strategy 2018 is a year I believe God is inviting me into deeper dependence. My family- alongside...


Grace in the “Missionary Call”
Written by Bradley Bell, Director of Content Development Much has been stewing in my heart lately regarding the “missionary call”. Not...


How Churches and Organizations Develop Missionaries Together
Both the church and the missions organization have roles in developing missionaries, and they do well to work together.


Expectations vs. Expectancy: The Fine Line of Missionary Attrition
THIS ARTICLE IS BY ZACH BRADLEY, DIRECTOR OF CONTENT STRATEGY At least a thousand times, my two-year-old has woken up before dawn to...


Missions and Dating: The Intersection of Disparate Longings
THIS ARTICLE IS BY ZACH BRADLEY, DIRECTOR OF CONTENT STRATEGY We were crying so hard that strangers in the airport were crying too. It...


Imitate Me: Missionary Methods of Sinners and Saints, Part Three
THIS ARTICLE IS BY ANDY JANSEN, AN UPSTREAM INTERN FOCUSING ON CONTENT MANAGEMENT. In Part One of this series, the issue of counterfeit...


Imitate Me: Missionary Methods of Sinners and Saints, Part Two
THIS ARTICLE IS BY ANDY JANSEN, AN UPSTREAM INTERN FOCUSING ON CONTENT MANAGEMENT. I realized something strange was happening as I sat...


Imitate Me: Missionary Methods of Sinners and Saints, Part One
THIS ARTICLE IS BY ANDY JANSEN, AN UPSTREAM INTERN FOCUSING ON CONTENT MANAGEMENT. I had the privilege of watching a couple missionaries...


The Sent One Defined: A Healthy Posture Toward the Local Church, Part Two
This article is by Zach Bradley, Content Strategist for The Upstream Collective. In Part One of this series we focused not so much on the...


The Sent One Defined: A Healthy Posture Toward the Local Church, Part One
When my best friend got married he made the mistake of asking me to officiate his wedding. No, it wasn’t so much that I dropped the...


The Good in Goodbye: A Defense for Being Sent When Others Say No
Let’s be honest. Saying goodbye stinks. Not the normal, everyday goodbyes. The kind of goodbyes that tear our hearts out, like a child...


The Poison of Vainglory: Overcoming Pride as a Global Sent One
The following is a guest post from Christian Douglas. Christian serves as a global missionary in Western Europe. Months ago, I had the...
bottom of page