Long-Term Missionary Care
I just ran into one of your missionaries and asked them to describe in one word the kind of care they have received from your church that...
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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!
Larry McCrary
- Jun 26
- 4 min
How Can the Sending Church and Organization Work Together in Missionary Care?
A sending church provides ongoing care in partnership with a missions organization by building a relational structure that nurtures the...
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Bradley Bell
- Jun 22
- 4 min
A Practical Way to Structure Your Church’s Missionary Care
When I was six years old, my parents accidentally forgot me at church. Both of them had driven that day, and they simply pulled away...
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Matthew Hirt
- Jun 19
- 5 min
Serving Sent Ones in Hard Places
Sending missionaries from your church is exciting, but caring for your sent ones long term is often very difficult. Caring for them when...
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Caleb Alford
- Jun 15
- 3 min
Sending Does Not Mean Letting Go
Sending someone does not mean letting them go. It means holding on tight to the relationship so that the nations may know the glory of God.
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Ryan Martin
- Jun 12
- 5 min
Post-Field Care: Plan, Presence, and Pathways to Reengagement
Post-field care can be the most challenging care for churches to provide. Missionaries come home for numerous reasons—scheduled visits,...
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Ryan Martin
- Jun 8
- 4 min
On-Field Care: Prayer Is Not Just the Means to Do the Work—It Is the Work
“Prayer does not equip us for greater works—prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher...
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Ryan Martin
- Jun 5
- 7 min
Pre-Field Care: The Oft-Forgotten Element of Missionary Care
Church leaders should recruit like coaches. Successful coaches know what type of players they want, and instead of waiting for them to...
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Natalie Ford
- May 1
- 4 min
Connecting with Kids on the Field
Rarely do children wake up and say, “I want to move across the world and leave my home and friends so my family can tell people about...
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Ashlyn Portero
- Feb 13
- 5 min
Caring for Sent Ones in the First Year
When I served as an advocate for sent ones in my home church, there was a story I recalled often (and still do) that captured who I hoped...
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Ellen Livingood
- Dec 15, 2022
- 5 min
Annual Evaluations With Sent Ones: What They Should and Shouldn’t Be
I can do real damage with something as simple as a screwdriver. Just a couple of weeks ago, I managed to get a screw jammed halfway into...
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Larry McCrary
- Aug 11, 2022
- 6 min
A Case for Missionaries Taking a Sabbatical
I recently came off a two-month sabbatical. My board at The Upstream Collective had given me the opportunity to pick a couple of months...
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Bradley Bell
- Jul 1, 2022
- 5 min
The Five Love Languages of Missionary Care
A monkey was sitting in a tree during a typhoon. From the safety of his perch he noticed a fish that was struggling tremendously in the...
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Ryan Martin
- Jun 28, 2022
- 6 min
Upcoming Upstream Book: Holding the Rope
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Holding the Rope: How the Local Church Can Care for Its Sent Ones by Ryan Martin, set to be...
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Bradley Bell
- Jun 23, 2022
- 3 min
Sending Well: It Takes a Community
One of the biggest reasons church leaders hesitate when it comes to proactively sending their members on mission is the intimidating...
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Bradley Bell
- Jun 9, 2022
- 5 min
10 Things You Should Think About before Planting a Church
Think before you post. Just four words, but instantly you know what I’m talking about. It may sound similar to the old ways of saying it:...
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Dave & Lorene Wilson
- Jun 6, 2022
- 5 min
Missionary Prayer Is Missionary Care
A Call for Churches to Care For, Not Just About, Their Missionaries Oswald Chambers once said, “Prayer does not equip us for greater...
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Mike Ironside
- Jun 2, 2022
- 4 min
Helping Sent Ones Work through Culture Shock
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson I can guarantee you that, before today, we have never started an...
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Chris White
- May 30, 2022
- 5 min
The Impact of the Heart Debrief
“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place . . . They made an...
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Anna Daub
- Feb 28, 2022
- 5 min
Supporting Single Missionaries in the Wake of Covid
Almost two years ago, after watching the Covid virus spread across the globe, many governments responded by closing their borders and...
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