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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.

The one-sided reality of failed cross-cultural partnerships may lead to the following errors.

When you communicate and celebrate missions giving you communicate vision and priorities to your people.

The budget is one of the best ways to reflect the values of a church. Giving to global missions usually falls in one of four categories.

No missions leader enjoys the part of their job where they let go of partnerships financially. Inevitably, if you want to be a strategic sen

There are biblical and pragmatic reasons that giving to global missions is helpful for your church's budget.

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.

As a missions pastor, these are ten things I have learned in my role as I have served my church.

Some missionaries go up to a mountain village to evangelize secluded cattle ranchers. For a day or two, these self-invited Christian...

If you’re considering planning a virtual short-term trip, here are some things you might consider as you plan and prepare.

We should teach our future missionaries the principles of multiplicative discipleship no matter which church model they encounter.

The following is adapted from Your Focus on the World by Catalyst Services. This book includes guidelines on building church-to-church...

Cross-cultural partnerships happen because they mutually submit to King Jesus. Here are principles and practices of healthy partnerships.

Cross-cultural missional partnership is a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups of believers who share common values.

Partnership is necessary because the gospel is universally relevant and provides the plan of redemption for sinners separated from God.

After serving in the church as a missions pastor for more than twenty years, I am often amused when I reflect on the variety of failures...

I have been a support-raised missionary. It’s pretty awesome. Here are some of the challenges, along with a few pleasant surprises.

Being a fully-funded missionary is pretty awesome. Here are some of the benefits, along with a few unpleasant surprises.

The missionary task requires understandable communication of the gospel. Depending on the context and the complexity of the language...

What a Former Missions Pastor (Who Now Serves an Agency) Wishes He Had Known to Ask In scripture, we learn that the Church is being...

There’s a lot of things in life that are really important but are also kind of boring: mowing the lawn, doing the laundry, filling out...