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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.​
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Cross-Cultural Missional Partnership: Some Perils of Neglect
The one-sided reality of failed cross-cultural partnerships may lead to the following errors.


How to Communicate Missions Giving to Your Church Members
When you communicate and celebrate missions giving you communicate vision and priorities to your people.


Four Church Giving Practices for Supporting Global Missions
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.


When and How to Stop Financially Supporting Missions Partners
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


Why Giving to Global Missions Is Helpful for Your Church Budget
There are biblical and pragmatic reasons that giving to global missions is helpful for your church's budget.


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.


10 Lessons I’ve Learned as a Missions Pastor
As a missions pastor, these are ten things I have learned in my role as I have served my church.


Getting Sent Ones Established—As Committed Church Members
Some missionaries go up to a mountain village to evangelize secluded cattle ranchers. For a day or two, these self-invited Christian...


How to Prepare for a Virtual Short-Term Trip
If you’re considering planning a virtual short-term trip, here are some things you might consider as you plan and prepare.


Training Sent Ones for Multiplicative Discipleship
We should teach our future missionaries the principles of multiplicative discipleship no matter which church model they encounter.


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...


Together on Mission with God: Principles and Practices of Healthy Partnerships
Cross-cultural partnerships happen because they mutually submit to King Jesus. Here are principles and practices of healthy partnerships.


Together on Mission with God: A Definition for Partnership
Cross-cultural missional partnership is a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups of believers who share common values.


Together on Mission with God: A Biblical Basis for Partnership
Partnership is necessary because the gospel is universally relevant and provides the plan of redemption for sinners separated from God.


Creative Ways to Cultivate Awareness, Pt. I
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...


Fully Funded or Support Raised? The Pros and Cons of Each, Pt. II
I have been a support-raised missionary. It’s pretty awesome. Here are some of the challenges, along with a few pleasant surprises.


Fully Funded or Support Raised? The Pros and Cons of Each, Pt. I
Being a fully-funded missionary is pretty awesome. Here are some of the benefits, along with a few unpleasant surprises.


How to Care for Sent-Ones Learning a Second Foreign Language
The missionary task requires understandable communication of the gospel. Depending on the context and the complexity of the language...


Questions to Ask a Sending Organization
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...


Writing an MOU
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...
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