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UPSTREAM BLOG
The Upstream 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!
Leaning into Your Giftings as a Missions Leader
Missions leaders are multi-faceted, and being one requires a diverse set of skills that reflects the diversity of the ministry of global...
Ashlyn Portero
Apr 8, 20245 min read
Where to Now? Helping Short-Term Teams Return Well
Getting excited about sending out short-term teams is easy. A short-term mission experience is, perhaps, one of the most effective ways...
Bruce Mewbourne
Jan 15, 20244 min read
Questions for Evaluating On-Field Partners
My parents did a great job of teaching me how to work at a young age. In fourth grade I had an after-school paper route. (For those of...
Mike Easton
Oct 23, 20234 min read
Building Healthy Multinational Teams
A young man from a West African country asked me, “How can I be a missionary? Missionaries do not come from my place.” The only...
Matthew Hirt
Oct 2, 20235 min read
Creating a Network of Care Trip Goers
Is Your Church Ready? Care team, what do you do when one of your church’s global workers reaches out and asks for help? What if your...
Shirley Ralston
May 29, 20237 min read
The Importance of Creating a Mobilization Team
Most churches have a champion of missions—a missions pastor, a director of missions, a lay leader. Every church needs one of these people...
Christian Townson
Apr 10, 20234 min read
Discouraging DIY Missions
A growing awareness of gospel needs around the world has produced a sense of urgency in the Church for reaching those far from Christ and...
David McWhite
Jan 24, 20225 min read
How to Develop a Cross-Cultural Partnership
In a previous blog post, I defined cross-cultural missional partnership as a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups...
Joshua Bowman
Jan 13, 20224 min read
Partnerships are Foundational to Missionary Care
The best way to do missionary care is to put people on great teams. There are a multitude of reasons why missionaries leave the field:...
Mike Easton
Jan 6, 20227 min read
Resource of the Week: Security Tips for Your Short-Term Teams
While it's never fun to consider how to respond to crises, it's important to learn how to equip your short-term teams for such occasions.
The Upstream Collective
Aug 6, 20211 min read
Four Types of Sending Churches: Strategic Sending Church
Strategic Sending Churches are great at partnering with existing team leaders on the field and members that are not from their church.
Mike Easton
Apr 29, 20214 min read
Four Types of Sending Churches: Team Sending Church
The Team Sending Church sends a group of people to one or more areas as a church-based team to accomplish a specific missionary task.
Mike Easton
Apr 26, 20215 min read
When Business Supports Missions: 4 Ways BAM Contributes to Missions Endeavors
Many traditional missions teams can benefit from adding a BAM component to their strategy.
Matthew Bennett
Jan 27, 20206 min read
Personality Matters to Missions
Why does personality matter in missions? Because people matter to God.
Tammy Stayton
Dec 9, 20196 min read
The Incomplete Pass: A Call for Missionary Teams to Receive Well, Part One
I strongly believe that how missionary teams receive new workers is vitally important to the Great Commission task.
Larry McCrary
Apr 15, 20194 min read
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