Missiological Values
At Upstream, we believe that healthy missiology and mission practice are essential. But rather than adopting a single missions strategy or creating lists of affirmations and denials, we’ve chosen to define the core values that have shaped our leaders and the foundation of our organization.
These values guide everything we do—from building our Sending Network and training missionaries, to coaching church leaders and leading field ministry.
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Below are ten missiological values shared by the leaders, churches, and missionaries of Upstream Sending. We ask all who partner with us or are sent through Upstream to affirm and live out these values in both life and ministry.
Healthy missions is dependent on the authority of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Our theological statement does not just inform our understanding of God’s mission, but speaks to the means by which it is accomplished. Sent ones have nothing in and of themselves to multiply disciples and churches, and yet the gospel they proclaim “is the power of God for salvation to all who believe” (Romans 1:18). The certainty of their proclamation and the resulting effects depends on God’s word and God’s Spirit.
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This applies not only to the proclamation of the gospel, but to all aspects of missions practice. The living and active word of God (Hebrews 4:12) is sufficient to thoroughly equip sent ones both for wise living (2 Timothy 3:15) and also every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17) on the road to multiplying disciples and churches. This work belongs to the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), and his power and presence is to be sought at all times (Zechariah 4:6).
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Therefore we ask our churches and sent ones to be rooted and saturated in the Scriptures and dependent on the Holy Spirit in the ways they live and carry out the Great Commission.
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Healthy missions is defined as Great Commission engagement.
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Based on the authority of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18), the mission of the church is defined according to his commands and purposes. Thus, in response to his commission at the conclusion of his first coming, we are sent to multiply disciples of all nations until the day of his second coming.
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This means global missions engagement is the proclamation of the gospel and the multiplication of disciples and churches among every nation, tribe, and tongue. While healthy missions practice consists of more elements, all of them should ultimately serve the tasks of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:47, and Acts 1:8).
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Therefore we ask that the churches and teams with whom we partner be involved in one or more aspects of Great Commission activity: evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
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Healthy missions involves both word and deed ministry.
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Healthy missions practice cares about people wholly, including their spiritual, physical, and relational needs. To separate the proclamation of the gospel from meeting people’s tangible needs is a false dichotomy. When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus and his followers, including the early church, we see a community on mission in holistic ways, often among the poor and marginalized. Jesus and his disciples were constantly meeting people’s physical needs as they shared the life-giving message of the gospel. Healthy missions practice integrates our words (proclaiming the gospel and making disciples) and our deeds (good works, acts of mercy, and meeting needs) in ways that help others see Jesus more clearly and experience his transforming message more directly. (Matthew 9:35-37; Matthew 15:32-39; Isaiah 61:1-7; Acts 11:27-30; Romans 15:25-27)
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Therefore we ask our churches and sent ones to value and practice some level of holistic ministry (word and deed). This will take on different forms and have different levels of emphasis in churches and field teams but should be a value in strategy and practice.
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Healthy missions values both multiplication and maturity in ministry practice.
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Missions is about multiplication. As we make Jesus known in word and deed, disciple new believers, and plant churches that reproduce; we are taking part in seeing the Kingdom of God expand here on earth. However, missions is also about maturity and ongoing transformation. Healthy missions practice must be committed to the ongoing discipleship of new believers, the development of church leaders, and the establishment of local churches that grow in knowledge and in truth. Valuing either multiplication or maturity at the expense of the other in missions is an error.
As an organization we are committed to robust theology, the development of leaders and churches that reflect the Scriptures, and the proclamation of the gospel resulting in new disciples and new churches that multiply.
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Therefore we encourage our churches and sent ones to work toward a balance of maturity and multiplication in their missions strategy and practice.
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Healthy missions contextualizes the gospel and promotes indigenization.
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Neither the gospel nor its fruit - Christians and churches - are tied to any one culture, people, or language. Instead, the global church is just that: global. She is intended to be multi-ethnic and diverse. To elevate a specific culture or way of following Jesus above other cultures is ethnocentric and dishonors the Lord.
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The task of sent ones is to contextualize the gospel to allow hearers to understand, receive, respond, and apply the gospel message. A healthy level of contextualization honors both God’s word and the host culture, avoiding the two ditches of over-contextualization and under-contextualization.
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Over-contextualizing the gospel means allowing the host culture or religion to not just inform how the gospel is communicated and applied but to actually distort the gospel message, leading to syncretism. Under-contextualizing the gospel means allowing a sent one’s own cultural values to keep the gospel from being understood and applied appropriately, thus distorting the gospel and leading to an ethnocentric and stunted form of Christianity.
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Therefore we ask that sent ones be committed to evaluating their own cultural bias, entering their host culture with a posture of a learner, doing the hard work of learning language and culture, and seeking to do gospel ministry that properly applies the gospel message within the host culture.
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This also means doing ministry in ways that promote the indigenization of the local church. Indigenization in global missions means commitment to helping the local church, and its leaders, be self-governing, self-propagating, self-sustaining, and self-theologizing.
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Healthy missions is committed to the spiritual renewal of sent ones.
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Relationship is at the core of human existence — relationship with God and relationship with others. God has created us to be with and enjoy him as the primary focus of our lives. Too often, however, we place the emphasis on doing for God and less on being with God. But God’s call on our lives is to serve and live on mission out of the overflow of our renewing life with him. Renewal and missions drive each other. As the gospel takes hold in our own hearts, we are naturally drawn into God’s work in the world. And God’s work in the world naturally calls us back to our own deep need for him and his deep love for us. Ongoing spiritual renewal keeps leading to more missions, and missions keeps leading to more renewal.
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As an organization and community of local churches, we are committed to both the progress of the mission (the gospel taking root among the nations) and the ongoing spiritual renewal of the sent one (the continued renewal that comes from communion with God).
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Therefore we ask that the churches and the sent ones we partner with hold this same value and take practical steps to make the spiritual renewal of sent ones a primary focus.
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Healthy missions is committed to doing ministry within a team context.
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From the Book of Acts and the letters of Paul, we see that Paul placed a priority on doing cross-cultural ministry within the context of a team. In Acts 13 we see Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark sent out as a team. In Acts 15:39-41 we see two different teams form to go out and do ministry. Acts 16:6-10 shows us that when Paul was given the Macedonian call, he used the term “we” and “us” when talking about God’s leading for ministry. We also see from Acts 18:18, 19:22, and 20:4 that Paul was on a large team that served in Ephesus. These are just a few examples that show throughout Paul’s ministry he placed a huge priority on doing ministry in community with others, within the context of a team.
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As an organization we see teaming as a biblically rooted idea, a model for community and accountability, and a clear best practice in missions.
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Therefore, we ask every partner church to value teaming in the way they send and care for their sent ones. We ask sent ones to either join or form a team when being sent and to continue to fight for healthy teaming while serving cross-culturally. We also recognize that teaming can take on a variety of forms (formal organizational team, joining national works, etc) and that teams often shift and change over time.
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Healthy missions is committed to the centrality of the local church.
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The church is the bride of Christ and the local incarnation of God’s bride is found in local churches. Local churches are the primary places where God’ people grow, love and serve one another, and move out on mission to the world. The local church is central to God’s plan for reaching the world with his gospel message and the centrality of the local church must be valued when sending missionaries and when planting the gospel cross-culturally.
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As an organization, our structure allows local sending churches and their leaders to play an active role in missionary sending and field engagement. On the field, this means that national Christians and local churches in each host context are essential to field strategy and in the life of the sent one.
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Therefore, we expect every sent one to maintain an active and ongoing relationship with their sending church and also be committed to, active in, and submitted to, a local church in their context, to whatever degree possible. We ask every sending church to take an active role in both the sending of their missionary and in the work of ministry on the field.
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Healthy missions values the global church and sees other global Christians as equals and co-laborers.
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God’s church is a global church and he is using his diverse and multicultural people to reach the nations with the gospel. Evangelical missions has changed over time from a primarily, but not exclusively, western endeavor, to a global movement. Countries that were once primarily receivers of missionaries are now significant senders and make up a growing missions force. Much of this growing missions force is coming from countries within the Global South: the regions of Asia, Africa, and South America.
As an organization, we celebrate this shift in missions and seek to play our part. Although we are a missionary sending organization from the West, we are committed to sending in a way that honors the global church through maintaining the posture of a learner, holding our sent ones accountable to be active in a local church context (where possible and wise), and committing to work alongside and under the counsel of national leaders (when this is possible and where there is an existing church.)
We lament the often arrogant posture and approach that some missionaries and mission strategies have taken in the past. Although we know that we will fall short of this goal at times, we are committed to learning, serving, and collaborating with our brothers and sisters around the world in a spirit of humility and unity for the sake of seeing the Kingdom of God expand.
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Therefore we ask our churches and sent ones to learn from, honor, and serve alongside the global church, and its leaders. We will seek to serve with and under the counsel of national Christian leaders. When theological or missiological alignment is not possible, we ask sent ones to maintain a posture of love and respect for local churches and their leaders.
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Healthy missions embraces the reality that sacrifice and suffering are realities of the Christian life.
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Jesus, being fully God and fully man, having all power and authority, chose to take on flesh and live among a broken and sinful people, to serve them in humility, and then to suffer, die, and rise again so that they could have eternal life. Jesus’ life and ministry provide for us a model of sacrifice, humility, and service that should be emulated as we live on mission to others. (Philippians 2:1-11; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 10:37-39; Matthew 20:20-28)
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We recognize that to follow Jesus is to embrace a life of suffering. Suffering is a reality for every Christian, but even more so for those who live their lives on mission. When we suffer in this life, our call is not to avoid it or let it overwhelm us. Instead, it should drive us to a deeper life with Jesus, form us to be more like him, and make us useful for his Kingdom work. (1 Corinthians 12:6-10; Romans 8:18-30; Philippians 1:29; Matthew 5:10-12; 2 Timothy 3:12)
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Therefore, we ask our churches and sent ones to develop and embrace a theology of suffering and sacrifice in their life and ministry. We ask sent ones to serve others in a posture of humility, willingly sacrificing their own preferences and privileges, in order to serve the nations in a way that is modeled after and honors their Savior, Jesus Christ.