Are you interested in writing an article for Upstream? We are officially announcing that we are open for guest contributors to submit to the Upstream blog.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Why are we eager to take guest submissions? By passing the mic to others we hope to lend a wider voice to church leaders and members with wisdom to share. The “collective” in The Upstream Collective means we encourage the collaboration of like-minded churches and organizations.
What are we thinking when we say we wish to push mainstream missiological conversation “upstream”? When Larry McCrary and Caleb Crider first asserted that the Great Commission belongs to the entire church, not just missionaries, it caused a stir in the status quo (read more about this in Our Story). This is never meant to be divisive, but by creating space for these kinds of conversations we hope to prod the church toward greater faithfulness to God and his mission in our unique time and context.
We don’t take the identity of sent ones nor the task of missions as either a matter of pragmatism, “what works,” or tradition, “what we’ve always done”. Instead, we understand all of life is to be examined under the microscope of Scripture as we seek to be dependent ambassadors of Christ. Please check out Our Convictions to make sure you resonate with our beliefs before submitting.
We are also convinced there’s some good stuff on our website, and we want more churches to be able to take advantage of these resources. If you have a good story you would like to share about utilizing some of Upstream’s resources, training, or consulting, we would like to hear about it. As your friends come to read what you’ve written, they will also be exposed to other resources, training, and consulting that we provide.
Here are few topics we are interested in:
Generally, anything within the overlap between local church and God’s mission
Biblical principles that inform missions identity, which in turn informs practice
Anything that helps everyday Christians to think and act like missionaries
Anything that helps churches send locally and globally
Stories related to the utilization of Upstream resources, training, or consulting
Sending church stories that illustrate one of the Sending Church Elements
Stories about sent ones that illustrate one of the Sending Church Elements
Any thoughtful work that pushes missiological mainstream conversations upstream.
HOW YOU CAN SUBMIT
At Upstream we try to take a posture of learners rather than experts who have church and mission figured out. For that reason we write in a personal tone as one practitioner to another, and we would encourage you to avoid an overly academic style.
Here are some guidelines for formatting your submission:
Submit in a Word document
Aim for 600-1000 words
Include a brief personal bio
Have someone trusted edit for grammar errors and style
No overt promotions, please
Send submissions and/or questions to dan@theupstreamcollective.org.
Upstream kindly reserves the right to choose acceptable submissions. We also reserve the right to provide final light revisions with approval from the author. All submissions are on a voluntary basis only and will not be accepted for compensation.
Thanks for considering how you can contribute to such important conversations. We’ve already received some terrific guest posts and encourage you to check them out. We hope our blog provides space to mutually encourage one another. Our prayer is that God would continue to use it for more than we could ever ask or imagine!
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