The Upstream Collective visits Matthew’s Table, a church plant in Lebanon, TN. We interview church planter Michael Carpenter in Java Joe’s the coffee shop he opened in town.
Archive | August, 2009
Dining With Sinners
We met Michael Carpenter about a year ago at one of our “About Europe” mini-conferences in Nashville, TN. He had just launched Matthew’s Table, his church plant in nearby Lebanon. Since then, we’ve gotten to know Michael and watched with great interest as Matthew’s Table has consistently made deliberate decisions to take a missional approach [...]
The Sending Church
LifePoint Church in Smyrna, TN is a sending church. They send teams of people on mission trips around the world. While many churches tend to outsource the sending and organization of missionaries and resources, LifePoint maintains direct involvement in what their people do overseas, from selection of qualified people to exploration of potential mission fields. [...]
The Upstream Collective Loves Nashville
Tonight we’re in Nashville, TN, where Larry joined Ed Stetzer to address a consortium of denominational church planters. The twenty-five people in the room were responsible for roughly half of the 4000 churches that were planted in the U.S. in the last year. Larry spoke about church planting recruitment- how to mobilize qualified leaders to [...]
Checking in with Snow Hill
We met Todd Littleton when he came on the Jest Set vision trip to Barcelona led by Ed Stetzer. Todd, pastor of Snow Hill Baptist Church in Tuttle, OK, saw it as more than just an observe-and-report kind of trip- he was prepared to lead his church to become full partners in international mission. Now, [...]
Acts 29 Midwest Meeting
Today we attended the Acts 29 Midwest quarterly meeting. It’s basically a get-together of Acts 29 church planters, leaders, and other interested parties. The meeting took place at the Journey in St. Louis. We enjoyed reconnecting with Journey pastor Steve Miller- the last time we saw him he had to leave the Upstream Jet Set [...]
People Groups: A Real-Life Example
Since Caleb gave us a general introduction to the idea of ethnolinguistic people groups, I thought I’d give a more specific example of the people group with whom my family and I interact on a regular basis: North Africans living in Spain. If you consider that we are Americans in Spain trying to reach North [...]
About Europe, Springfield
Today we did an “About Europe” conference hosted by Lifepoint Ozark and the Ozark Prairie Baptist Association. We were encouraged to meet several pastors from the greater Springfield area, and to share with them what God is doing in Europe and among stateside churches that are joining Him there. Our presentation, as usual, was rushed. [...]
Speaking of Speaking
Today we spoke in both services at Lifepoint church in Ozark, MO. It went really well (if we do say so ourselves), and had some great interaction with the people. They are excited about taking a more direct role in missional engagement and service, and we’re looking forward to walking with them through the development [...]
Springfield. The One In Missouri.
Sure there are fourteen Springfields in the U.S. The Upstream Collective chose to start our summer road trip in Springfield, MO, because nearby Ozark is the home of our friend Lane Harrison and his church, Lifepoint. Lane and three of his church members joined us on last spring’s Jet Set vision trip to Rome and [...]
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