Here’s a hint–The Upstream Collective is taking a Jet Set trip to the world’s largest city, which according to this megacity interactive graphic, will be surrounded by a handful of other megacities on its continent by 2025.

The Voice Project works to build radio towers in war-torn areas of Central Africa in order to broadcast songs and messages of forgiveness. This may not seem like much but LRA commanders tell child soldiers, abductees and their subordinates that they will be killed by UN Peacekeepers if they try to surrender. The messages contained in these songs are exposing that lie are encouraging defections and surrenders at a rate that could help end Africa’s longest running war. The UN has confirmed that Dwog Paco radio programming is being cited by most returnees as THE major factor in their decision to come out of the bush.

DWOG PACO
English Translation
COME HOME

You are forgiven. Your abduction was forceful, we know! You are all forgiven for lasting peace. You are forgiven by the government of Uganda and the Ugandans too. We have forgiven the former child soldiers, boys and girls unconditionally. Please come back home, come back to our ancestral land! Home has no choice, it’s your home! You did not choose where to be born, home is your root! Women cried for the child soldiers, for they had no choice but to follow the instructions of their instructors. Boys and girls of Acholi land; you were conscripted into the armed force against your will, come home now. There is time for abduction and coming back home. There is time for fighting and forgiveness. We call you all with the voice of forgiveness to come back home now. Our forgiveness shall give you a way to new life at home! Please, our child soldiers, do not hesitate to come back home, it is your ancestral home! People at home still love you equally to those not abducted. We request the government of Uganda to reintegrate child soldiers. Please, local communities, forgive and stop stigmatization of the former child soldiers. We voice to the rebels still on the war front to desist from the act of conscription of children into the army! We request the formerly abducted children to live peacefully in the community where they belong! Northern Uganda is your home forever.

Find out more about The Voice Project by clicking here.

Because The Upstream Collective exists to help the church help and think like missionaries, all of this awareness and blowback has caused us to ask: Who has boots on the ground? What is working? And how can the church be involved? To answer questions like these, we often point to creative platforms for global missions. One such platform is The Voice Project.

Brian Pappalardo works with The Voice Project and is a core member of the church plant that Upstream’s Michael Carpenter is planting in Little Rock, AR. He shares his story and his work with The Voice Project below.

____________________
I first became aware of the LRA in 2009, while I was living in Chicago. Almost immediately after I heard the words “child” and “soldiers” used in the same sentence, I began working full-time to see that this rebel group was stopped. In the last few years, I’ve had the honor of working alongside some amazing activists, lobbying for the unanimous passage of anti-LRA legislation, and traveling from coast to coast several times sharing our dream with schools and churches – a dream of a world without rebel warlords and mass atrocities, where children are allowed to grow and learn and dream in peace. It’s been a wild ride.

Last year, I met a man named Hunter while he was working at a displacement camp. Hunter began telling me the story of a group of women – widows, rape victims, survivors of war. He was struck by how resilient they were, and they sang a song to him – a song called “Dwog Paco” (translated: “Come Home”). They explained to Hunter that after their children had been abducted from their villages, they would sing these songs and pray that they reached the ears of their children. Songs like “Dwog Paco” let the children know that they were forgiven and that they would be welcomed home. And it worked; they came home by the thousands.

The Voice Project was born out of this idea, and it is a tribute to these women. We’ve been blessed with the support of popular musicians including Peter Gabriel, Billy Bragg, Mike Mills and Broken Social Scene. They have all recorded one another’s music to raise awareness and funding for locally-led economic development programs, vocational training, education, and small loans.

However, the beauty of what we’re doing lies here:

What one must realize, is that children abducted by the LRA are often forced to kill members of their family or community, and then they are told by their commanders that they will be killed by local peacekeepers if they try to escape. In this way, they keep the child soldiers fighting. By working with local musicians and recording peace songs and messages, The Voice Project is able to encourage defections at a rate that could end this conflict through non-violent means.

My role specifically is to work with college, high school, and church groups who believe, as we do, that love will win over hate, forgiveness will win over war, and hope will win over despair. We are raising $200,000 to build new FM towers so that members of the LRA operating in remote areas can have access to these songs, and know that they also are forgiven. If you would like more information on how your church can get directly involved in The Voice Project, please email me at brian@voiceproject.org.

If you would like to pray for this conflict, here are a few major requests. Pray…

• that the abducted children will know that they are forgiven and come home safely
• that we will receive the funding needed to build the new FM towers
• that these remote communities remain safe from LRA attacks and that this conflict ends soon.

Well, another round of research on cultural cognition theory seems to indicate that if you are seeking to speak to and influence a particular person, it is as or possibly more helpful to match their style or appearance than it is to adopt their line of reasoning. This is according to a recent article on the BBC along with several academic papers that it references.

Check out these world population graphs, which depict the number of people in the world based on latitude and longitude.

What do you think?

In response, Chris Clayman and Meredith Lee wrote ethNYcity: The Nations, Tongues and Faiths of Metropolitan New York. This book provides readers with a thorough description of 82 pieces of New York City’s beautiful cultural mosaic. Each two-page spread outlines quick facts about a people group, and info on when they came to New York, where they live in the metro area, what they believe and how to pray for them.

Your local dose of cultural variation may not be as diverse as what one can find in metropolitan New York. Possibly reaching the lost in your community involves interacting with people of the same background and ethnicity as you. However, many American Christian churches reflect a stereotypical American image—white, middle-class individuals of distant European descent—while the nations remain unreached down the block or on the other side of the tracks.

Clayman and Lee believe awareness of the lost cultures in our backyards creates responsibility. So what nations live around you? Don’t ignore them; get to know them.

Creating a resource like ethNYcity may your first step to starting a movement of impacting the nations in your community. Or learn more about how to reach the lost of urban centers by attending an ethnéCITY conference near you.

Written by Natalie Bunch. Natalie is a freelance writer for The Upstream Collective and lives in North Carolina.

Join us on Wednesday, October 19th, for an About East Asia miniconference. The free event will be held in the LifeWay Tower from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, and will feature Ed Stetzer and workers from East Asia. These get-togethers are like short, informal missions conferences with lots of practical ideas for how to select a people group or city, how to begin to develop a strategy for them, and how to cast that vision for your church.

LifeWay will serve coffee and pastries. Upstream will serve good conversation that helps your church think and act like missionaries.

The Upstream Report, Fall 2011

Each month, Upstream submits a report of our activity to those individuals, agencies, and churches to whom we are accountable. This long-form, text-based, private report includes schedules, statistics, financial activity, communications strategies, and information regarding personnel.

In order to promote transparency and give our audience a better picture of what we do, we will release a (much more interesting) graphical summary of those reports each quarter. These graphics are available to all and meant to give a quick glimpse into the workings of Upstream. As you pray for us, please consider the information included in the image.

We are thankful to be part of this ongoing missions conversation, and we appreciate our partners, readers, and friends.

Please feel free to post questions in the comments section, or send via email.

At the beginning of last week The Upstream Collective, in partnership with LifePoint Church in Smyrna, Tenn., facilitated a Sending Church Roundtable. With the premise that the Great Commission belongs to the church and the conviction that Christ has called her to make disciples of all nations, we simply felt led to help some churches of varying size, time in existence and networks to think and talk through what it does and might look like for the church to think and act like a missionary.

The conversations with friends old and new were good. Both the presentations and discussions were rich with experience and hope. Everything was going along just fine, and then somewhere in there it happened.

Imagine leaders from 25 churches working together, conversing with one another and learning from each other. Even with many senior pastors present, that ADD thing didn’t happen. The “I’m so glad you are here to listen to how we have this whole church thing pegged” monologue didn’t get dialed in. But what came through from so many was a commitment to seek to pursue what it means for their church body to function as the sending church. The primary question we seemed to hear was, “What are the next steps?” This was not a question simply about the next proposed Sending Church event, but a more a question of, “How do we move forward in obedience?”

While Upstream would love to provide the notes to study and prepare for the test, this one does not seem so simple and straightforward. Sure, elements of it may be such as, “Pray more.” That’s always a safe and right answer. But significantly more difficult to discern is the whole of how your church takes the next step in being on mission. We’re still trying to figure out how to best facilitate helping the church move forward in this way. Frankly, I think the Upstream leaders were expecting to deal with a different question coming out of this. Instead we are stuck with a better, though more difficult question of how we now take action steps. Thankfully it’s not our question to answer for each church, but helping you arrive there may be a bit more important.

As we try to figure out how to move forward in this, since something seems to have happened, we encourage those 25 and other churches to continue to pursue what it looks like for each church to think and act like a missionary. Some are already traveling a good ways down this road, while others just got disoriented enough to begin to evaluate their course and destination.

To aid in that, we encourage you to check out what has already been posted at thesendingchurch.com, as well as check in here over the upcoming weeks as we bring more of the conversation from the Roundtable for churches to deal with. And as you continue on your current journey or prepare to start it, we wish and pray the very best for you, and look forward to talking with and encouraging you along the way.

Written by almost an M, who is networking and consulting in the United States. He seeks to learn, grow and influence others while seeking to play a part individually and with his family in obeying the Great Commission.

8:45AM Jason Dukes talking starting the day by talking about being both Spirit-led AND strategic.
Pray.
Value and validate the people you equip.
Celebrate when people get on mission.
Get specific about how you’re equipping your people to plant the gospel.
Investigate and relate. Rather than declare vision and rally people to go, you’re the Gatorade-giver, the resourcer and encourager for people to follow what God has told them.
Sow for the general sending, then cultivate for the contextual relationships.

Instead, Americans love to develop strategies before forming relationships.

In Orlando, they require would-be church planters to do one- year internships before they get the ok to plant a church.

Now, Westpoint church is sending families to Montreal.

8:53AM Roundtable discussion: “What are the implications if the will of God is sought by the pastor, the mission pastor, key leaders, the whole church staff, or individuals?

What are some ways to lead your church to seek God’s will for your church on mission?

9:08AM When the church leadership casts vision, the whole church gets on board. When it’s left to the individual, we get spread out.

There may be a tension between what the leaders feel led to do and what the individuals feel led to do.

9:20AM Kyle Goen (Lifepoint, Belgium) Equipping is extremely important.
Our team was formed into a community over a year and a half before we left for Brussels. It is a healthy, biblically-modeled community.

We have 2 families already in Belgium, and we’re still working to equip the other 3 families as they prepare to come.

“Friend-raising.” working to build a network not only of supporters, but of friends of the ministry. We have partners who go with us.

Team-building is key. Establish leadership of the team, working relationships. Training together. financial counseling, marriage counseling, serving together.

9:53 Caleb is asking a question from Freakonomics, “which is more dangerous, guns or swimming pools?”

Churches and mission orgs are prone to key on the scary stuff to emphasize training. Whereas the top reasons people leave cross-cultural settings are health, children, financial and conflict in order.

Often, missionaries will say they were not prepared for the loneliness. We don’t prepare well for that, we often don’t know how to prepare for that.

10:00 break

10:15 Mike Wall from Henderson Hills in OKC shared about some of what they learned about engagement in Barcelona.
– learned to be learners
– importance of humility and how learning aids that posture
– take intercessory prayer people and allow them to set their own schedule

10:26 almost an M facilitated discussion of engagement and how a proclamation / presence strategy impacts engagement. Also, groups discussed key factors in determining if our engagement strategy fits those to whom we are called.

10:51 Henderson Hills ministry in Barcelona looks like a big party.
Andrew Jones (aka Tall Skinny Kiwi) shares that mission is about throwing parties and telling stories.

11:05 Matt Elkins with The Village Church shares about how they do selection for those to send out. Those that aren’t doing it here aren’t likely to be doing it there. They don’t send those out.

There are “not yets” that aren’t living a full gospel-centered life now, they are not ready to go yet.

Jason Bourne missionaries and escapism doesn’t make for healthy mission expectations.

11:29 Caleb is sharing that mobilization is a military term and perhaps not the best method of setting realistic expectations.

Some churches expect those that join their church expect their people to view themselves as missionaries.

If everything is mission, then nothing is.

There is often a discrepancy between the assessment issues for a mission agency vs for a church. There are different issues that impact this.

Don’t just take assessment criteria from an existing mission process or organization. Seek this out in Scripture.

12:23 Joe Parnell with Mobberly Baptist is sharing about partnership and the role it plays in their church planting around the world.

They have planted in Anchorage, planting in Vancouver and have just relocated a couple to the UK to plant.

They are looking to partner with people and open to many things though there are theological barriers to close partnership.

In Malawi, they saw 5 churches planted in a one week trip. All still functioning with avg of 100 in attendance. Yet in other places like Romania, they have seen the CP process to be very slow.

When going into a new place, the first thing they look to do is meet and bless imb people. After that, they are open to looking to partner with those that are theologically similar.

The way you communicate with and motivate your people is through story-telling. Joe’s favorite part of his job is weekly writing a story for his people to see how God is working.

Important to identify what missionaries are there that would be good to partner with.

Good to partner with an association if they are helpful, but when not, they press on anyway. Some pastors will hate you for planting in their area, but you love them and move forward.

12:53 Larry McCrary is sharing about partnership from Scripture and his experience.

- Paul was thankful for the Philippian church for their ongoing church.
- There was longevity in the partnership.
-

Partnership is mutual. It involves high levels of trust. Respect is essential. Partners believe in one another.

An important part of partnership is being invited in.

Identify partnership needs to know what types of partnerships to pursue.

Look for partners in your own context. God is doing something in your church. Find those partners.

Look for existing networks like SkyBridgeCommunity.net or BAMmatch.

Internationalization of missions is key to what God is doing in many parts of the world.

1:03 Nathan Sloan from Sojourn in Louisville is sharing about diversifying approaches to sending people.

When the people that are being called to be sent don’t fit old patterns, what do we do? We think differently.

It would be easy to have a critical spirit, but that’s not what we are to be about.

Our first family that we sent out was with our church from the beginning. We didn’t send him well. As things began to explode there, we started to send teams and other short-term personnel to help them. This has developed into a regional partnership.

Our church is all about teams. Finding the right people on the ground and then working with them to develop healthy teams.

Starting to look more into southern France to place 3 to 5 couples that are business persons. Looking to establish a coffee shop and roastery. This would help fund their presence.

Getting behind Steve Timmis to see his network develop throughout western Europe to plant churches.

Also in partnership with Crowded House where we will swap our interns.

Want to highlight that we can send our people locally. This cross-cultural approach can be intimidating. 10% of our city is immigrants with some groups not having a single believer. We have identified those groups that do not have a church among their people to send our guys out to.

Our website for international missions. International.sojournchurch.com

1:32 Caleb sharing about professionals that quit their job to be full time missionaries to go and work like crazy go set up platforms to share the gospel.

Sometimes we can do with less creativity and take who we are and what we do to the mission field. Need to move from seeing mission as full-time to seeing it as part-time or shared-time or even to a virtual presence.

What if through clear communication like an info graphic we can help teachers and trade guys see how they can use their skills and career.

1:38 Pat Hood sharing on Ongoing Support (Remember Care)

We want to care before they get there. It helps us send out healthier people.

Some things the senior pastor cannot delegate. This is true of caring for team leaders on a regular basis. I go to each of our spots at least twice a year.

We also send short-term teams and individuals to go and be with these people. It is best for us to go in smaller groups. We have business persons traveling and families vacationing to spend time with and bless our teams.

I don’t go with our mission teams to these locations because I will meet with each family unit and other leaders in town that they want me to meet with.

These things have to be driven by the senior pastor. He has to drive it from the pulpit or it won’t get done. I try to keep mentioning our teams to our congregation.

Our small groups adopt a team or a family. We have a point person for each initiative. This person helps keep these guys in front of our people.

When our people return home, we provide mission housing and help in every way we possibly can. Also, we provide professional marriage counseling as needed, provide an annual retreat, etc.

2:20 Larry McCrary on member care for the sending church

This is the story of Epaphroditus. He is the church’s messenger, the minister to his needs.

You may need to outsource some of this. There is professional counseling available for those that need it.

Great to hear from the church “what are your needs?” It is hard for a missionary to feel like they are asking for something.

Snail mail packages are meaningful. They show that someone really cares.

MOU is important to set expectations.

2:36 Jason Howard of Stonecreek Church dealing with accountability

In a matrix, we have a high trust / low trust vertical with a low control / high control horizontal. As people were at or moved toward a high trust, high control quadrant, our leadership became more positive on working with those people or organization.

3:14 Caleb on accountability
- resentment makes effective accountability impossible. Relationship is key! Boxes to check make it virtually impossible to have effective accountability.

Often accountability is best not done by the pastor, but by a close friend.