Missiology

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!

How the Evil One Blinds Us to the Mission, Pt. II

Jerry Rankin

Dec 94 min read

How the Evil One Blinds Us to the Mission, Pt. II

I have many lingering impressions from forty years of missionary service and the privilege of leading the largest missionary-sending...

How the Evil One Blinds Us to the Mission, Pt. I

Jerry Rankin

Dec 25 min read

How the Evil One Blinds Us to the Mission, Pt. I

After twenty-three years of missionary work in Southeast Asia, I had a great deal of experience and insight into mission strategy, but...

Global South: Church Engagement Strategies

Anna Daub

Nov 20, 20234 min read

Global South: Church Engagement Strategies

As the church has moved south and east, the face of Christianity has changed.[1] If Western Christians want to work towards fulfilling...

Joshua Bowman

Nov 13, 20235 min read

Defining Key Terms: Culture Shock

Upon arriving in South Asia, I began to embrace the challenging task of driving on a different side of the road with exponentially more...

Chris Howles

Nov 6, 20235 min read

Defining Terms: The Great Commission

Once while I was living in Uganda, I watched my Bible college students destroy an old termite mound. It looked to me just like a pile of...

Three Reasons to Make Disciples in Local Languages

Matthew Bennett

Feb 16, 20234 min read

Three Reasons to Make Disciples in Local Languages

Here are three reasons that we must be committed to language learning and disciple-making in the language of the heart.

The Upstream Team's Favorite Missiology Resources

Mike Easton

Nov 17, 20222 min read

The Upstream Team's Favorite Missiology Resources

There’s always more we could read, isn’t there? While there are endless books you could be reading, we wanted to provide an answer to the...

Choose Your National Church Partner Wisely

Ellen Livingood

Oct 31, 20224 min read

Choose Your National Church Partner Wisely

The following is adapted from Your Focus on the World by Catalyst Services. This book includes guidelines on building church-to-church...

The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. III

The Upstream Collective

Sep 26, 20226 min read

The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. III

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUEST POST FROM JOSH BAYLOR (@JOSHBAYLOR). JOSH SERVES AS A CHURCH PLANTER IN DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY. (Continued from...

The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. II

The Upstream Collective

Sep 22, 20227 min read

The Danger of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. II

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUEST POST FROM JOSH BAYLOR (@JOSHBAYLOR). JOSH SERVES AS A CHURCH PLANTER IN DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY. (Continued from...

The Dangers of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. I

Bradley Bell

Sep 19, 20227 min read

The Dangers of Focusing Only on Unreached People Groups, Pt. I

No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there is someone who hasn’t heard it once. –Oswald J. Smith Occasionally it hits me...

Bradley Bell

Sep 5, 20224 min read

Toward a Better Definition of Missions

A few months ago, I had a conversation with the editorial director of one of today’s most highly trafficked Christian websites. I thanked...

Why Church Planters Want to Do Something Bigger

Bradley Bell

Jun 20, 20224 min read

Why Church Planters Want to Do Something Bigger

In 2009, alpinists Fabrizio Zangrilli, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, and Simone Leorin stood at the base camp of K2, the world’s second tallest...

Aligning Local and Global Missions Engagement

Bradley Bell

May 16, 20225 min read

Aligning Local and Global Missions Engagement

The following is an adapted excerpt from The Sending Church Defined. A Holistic Mission Think globally, act locally. Chances are, you’ve...

Practicing What You Preach in Evangelism

Mike Schuetz

Mar 24, 20225 min read

Practicing What You Preach in Evangelism

After spending two years interning with Campus Crusade for Christ, and then joining the staff at a fast-growing, multi-site church, I...

Anna Daub

Nov 22, 20214 min read

What’s Happening in the Global Church

The news lately has been bleak. A global pandemic, racial tensions, political division, environmental issues, hatred . . . the list goes...

The Pro's and Con's of Church Planting Movements

Bradley Bell

Nov 1, 20213 min read

The Pro's and Con's of Church Planting Movements

In the early 2000s I (Bradley) played an active role in a church planting movement (CPM). Within only a few years of that movement, tens...

Eight Dangers of Becoming a Sending Church

Nathan Sloan

Oct 30, 20215 min read

Eight Dangers of Becoming a Sending Church

I love the sending church. That’s why I’ve devoted my life to it. So why would I want to talk about the dangers of it? First, because it...

The Upstream Collective

Aug 3, 20202 min read

Missions Resources from Around the Web

We want to highlight some helpful resources from around the web. This is a mixed bag of resources about a variety of missions topics.

The “Finish the Task” Perspective on Missions: Some Questions to Consider

Eric King

May 14, 20206 min read

The “Finish the Task” Perspective on Missions: Some Questions to Consider

We should embrace missions as a grace-given role of joining God as his ambassadors in the mission he both initiated and will complete.