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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
I have many lingering impressions from forty years of missionary service and the privilege of leading the largest missionary-sending...
Jerry Rankin
Dec 9, 20244 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...
Jerry Rankin
Dec 2, 20245 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...
Anna Daub
Nov 20, 20234 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...
Joshua Bowman
Nov 13, 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...
Chris Howles
Nov 6, 20235 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.
Matthew Bennett
Feb 16, 20234 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...
Mike Easton
Nov 17, 20222 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...
Ellen Livingood
Oct 31, 20224 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 Upstream Collective
Sep 26, 20226 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 Upstream Collective
Sep 22, 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 19, 20227 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...
Bradley Bell
Sep 5, 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...
Bradley Bell
Jun 20, 20224 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...
Bradley Bell
May 16, 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...
Mike Schuetz
Mar 24, 20225 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...
Anna Daub
Nov 22, 20214 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...
Bradley Bell
Nov 1, 20213 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...
Nathan Sloan
Oct 30, 20215 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 Upstream Collective
Aug 3, 20202 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.
Larry McCrary
May 14, 20206 min read
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