National Partners

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!

Josh Duncan

Oct 285 min read

Vetting National Partners

See our previous articles on the why and how of funding national partners or organizations and on how to find them . Vetting indigenous...

Josh Duncan

Oct 215 min read

Finding National Partners

The importance of finding national partners is worth embracing the inevitable challenges for the sake of obeying the Great Commission.

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...

Mike Easton

Oct 9, 20234 min read

Why Empower National Partners

One of the great joys of being a missions leader is getting to travel and see the work of God in the least-reached places of the world....

Matthew Hirt

Oct 2, 20235 min read

Building Healthy Multinational Teams

A young man from a West African country asked me, “How can I be a missionary? Missionaries do not come from my place.” The only...

How National Christians Can Bless and Teach Western Churches

Chris Howles

May 15, 20235 min read

How National Christians Can Bless and Teach Western Churches

Have you ever heard of a “truncated icosahedron”? If not don’t worry—you’re not alone. I’m informed it’s a “bitruncated order-5...

Anna Daub

Nov 21, 20226 min read

How to Do Missions in the Global South

Christianity continues to blossom in the Global South.[1] Our missions strategies and methodologies, while remaining unyieldingly planted...

Why and How to Do Missions to the Global South

Matthew Hirt

Nov 14, 20225 min read

Why and How to Do Missions to the Global South

As we come alongside brothers and sisters around the world to engage in the missionary task, we need new terms and categories to describe...

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...

Troubled Waters: Reasons International Partnerships Go Awry

Anna Daub

Jan 31, 20224 min read

Troubled Waters: Reasons International Partnerships Go Awry

In today’s connected world, churches, missions organizations, and missionaries work with partners from nations around the globe. Some of...

How to Develop a Cross-Cultural Partnership

Joshua Bowman

Jan 13, 20224 min read

How to Develop a Cross-Cultural Partnership

In a previous blog post, I defined cross-cultural missional partnership as a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups...

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...

National Ministry Partners: are they just co-workers or friends?

Dan Bush

Apr 29, 20193 min read

National Ministry Partners: are they just co-workers or friends?

By Content & Operations Manager, Dan Bush My mission team leader loved Nepalis. Even if we were in a meeting, he would drop everything...