What do you pack when you go on a short term trip?

Do you take your own food?

What medicines do you take?

Are you a light packer or do you take as many pieces of luggage as you are allowed?

Do you pack a new outfit for each day?

Would love to hear from you. I know I try to make sure I back three attitudes when I travel abroad.

1. Humility

2. A smile

3. Being a learner!

Be sure to follow along on my blog for trip updates and follow @theupstreamc and @larrymccrary on twitter. We will also be posting on www.theupstreamcollective.org

One thing that I hear too often are marketplace workers from North America who live and work abroad but their home church does not see this as an mission endeavor. They believe somehow that unless they are sent by an agency then they are not true missionaries. What an incredible opportunity for the church to extend it’s mission reach through their marketplace people.

We need more marketplace people living intentional abroad.  How can you as a church mobilize, equip and commission your members?

Look beyond people who sense a calling to vocational missionary service. We need these people as well.

But, look at the possibilities of your college study abroad students, artists, teachers, second career people to live abroad in a strategic way. These people need to be seen as missionaries without using that title. They may not be able to be put on the church’s website or on the church’s wall of fame but they can be prayed for, supported in a variety of ways. They can be involved in your church’s mission strategy. They can partner with on the ground workers as opportunities present themselves. I believe it is going to take a shift in thinking of many pastors to see this pathway develop. It is going to take a shift in mission agencies and their leadership to make clear avenues for marketplace ventures to develop.

Just last week I had a great phone conversation with a young man who works for a global company. He and his wife are talking with their church about overseas service. They are praying about where that could be. Their church is walking with them in this process of sending. They are not looking towards the traditional mission sending route. He is asking for a transfer. Awesome!

If your church has marketplace people living and working overseas and being the salt and light then please remember them also!

At Upstream we are often asked by churches to help them think through how they can be more globally involved. With a large number of churches moving into urban centers, a common concern we hear is that there are glaring needs in their community. They want to know how they can invest even more time, money and energy into something across the globe when there are so many problems at their door step. While we hope all churches are living on mission right where they are, we also believe that a church who sees it’s self as a missionary will always be engaged both locally and globally. Caleb Crider, one of the co-founders of Upstream has some good thoughts on this subject. I asked him to speak into this topic as we are all preparing for our Jet Sets to Tokyo and Europe this month and next. Our jet sets are a time where we help church leaders see just how important it is that their local church is engaged globally:

Being a church in the center of the city has nothing to do with the church’s responsibility to be on mission across cultures. Acts 1:8 (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Ends of the Earth) is not a chronological progression- churches need to be local, regional, national, and international at the same time.

The church that buries itself in the local context is like the consumer who buys “local” without regard to where the product comes from or how it’s made. Sure, you’re not mindlessly buying stuff from those mega-stores, but you’re still not taking the global perspective required to be a responsible consumer. We have a responsibility that extends beyond our own city. We live in an interconnected world and we have been commanded to be salt and light to the world and make disciples across cultures. Real Christians are global Christians.

The reality is that the best way to learn to think and act like a missionary in the city is to do it in a foreign context. That’s the reason we do our Jet Set Vision Trips- when you’re clearly an outsider, you approach mission, evangelism, discipleship, and church very differently than someone who sees himself as an insider. (We hope you will follow along on my twitter @larrymccrary or Upstream’s website at www.theupstreamcollective.org and like our Upstream Collective page.)

And that’s the key: as Christ-followers, we are necessarily outsiders. That’s why the Bible says so much about our citizenship being in another Kingdom. That’s why Paul and Peter both admonish the church “as strangers and pilgrims…” When you start as an outsider, you understand the need to adjust your language, appearances, and preferences for the sake of incarnating the gospel.

As long as missions is only one thing that a church does (as opposed to everything that a church does), it really doesn’t matter that you meet in the center of the city. The real value of being a city-centered church, is that the opportunities for international mission may be in your neighborhood. It could be that the ends-of-the-earth connection your church needs is right next door. This is one of the strategic advantages of being a church in the city.

This is probably why the apostle Paul depended so heavily on the prayers of the church Family!

Overseas missionaries leave their home churches joyfully, enthusiastically, and with a great deal of encouragement and support from their “Family”. We get to the field, and we look at the great spiritual bondage and poverty around us and, like Jesus in Matthew 9:36, we are “moved with compassion” for the people God has called us to. And we begin to work to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ with full confidence that our Family back home is praying for us. We gratefully receive emails, phone calls and, yes, sometimes letters or packages from people back home who call down God’s power in our lives through prayer. And we regularly report back to those who support us at home so that they can rejoice at the victories God is winning and participate through prayer in the ongoing struggles.

Unfortunately, we become so involved in the ministry around us that we often neglect a vital part of our work which is letting people back home know what’s going on. At first, everything is new and different and fresh and we have many things to report as we see God moving. But after awhile, it becomes our everyday life and many of us find it difficult to describe the same situations over and over again so we stop. That’s our side of the problem.

But there’s another side of the problem, too. Our churches sent us to represent our Lord by extending the Body of Christ from local work into global work. We are still a member of that Body who sent us out, and we desperately need their support. As the saying goes, though, “out of sight, out of mind”. Soon our churches lose sight of the great opportunity God has given them to fully participate in spreading the Good News throughout the world. And the prayer, support and encouragement we once received from them like a thirsty person receives water in the desert, dries up.

When we take a break from the field and return to our home churches, we often find it difficult to connect with the dear Family we left. People don’t seem to know us any more. We feel disconnected and even unnecessary as far as our home church is concerned. The result is that we become emotional and spiritual “orphans” no longer attached to our home churches.

So what can sending churches do to help?

First, find someone in the Family who will be willing to stay in touch with your missionaries. Ask them to be proactive in contacting missionaries you’ve sent out by contacting them regularly even when (and maybe, especially when!) the missionary doesn’t report back.

And PRAY! Be sure your missionaries are listed on your weekly prayer calendars so that their names are , at least weekly, called to the attention of the Body. T. W Hunt in “Disciples Prayer Life” suggests an easy way to remember how to pray for missionaries.

A: Acceptance.
Romans 15:31b records Paul’s request that his service would be “favorably received by the Lord’s people”

B: Boldness
We want to “fearlessly make known the mysteries of the Gospel” just like Paul did in Ephesians 6:19

C: Clarity
Paul wanted to “proclaim the message clearly” as he says in Colossians 4:4. Today’s missionaries need that too!

D: Deliverance
Paul asked for prayer that he would be “kept safe from the unbelievers”. For missionaries in many parts of the world, this is essential!

E: Extension
Pray for us that “God may open a door for our message” (Colossians 4:2-3). Opportunities to share Christ abound in most mission fields, but only God can provide meaningful encounters!

F: Fruitfulness
Oh, how desperately we need and want your prayers “that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly”! (2 Thessalonians 3:1) For many missionaries, converts come slowly. In my part of the world, the statistics show that a person must hear the message THIRTY times before making a decision!

And, so, we pray as Jesus instructed us in Matthew 9:38 for “workers” to come into the harvest field. In addition to praying for missionaries, you can support us by coming to the field we work in day after day and participating in evangelistic outreach that’s appropriate in the culture we serve. Every time a Christian comes from overseas into my city, I thank God that He has sent yet another “worker” into the harvest field He’s given me to work in.

Please don’t miss the opportunity God has given you to serve, through prayer and encouragement, alongside the missionaries you have sent out from your church! We need you to help us increase God’s harvest and finish the race well!

Written by Becky, a Skybridge member living in Asia.

In 2008, Pastor Nathan and his family felt a calling from God to plant a church in a metropolitan area to reach young adults and families with the Gospel message.  In 2010, a team of 28 other people caught the vision to “Spark a Revolution of Life Change through Jesus”.  They left their jobs, graduated college, and moved from all over the Southeast and even as far as Naples, Italy to all land in Winston-Salem, NC.  The official launch happened in Feb. of 2011 and the church was called REVO.

Members of REVO church involved in a community project

REVO church wanted to be missional from day one.  Ingraining the missional heart of God into His sent community of believers.  One of the ways we gauge our sentness, or missional DNA, is to measure how much time we spend in the community.  In 2011, REVO church accumulated over 6,500 volunteer hours! Adopting a scorecard that focused on how we as a church spent our time in the community was crucial for developing a foundation for local missions and a compassionate heart for our city.

At just over a year old, REVO church is also committed to bringing the Gospel to the Nations.  The commandment and responsibility to take the Gospel to the Nations in the Great Commission was given to the local church, as the sent missionary, with the understanding that the timeline was “both…and”.  Not, “first local…then 5 years later International”.  That’s why in June of 2012, REVO church will be taking its first vision trip to a closed communist country to partner with a team of national church planters with the intention of a long-term partnership.

Another way we hope to accomplish the task of getting the Gospel to the Nations is by being a sending church.  Meaning that we will continually be devoted to sending out our best people to go and live cross-culturally in order to share the Gospel with those who lack access to the Gospel.  Just this past Sunday, (April 15^th) one of our small group leaders sat down with me to tell us that she’s praying through moving to Africa.  God is answering our prayers to use his local church as a launching pad and training ground for the Nations.

It’s my prayer that God would continue to use the local church to live intentional, incarnational lives, realizing that we have inherited the same sentness of Jesus (John 20:21) for His kingdom purpose of getting the Gospel to all nations.

By Paul Davidson

You can check out their church here: www.discoverrevo.com

Copenhagen is a modern city known for design and creativity. One American couple living there understands this so well that they have created an entire missional strategy around it. They are engaging creatives through a missional lifestyle using their combined skills of photography and creativity.

When asked what some of their needs are, here is what they said:

“There are several ways people/churches can partner with us.  We need people to come and help us dream on behalf of the creatives.  We need people to come and use their creative skills and talents to help us engage various creative segments around the city.  We also need people to serve as patrons for the arts here.  We have a need for various gear, websites and other tools for our creativity.  We need modern patrons of the arts to partner with us in order to help creatives in our city discover the role their to play in the greatest story of all.”

Is this something you or your church could get involved in? If so leave me a comment or send me an email and I’d be happy to get you in contact with this worker.

What does sixteen:fifteen stand for? Why did you create it?

16:15 is named after the Great Commission reference found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 16, verse 15.  We created the ministry in response to a growing wave of local churches across America who were desiring to move away from simply being request driven in missions to becoming more strategy driven.  For the last 15 years, wherever I have traveled, I have encountered churches that are no longer content to serve only in support roles in global missions, they want to be actively and  personally involved.  I guess you could say that we launched the ministry in response to something we saw the Holy Spirit doing, namely, awakening churches to their God-ordained role in finishing the Great Commission task given by Christ.

What do you do at 16:15? We do church missions coaching.  In a nutshell we help churches unleash their missions power and potential to reach the nations by coaching them into a strategic missions focus that fulfills the Biblical missions mandate while taking into account their unique gifts, talents and passions as local bodies of Christ. We call the coaching process 3-D, which stands for DISCOVER – DESIGN -DEPLOY, this also carries with it the idea that the coaching process will help a church bring her unique missions vision to life.  The process is highly personalized because we have a conviction that every church is unique, therefore an endemic process is required to effectively mobilize her people and deploy her vision.  This is not “open package, mix ingredients” mobilization.

In what ways has God used you and 16:15 for kingdom impact?

The impact, by God’s grace has been truly more than we could have imagined.  Let me give you some “before mission coaching and after missions coaching” highlights that churches have experienced:

Missions Approach Before Coaching: Shotgun
Missions Approach After Coaching: Focused and strategic

Church Leadership Before Coaching: No common vision for missions
Church Leadership After Coaching: Unified vision for missions

Short-term Missions Before Coaching: Reactive, random
Short-term Missions After Coaching:  Deliberate and part of larger missions vision

Understanding of and involvement in missions Before Coaching: Minimal and marginalized
Understanding of involvement in missions After Coaching: Significant and church-wide

It is also not uncommon to see missions giving grow exponentially.  When a missions vision is clear, heart-grabbing and it allows for church members to participate in it, they are compelled to be a part of it.  And the best kingdom impact I can share is how God is using churches mobilized through the mission coaching process to shine the light of Christ among hidden, forgotten and marginalized peoples all across the planet.

How do you work with/come alongside churches?  The process I described above usually occurs over a 5-9 month period of time but because it is tailored to each church, this can vary.  Typically there is a coaching workshop every 4-6 weeks during the 5-9 month period.  We also assist churches during the implementation phase of their missions vision as they work to bring that vision to life in partnership with carefully selected, like-minded, and synergistic missions agencies and/or churches.  So we remain engaged and available to assist even after the intensive portion of the coaching has tapered off.

For more information about Sixteen:Fifteen check out their site at www.1615.org

I recently heard of a church that is preparing to go on a week long mission trip. They have a project that requires hands on skills in collaboration with  a strategic partner on the field. They have been preparing specifically for this project for the last several weeks. They have also been meeting as a group for prayer. They have been working on logistics and had some needed security training. They have had some solid missiology lessons. In my opinion these are baseline preparations for a group.

What caught my attention was that they actually acquired the services of a language teacher and have been taking language classes as a group for the previous six months. This extra effort training on their part will be useful. It may just open the doors for some good gospel conversations.

How do you prepare your short term teams?

Have you found a language teacher to help you prepare your teams?

If you want to meet an awesome group of kids, teaching TCK’s (Third Culture Kids) is a unique opportunity. Nestled in the southwestern corner of Germany is the Black Forest Academy. The students come from all over the world. Most are TCK’s whose parents are vocational Christian workers. The staff also comes from all over, to serve and minister to these students. Susan is a teacher at this school and loves the unique ministry and education here. She doesn’t merely teach, but also builds relationships with kids who are learning about education, life, and faith all together. Susan is a mom of two TCK’s so she knows the unique needs they have and the critical growth during these teenage years. It is a comfort for the parents of these students to know that the staff is doing their best to provide academic, emotional and spiritual support to their child. When a parent working overseas can have faith in the school they have sent their son or daughter to, it helps them focus more readily on the task God has prepared for them in their host country.

Teaching TCK’s is not something you may think of when it comes to being involved in missions, but Susan knows that God is using her in ways that make a difference. If you are interested in seeing how God could use you as a teacher at BFA, click here to read more!

One day for lunch we ate at a Moroccan restaurant. Another day we at a Thai place.  We had Spanish tapas one evening. We ate at a Somali restaurant for lunch on Saturday. One group ate at a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  We even found a Pakistan restaurant.

Great food. Great experiences. Great conversations.

I was amazed at how many different types of restaurants were in this relatively small area. Many of these very people groups live in and around this part of Dallas. I have been thinking about the implications of Acts 1:8. Is it “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth” all at the same time?

The world has moved next door!

How do we respond?