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

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!

Another aspect of their church is that they are involved in missions locally. Veritas has a ministry with an immigrant population group in Columbus and they are also involved with international students at Ohio State. Besides being involved in local chuch planting, Veritas is a member of the Sojourn Church Planting network which is a network based out of Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY. Veritas is also involved locally from a social standpoint. They started an initiative called “She Has a Name” that is a ministry dealing with human trafficking injustice.

So here is a church, in my opinion, that though they are young, they have decided to intentionally be about their community, their nation and the world. At Upstream we love helping other churches do this very thing. Our passion is to see all churches, both young and old, engaging their world with the Gospel on both the local and global level. If you know of another young church who does this well, please let me know. I would love to feature them.

In 2008 I was a college graduate who had studied History of Ideas at the College at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Though I had some ideas of what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wasn’t entirely sure what the Lord had in store for my future. For the short-term, I felt lead to pursue going overseas for two years with a missions sending organization. I did not have a specific place in mind of where I felt lead to serve but because of my love for post-moderns, I remember stating on the application that I would be interested in either Western or Eastern Europe. One thing led to another and I was sent a job description for a job in Italy.

I arrived in Milan in March of 2009. From the very beginning I had a sense that this was not a short-term deal. Thus, my perspective as I began learning the culture and language was to dive in head first. Being young and single gave me the freedom to spend lots of time out with my Italian friends.

Over the course of my 2 year term, I had several Italian believers who took me by the hand, helped me with the language, taught me how to build relationships with other Italians, introduced me to their friends, and, most importantly, let me see how they shared the gospel in their culture. For the first six months of my term, I mostly just observed and learned from them. One of my observations was the ease they had in building relationships. Even though I was on a “platform” I still found some difficulty relating to others in that I didn’t live life exactly as they did. I did not have to leave my house and get onto a crowded metro at 7:30 in the morning. I didn’t feel the same level of  stress and work fatigue they felt. I wasn’t on their rhythm. As a result, even though I loved them and was all about “contextualization,” it only went so far as I did not completely and authentically live like them. I also saw that they were able to express a deeper incarnational testimony and model what a normal life “on mission” looks like.

One day a “crazy” thought entered my head. “What if I was to get a job and just stay here on my own? No paid rent, no insurance. A normal job with a normal salary just like everyone else.” This thought scared me to death! Around that time I was introduced to Skybridge and learned that it was not an original thought. This was a huge comfort to me and was a major way in which the Lord confirmed that he wanted me to begin pursuing this path.

For the rest of my term I kept the idea of “tentmaking” in the back of my mind. In my personal career counseling on myself I wrote down in my prayer journal the following 6 questions:
1) What type of job would I like to do that would be in accordance with my giftings?
2) What type of job would financially sustain me in one of the most expensive cities in the world?
3) What type of job would integrate me into the Italian culture rather than locking me into the expatriate subculture?
4) What type of job would give me ministry opportunities internally?
5) What type of job would give me enough free time to minister to relationships outside of work and in my church?
6) What type of job would be a means for me to love the city of Milan. (aka: knowing the economic crisis and the difficulty of Italian young people finding work themselves, I did not want to take a job away from one of them or in any way be competition for them.)

In the end, the Lord lead me to the answer he had for me: being a high school teacher in a private, Italian, bilingual school. My love for academics and desire to pour into young people is what lead me to the idea of teaching high school. Teaching in a private school in Italy pays much more than a public school, which would allow me to sustain myself here. Specifically choosing an Italian bilingual school rather than the American school or the International school would keep me fully integrated into the Italian system and avoid the expat world. Furthermore, I knew I would be interacting with students, parents, and colleagues, giving me plenty of opportunities to be on mission in the school. I also knew that having the legitimacy of the job would make it easier for Italians to trust and thus open up. I also knew it would make me live life exactly like they do. Finally, being a teacher would give me free time in the summer to be able to minister in various ways such as summer camps, deepening relationships through traveling, social justice projects, and other ministry opportunities. I would also be free in the evenings giving me time to invest in my Church and other relationships.

Finally, the last key benefit I saw to this job is it’s answer to question number 6. I knew I would be hired as a “mother tongue” history and philosophy teacher to teach the modules taught in English. This is a job that would not be in any way taken away from an Italian, nor would I be competition for them. It is a giving of a specific service that I can offer as a native English speaker that enriches the school and gives me a means in which I can love the community.

God proved himself to be very faithful and did some amazing things in Amber’s life. Check back in a few days when I will post the rest of her story about her switch from vocational missionary to marketplace worker.

One of the ways Webster defines niche is “a specialized market”

I think there are 100′s of what I call mission niches. These are specialized ministries that are a vital part of missions.

We tend to think of people involved in missions as being on the front lines or in support roles. I know that seems black and white but it is what I hear a lot. Are you involved in strategy or support? Both are equally  important.  If you serve in a support role you are not “less important” than someone who is in a hard to get to place working with hard to connect with people.

When is the last time you read about a support role in missions?  Not as many stories are written about support roles in missions. Not as glamorous? A worker in a support role once shared with that me they were told to be sure and talk about “the real work” when giving the mission talk at church. They wanted to hear “front line” stories. Another person was having a conversations with a mission intern  at their home church regarding this intern’s potential future service overseas. As the missionary talked about what their role was, this intern piped up and said. ” I do not believe I am being called into ‘baby missions’ “.

These are some unfortunate extremes to the problem. But if you ever have served in a support role you probably can relate to this at some level. If this is not the case with you, then you have a great group of people who have a good understanding of the kingdom. Count yourself blessed!

I have run into some pretty cool people who have a unique niche in the mission world. I want you to meet some of them this year. Stay tuned for our first one who is involved in a mission niche where they maintain and repair airplanes for missionaries.  I hope you will be able to see the hearts of the people involved and understand that God calls all of us to play different parts.

What about you? If you’ve ever served as a vocational missionary, how were the people in support roles a blessing to the work God was doing in your area?

Recently I was having a conversation with a Skybridge Community member (www.skybridgecommunity.net) who served effectively with a mission organization in Europe. This person transitioned from being a full time Christian ministry worker to a marketplace worker. Here is what they said that really stuck with me.

“I  am part of Skybridge because I  am completely sold on encouraging and empowering this kind of “non-missionary missionary.” Marketplace professionals who are fulfilling their call to missions through their careers and choose to live in Europe, on purpose.”

I believe there are thousands of marketplace workers like this. People whom God has strategically placed in this world.

In her book, Tentmakers, author Ruth Siemens writes this about life on the mission field:

”The secular job is not an inconvenience, but the God-given context in which tentmakers live out the gospel in a winsome, wholesome, nonjudgmental way, demonstrating personal integrity, doing quality work and developing caring relationships.” (Siemens, Tentmakers, D-247)

Turks moving to Germany
Algerians to France
Moroccans to Spain
Chinese students to the USA
Iranians to Sweden

The list could go on and on and on.

This year one of my blog themes will be to discover people like this and tell their story. I hope my readers will do a few things with these post.

- Share these stories with their pastors. Pastors need to hear stories like this so they can empower and release their congregation to the marketplace here and abroad. They need to see how these marketplace workers are a strategic part of proclaiming the gospel to the nations.

- Most importantly I hope these will be an encouragement and challenge to you as the reader that as a follower of Christ you can be salt and light as this worker is, and you can do it in a any where in the world.  As we process a call to missions, we often think that we have to quit our day jobs. What if we first thought about how we can keep our jobs and get a transfer?

What do you do when you find yourself in a new place?

What does it look like when you know you will only be in that location for one year?

What are the first things you do?

What do you not do?

What does it look like to connect in some sort of local ministry for one year?

What does church involvement  look like for that year?

All of these questions and more are going through my mind. Would love to hear how you have approached this or would approach this.

I want to learn.

So I thought why not do a quick list on why short-term teams can be good?

Here you go!

1. If the church has a long term strategy for that place or people group then a short term trip can contribute to the overall strategy of engaging that people group. This takes pre- trip planning, being prepared for the work, good communication throughout and lots of prayer. For a related post take a look at this
2. It can be an encouragement to the missionary or national team in which they are partnering with.
3. With social networking today it is often possible to stay in contact with the people you meet or minister to during the week.
4. It provides missional training and discipleship opportunities for people in the church who go on the trip.
5. It can expand one’s worldview, which can help the church be more effective ministering across cultures in their own city.

Interested in leading your church on your first mission trip but need some help in preparation and training. Check out this site at Equipped to Go.

Another group that knows a lot about short-term teams is Delta Ministries.

Both of these are worth checking out.

It gave us nourishment and it also gave me a thought about living cross-culturally. We were amidst a pretty tough stretch of life overseas. In some ways tougher than ever before and we have lived overseas for quite a few years now.

Webster says  this about the PRESSURE COOKER

I am glad they added number two with this definition and this was precisely my point. I went to another trusted source at www.wikipedia.com and found that ” Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Because the boiling of water increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher temperature before boiling”.

What does this have to do with life overseas? I believe that  living in another culture can sometimes be similar to a pressure cooker. You throw in a lot of circumstantial ingredients into the pot of  living in a cross cultural setting and the result can be a lot of pressure and stress for a single or with a family.

This is why overseas workers of all types: expat business people, military personnel and vocational missionaries need the prayer, support and accountability from their churches back home.

It is also why it is so important to have genuine community where they live.

Regardless of where you live having support does prevent tough times coming upon you. However, it is important to have a good support base both locally and back in your home country or city that will help see you through these times.

I If had one  “do over” in my church planting ministry career it would be for the new churches that I have been a part of to become globally oriented from day one. I feel I was far too concerned about putting on a good church service and not making reproducing disciples that had a heart for the world.  When we started The Upstream Collective almost three years ago one of our goals was  to influence the mission conversation amongst these younger churches. We want to help these  new churches to think and act as a missionary.  God has given us some great opportunities to equip these churches with some basic missionary skills that will actually be helpful as they plant churches here or abroad. We want these churches to think and act as a missionary. We want to see these churches become sending churches like we find in Acts 13 that send people all over the world.

I feel at times  churches can become content with simply outsourcing missions.  As a pastor friend of mine says: mission organizations often want them to pray, pay and get out of the way.”  I think that day is over. I believe there has been an awakening in the church today where mission can no longer be outsourced but be an integral part of the church. It is great  to be  just a little part of that conversation.

Yesterday we launched our first ebook at www.themissionbook.com I hope you will read it. The chapters are short but very applicable to mission. Even more importantly we hope you will consider writing a chapter. It is a book that is not yet finished. It is missing your voice and your story.