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

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

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?

I always learn a lot when I am involved in this interaction. Two quick thoughts that stick out to me as I listen to their stories.

These guys really desire partners that will be willing to commit to the long haul. They have seen more success when churches send teams to work along side of them over and over again.  Most workers do not desire a  one-off type trip. They want sustaining partnerships.

The second thought  is that the North American church should seek to find ways to engage the same people group here.  I believe the Great Commission is both here and there.  Thanks to globalization many of the people groups throughout the world live here in North America. What an awesome opportunity.  Read this post about what we call “reverse mission trips”. If you are engaging a people group 5000 miles away why not seek ways to do the same here?

We are headed to this part of the world next year. Please check out www.jetset.theupstreamcollective.org

Let us know if you can come along.

Three times this past week I was reminded of my time in Turkey this Spring.

First I read this excellent interview from Ed Stetzer and a worker in that part of the world. You should take time to read it.

Secondly, I  talked with two of the pastors that went with us on the trip and just looked at some next steps for their church. We revisited some of the fun times we had during the week. By the way we are doing several trips next year. If you have an interested in going with The Upstream Collective on one of our trips please shoot an email to info@theupstreamcollective.org. If you have an interest in opportunities there feel free to send an email as well.

Finally,  I was able to do some teaching this weekend from the book of Philippians. One of my favorite books of the bible. As I was studying the passages and getting more of the context I had to read the section just before Paul arrived in Philippi.  In Acts 16 he was in what is now modern day Turkey and in and around some of the places we toured.

Definitely one of those places I am having a hard time getting off of my mind and out of my heart. I hope that never changes. I hope I am reminded everyday to pray for them and seek out opportunities.

We will be releasing some blog posts and videos today on www.edstetzer.com and www.theupstreamcollective.org. I hope you will take a look at these short clips to get a sense of our trip.

I wanted to write a short thought this morning about something from scripture that hit me. I am reading a lot these days from the epistles of Paul and the book of Acts since we were traveling where the action was happening.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples. Acts 19:1

I think I have always admired Paul’s missionary efforts. We read about Paul preaching the gospel. We read about him discipling the disciples. We think about his travels. Believe me that in itself takes effort in that part of the world. It was hard enough in a bus. I could not imagine what it would be like in his day. We read his letters challenging the congregations. We see him interact with his sending church at Antioch. We watch him as he starts new churches.

Another aspect that I think is important about his work was the way he encouraged workers and believers in those churches.

He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece. Acts 20:2

This is so vital for the worker and the new believer.  I have heard there could be as few as 3000 Christ followers in Turkey. If that number is correct it is staggering.

Do you think workers  could feel isolated?  Do you think that praying with them and speaking words of encouragement can lift their spirits and help them in their journey? I would say definitely.

I believe we need to encourage workers no matter whether it is where we call home or 5000 miles away when we have opportunities. I know it can make a difference.

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.

It could be to their church, pastor, small group, friend or family member.

I wanted them to write some thoughts on what they would like to communicate to those who prayed for them.

One Skybridge member wrote this. You can read it here.

I am a big fan of the church of Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were sent from that church. You can read about it in Acts 13. In Acts 14 Luke tells us that when they completed their journey the church was assembled so that they could they could report all they have done. It is so important that we proactively communicate to those who send us.

What would your letter say?
Would it be a letter of thanks?
Would you challenge them to be more active in  your ministry overseas?
Would you tell them how much you need their support, prayers and partnership?
Would you tell them about some of the things God is doing in your ministry overseas?

Take some time this month to write that letter. Find creative ways to communicate to your sending church the stories from your life overseas.