Why?

This is one of the BIG reasons why I do what I do at Upstream Collective.

If I had one “DO OVER” in my church planting time in the states during the 90s it would be that I did not do enough to help our new churches think and act globally from day one. It was not in the DNA as Joesph says here in this video. Take a look at why I love this video.

Jet Set London // Paris – Joseph and Johnny from The Upstream Collective on Vimeo.

Being involved in God’s global vision for me was always in the future tense.

We become involved in missions once we …..

We need to find ways to encourage church planters to be involved globally from day one. If you have an interest in finding out some ways you can help us do this then contact me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org.

Before I give a quick easy as 1,2,3 answer (smile) take a look at this short video. One of the first things that needs to happen as a church is to figure out “to whom is God sending you?” This video is a good recap of London. Is God preparing you or your church to go  to London ? If you have interest please email me at larry@theupstreamcollective.org

Stay tuned below for some next steps?

Jetset London // Debrief #1 from The Upstream Collective on Vimeo.

What are some next steps to engage globally? Here are some possibilities!

Never assuming but prayer and being obedient to the Holy Spirit top the list.  Google, conversations with strategic people on the field, Divine appointments, scanning various opportunities abroad, etc… can all be important in gathering information to pray over and consider.

Your Church is also important - What is the make-up of your church? How has God uniquely equipped your church to engage in a place. God gave the Great Commission to the church so I believe he has also equipped your church to do just that.  Taking a  good look at who your congregation is and what are some experiences they may have would also be an important next step. The Upstream Collective is developing an online survey for churches to take that will help in this area. It is in beta testing at this time.

Adoption - They can adopt a cross cultural missionary or a national church planter or pastor already on the ground on the field. I have written some about this on this blog in earlier posts.

Partnership - They can create a partnership with a mission organization or network in the city or amongst a people they feel led towards. They can come along side of them in a variety of ways. One of the things we can do is make some strategic introductions if you need help in doing this.

The Sending Church – Others may feel they have the people and resources to mobilize efforts to become a sending church to that city. They may adopt a particular neighborhood as Branchlife Church is doing.  A place to look if you have interest  in adopting a neighborhood in London is this site.

I think a key question your church needs to answer here is how do we have an incarnational presence on the field? Is it by sending teams on short term trips, partnering with an existing strategy, planting a church, sending over a team of people to live, etc…  Another possibility is to find people in your church who may simply find a way to transfer to a global city in their regular job and be salt and light in the marketplace and community that they live in cross-culturally. For more information on some ideas and resources on this see The Skybridge Community.

Whatever your next step may be I would be more than willing to talk with you and help you in any way that I can.

More soon on Jet Set London / Paris!

As I took a look at the videos several things jumped out at me. I hope you will take a few minutes to take a glimpse at them.

The first one is a short video of Caleb Crider, the co-founder of The Upstream Collective. He talks in London and gives a great  explanation  on “Why Europe”.  I often find myself having to answer this very question regarding missions in Europe.

We see three streams of culture converging in Europe making it a challenge for mission endeavors.

1. An incline of the post Christian worldview

2. An decrease in institutional Christianity

3. An increase in the influence of Islam

Caleb also talks about what we hope to accomplish at “The Upstream Collective”. Hope you will take a look.

Jet Set London//Paris – The Vision from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

We also try to go to fun places in the city. We also spend a portion of each day we spend a portion of the day having missional conversations about various topics:

Who lives in the neighborhood?

What does church looks like here ?

What ministries exist in the area and who are they geared towards?

As we have walked around a lot in London we really see the world living here. It is quite amazing.

The opportunities abound here to be a part of planting churches amongst people groups from all over the world.

One of the most interesting conversations that we had today was with a person who does member care with a mission organization. They help overseas workers with a variety of issues.  Life overseas can be a challenge. Crisis can happen. Stress can take it’s hold. After all you are not living in your home culture.  Member care workers provide a lot of necessary help to missionaries and missionary families. They are  valuable members of the missionary community.

As I listened to him speak to the group I was also reminded how cross cultural workers need to have sending churches that will help them, pray for them, encourage them, hold them accountable, provide resources, get involved strategically, etc..  I was encouraged later as I talked with several of the pastors on this trip who are saying that their church wants to adopt workers.

More from London soon. Please take a look at a few videos from the trip at www.edstetzer.com.

We also have some pictures from the trip so far on www.theupstreamcollective.org

Today we start our jet set vision trip to London and Paris.

We are extremely excited about this trip and looking forward to what is in store for us.

We have some pretty neat appointments set up along the way. We should be able to follow along on www.theupstreamcollective.org and www.edtstetzer.com for videos and some podcasts as we journey along. You can also follow my twitter and facebook. You can also follow The Upstream Collective on twitter and facebook.

Though I anticipate we will have a lot of fun along the way it is really about watching the church think and act as a missionary. We hope lasting relationships will be formed with these pastors from the states  to people working in these cities.

Last night several of us who are already here  walked around the city.  I am always amazed at how many people here speak English as a second language. There are people groups from around the world in this great city. I hope you will take some time these next few days to pray for the people here. Thanks.

More soon

Here are some quick take aways about our time there.
We definitely just began to scratch the surface but I think we did well considering the amount of time we were in the city. When you split into twos then you can accomplish more for sure.

We prayed as we went about the city.

We all found good cafes to do some observing. As usual that is important to me.

Several in  the group had great conversations with people in the city to learn about the people and the city. Trying to strike up conversations is a must. There are usually one or two in a group that seem to do very well at this type of information gathering.

We found good maps at the train station. These were helpful to get us to the hotel on foot. We were lucky this time and stayed a hotel within 1 kilometer.

We talked to the hotel clerk to find out some things about the city and where to start looking at certain sections of the city. In a large city it is hard to see it all so we asked about the university that was there and decided to look and be around that section. We have noticed on this trip from ministries such as The Hamburg Project and The Berlin Project that they do well focusing on a part of the city and then developing their ministries and  church plants from there.

We also observed several “nodes” or gathering points for people and traffic. This city was unique that in the center there is no car traffic only foot traffic, bikes and trams. So you have this entire city center that is full of life. Large open areas for people to gather.

Several in the group did some quick Internet research on the city. They found out that nearly a third of the people were 25 and younger. The city has that kind of energy and feel to it.

We went into shops. Strategic consumerism is another place to gain information. Local shop owners can tell you a lot about their city.

We explored the boundaries of the city center and looked for major landmarks. We did not notice any evangelical churches and a fewer amount of Catholic churches compared to other cities. Granted we did not see it all but explored only in the city center. I would want to do more research in this area for sure. What is the current status of the gospel there?

The next  morning we went out again. We sipped on coffee and talked about the things that we learned together. Debriefing our time together and taking some notes about what we learned is helpful for the future.

I must say this type of activity is one of my favorite parts of these trips. I love going into a place and start trying to figure out the language, culture, people. I love dreaming with others about what work could look like here and how to engage the people with the Gospel. I am enjoying my time with this team from the Village Church. All of this  team  have traveled abroad. Several have lived abroad. You will see a video soon on www.theupstreamcollective.org from a guy by the name of Jason who lives out his life in an area of Dallas that is quite impressive.

I have been thinking some about why I think younger churches should be involved globally. These churches have lots to offer. I will write a post on that soon. I know they are teaching me a lot.

We started our journey in Denmark and now we are in France after visits in Germany and Italy.

We have noticed several things. One particularly obvious thing for me is the language. It was quite amazing in Denmark at the level of English the Danes could speak. As we went to some more diverse areas of the city where immigrants lived we would find some language challenges but when we approached Danish people they usually did very well in English. I still believe long term workers there would need to learn the language to get into the heart language of the people but for a strategic short term teams then the language issues there could be less of a barrier.

As we moved into Hamburg and Berlin we noticed a more diverse culture and less people who could speak English but usually you could get around and talk to people at some level.

When we moved into Italy and France much of this seemed to change for us. I have countless times tried talking to the people in Italy and France in Spanish when they could not understand English.  I usually do well at making mistakes in language situations. Some say it is a gift, or a curse. grin.

Two things that stick out to me apart  from language issues.

No matter where we have gone as we have talked with nationals and people ministering cross culturally in these areas the consensus is that less than 2 percent of the people are evangelical.

The second part is no matter how hard we try we cannot be cool enough to make it work here. It is a God thing! Only the Lord can open up the hearts of the people here. I pray He will use us on this trip. I pray the Lord will use churches like The Village to engage Europe. I pray for all of my fellow workers in Europe who are day in and day out living out there lives here and dying to self. I know the Lord is faithful and He alone will sustain you and give you opportunities.

Really impressed with the team from The Berlin Project. This is an initiative of Redeemer in NYC. As we talked with their pastor and listened to his story he has such a heart for that city and is working hard at planting other churches in Berlin. I like church planters that want to plant churches that plant churches.  Here is there site but it is in German.

We stopped by Milan this morning on our way to Turino and was able to visit Jason who is a friend of mine who lives there. We should have his video up in the next day or so on our Upstream Blog. He has a great ministry with atheletes in Milan. You will want to check out his video.

Tomorrow we are going to meet with some new contacts here in Turino for us. We will let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile we are going to enjoy at least three great things about Italy:

Espresso

Ice Cream

Food

Don’t think that you are special.
Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
Don’t think that you know more than us.
Don’t think that you are more important than us.
Don’t think that you are good at anything.
Don’t laugh at us.
Don’t think that anyone of us cares about you.
Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

If you were living in Denmark how would the Jante law affect the way you live and interact as a new person in the community?

Grady is a photographer and his wife is an artist and writer. They both are incredible examples of artists who are  living out their lives as salt and light in any community in which they live.

We have had several cups of coffee this week in Copenhagen. You will find a great post that he wrote while here this week here.

I asked him “Why Copenhagen? As I have been here over the last few days his answer makes total sense.

Copenhagen is a city full of artists. They feel a kinship to the arts. They believe that this is a part of the world that as a family they could live long term and really connect with people and have a ministry through a relational context.

I also asked him about where do they desire to live in Copenhagen? He says they are looking for a place that strikes  a balance between being close to where artists spend a lot of time such as galleries or cafes and to where as a young family they can develop relationships.  Intentionality is important in missional living.

If you are interested in learning more about their ministry you can send an email to info@theupstreamcollective.org

For a look at some of his work please visit my gallery page.