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.

In Budapest our team chatted with a couple of Hungarian church planters.

Take a look at this video about some ways they see American churches helping.

Upstream interview with Hungarian Pastors, Budapest from Upstream on Vimeo.

Interested in partnering in Prague or Budapest send me an email at info@theupstreamcollective.org

I recall in my church planting days in the states that a big discussion amongst the launch team was finding that perfect meeting space.

After all most of the “pre-launch” experts would say.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

So we would look at such things like the demographics, traffic patterns,  access to parking, child care facilities, worship center capacity, media possibilities, etc… In some cases you could argue that those were important to our target audience and our model of church plant which was geared to the gathering.

When we moved overseas and I was personally challenged to process the role of reproducibility and recognized that often the model we choose can prevent us from reproducing it. For example, I once heard a person say here in Europe that it takes 500,000 euros to start a church. Does it? Then we could be in trouble. The speaker was pushed a little on this and it came down to 150,000.

On the other hand I remember being in a place where we looked at meeting in our home.

It is a much cheaper solution. However, is it a good idea for a house church to meet in a cross cultural worker’s home?  Does that answer the reproducible question? What I do remember is a conversation with a national who told me it was fine if I wanted to invite him and his family to my house but he could never invite his friends to my house because after all it was my house. It was my place to invite others not his. Ummm.

That is when we decided trying to find ways to meet in third places could be the best route for our strategy. The first place is a person’s home and the second place is the marketplace and the third place is a neutral place. It is the place where the people whom you are being sent can meet.

Just some thoughts on meeting spaces.  And yours?

I pulled this one off of twitter.

“Part of our problem is that we go into worlds in which we’re sent with prefab ideas of what church should look like there”. Michael Frost from Jet Set Prague and Budapest.

This past week I participated in some meetings in Lima, Peru.  It was my first trip to that city. What energy they have there. Good coffee. Good restaurants. I ate mostly local though I was surprised to see Chili’s, Papa Johns, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, etc. there.

As usual I found a little time to explore. Admittedly it was a bit easier since I do okay in Spanish and can get around. I walked or took the bus the entire time. I noticed they do put “PARE” instead of “STOP” on those octagon signs at intersections. I am thinking there were a lot of people who did not read Spanish very well. I rarely saw anyone completely stop. Those letters must mean something else. smile

One day I went into several old churches. Peru was a colony of  Spain some years back and you definitely can tell it in their architecture and in their churches. On several occasions I could not tell if I were in Spain or in Peru. The church buildings were similar.

What can we learn from this?

I think Frost makes a good point. We do have a tendency to take our pre-fab ideas into another culture and transport them there.

We must be careful on this. We need to look at what the gospel looks like in our new context and what the church looks like in that new culture.

It even goes beyond the architectural design of buildings.

Michael Frost said – “You will not change a post-Christian world with more missionaries & ch leaders. It requires artists, teachers, doctors,etc…”

We have lived in Europe for almost 10 years now. I have seen this over and over again. One of the most effective ways to plant the gospel here is as we work, live and play.

I have talked with many national church planters and pastors and almost all will  agree.They would love to have engaged in their ministry and church plants  people who work in the marketplace but live out thier lives here as salt and light.

We do several of these trips each year. We invite pastors and planters of churches who are interested in getting directly involved in missions by actively engaging unreached people.

Our goal with these trips is to help church leaders get an idea of how God might use them internationally. We then hope to continue in relationship with the churches to help with training, strategy development, partnership connections, church planting, and cultural translation of the gospel. We’re working to stop the “outsourcing of the Great Commission.”

Anyway, we’re looking for ways to involve as many churches as possible on these trips. We’ve got a good group for this trip, but we’re looking for ways to include those who, for whatever reason, may not be able to join us in Europe this time around.

Here’s our idea:

We’re going to live Twitter/blog/podcast as much of the trip as possible. We’ll post everything on the Upstream Blog <http://blog.theupstreamcollective.org/>  and Twitter feed <http://twitter.com/theupstreamc> .

We hope you can come along on this trip virtually. If you do please join the conversation. Read the posts. Watch the videos. Read the twitter feeds at #JS2011.

Ask questions.

Make comments about what they are talking about or how these conversations affect you.

Upstream also has an opportunity for you to attend a live webinar led by Michael Frost on April 19th at 10 am EST from Budapest. We have a limited number of spots for this live webinar. You need to sign up here to attend.

Saw some wonderful things. Met some outstanding people.

I bought my Rick Steves book and he helped me out a lot. However, the best thing was talking to a person who lives there.  We had a ton of meetings for this conference but in the evenings we had some time to explore. We had a guide who really did an incredible job. I lead vision trips and talk about short term trips a lot. I learned a lot from this guy and how it can help me in the future.

He knew the city so he was able to talk about it’s history.

He knew the people and was able to help us know the culture.

He gave us places to go and gave us confidence that we could actually try to talk to people on our own.

He helped us fall in love with the people there.

He knew really good inexpensive places to eat and gave us some local favorites. Helped us stay away from the tourist places.

He knew the good coffee and tea places (always important for me)

He did not hold our hand but taught us to explore.

He gave us a vision for the work there.

He gave us opportunities to pray  for the people.

He made me want to say…..

How can I partner with  you?

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.