Sending
Church Partner Process
A distinctive of Upstream Sending is that we partner with the church first and then the missionary. This means that before a meaningful relationship can happen with pre-field missionaries, the relationship needs to be established with sending churches. As we seek to partner deeply with local churches, we want to make sure that we have alignment around our theology, values, mission practices, and commitments. We accomplish this through our church partner process.
What is the church partner process?
The church partner process are the steps a local church goes through to become an Upstream Sending church, be welcomed into the Sending Network, and be able to send missionaries through our structures.
The church partner process centers around two core ideas: a commitment to sending cross-cultural missionaries well and a commitment to an ongoing relationship between the organization and the sending church.
The onboarding process walks churches through the chart on the right and focuses on the following areas.
-
After having an initial conversation with Upstream Sending leaders, churches seeking to partner with Upstream Sending will go through a sending church assessment. This assessment includes a written application, a face to face or virtual meeting, an evaluation of sending church engagement and philosophy, along with an alignment around theology, missiology, and mission practice.
This assessment is less of an interview and more of a coaching session, helping church leaders know where they are as a sending church and ways they can grow toward greater effectiveness. We assess and coach churches based on the Sending Church Elements created by the Upstream Collective.
The product of this assessment is a sending church growth plan created by leaders from Upstream Sending and Upstream Collective. This growth plan provides an overall evaluation of missions and sending health, strengths, areas of growth, and practical pathways toward development. We will also make a recommendation to the church whether or not Upstream Sending would be a good ministry partner.
The sending church growth plan is provided to church leaders free of charge, even if the church, or agency, decides not to partner together in sending.
-
Theological and missiological alignment are important for healthy partnership. Although we seek to serve a broad spectrum of gospel-centered evangelical churches, we know that we won’t be a fit for every church, church leader, or missionary.
We ask churches going through the church partner process to read and sign our theological statements and accompanying creeds and statements, as well as our missiological values. We will also ask questions related to theology, missiology, sending philosophy, and missions practice in the interview process.
-
Upstream Sending is what is referred to as a “memorandum of understanding” organization. This means that we base our ministry partnerships with churches, missionaries, and field teams on written documents of agreement. The MOU model, or what we call partner agreement, allows for both clarity in partnership and flexibility in how we work together.
After a church goes through the sending church assessment and approval process, we ask church leaders to work with Upstream Sending leaders to draft and sign a partner agreement, a written document of how our organizations, and leaders, will work together. This MOU will be reviewed and revised periodically.
Each partner church will pay a member fee or $300 per month ($150 per month for a church plant). The member fee helps cover the cost of running the Sending Network, and it keeps the administrative cost low for the missionary.
Sending Process
What is the sending process?
The sending process is the journey a pre-field missionary takes to be assessed, prepared, and sent through Upstream Sending. The chart to the right visualizes each step of the sending process. The first two steps, the discipleship and mobilization plan along with a sending church pipeline, are systems we encourage churches to have in place to sent well.
The remainder of the sending process is focused on the pre-field missionary and is done in partnership with leaders from the local church.
The sending process includes the steps below.
-
Each partner church creates and implements a discipleship and mobilization plan for their church members.
-
Each partner church creates and implements a sending pipeline/process for the assessment and development of cross-cultural workers raised up and sent out from their church.
NOTE: The church sending pipeline can happen in parallel with the Upstream Sending process.
-
Those interested in being sent should fill out an online form to get the process started with Upstream Sending. For access to this online form, please talk to your church mission leaders or email us at info@upstreamsending.com
-
After initial approval from the sending church is given, the pre-field missionary candidate works through the application process including an online application, personal references, an in-person assessment, personal development plan, background checks, medical questionnaire, and more.
The local church and Upstream Sending work together in this phase of the process. -
After phases one and two of the application are completed and both Upstream Sending and the sending church sign off, the candidate is given a formal invitation for appointment, and the onboarding process begins.
-
At this point, initial development and support-raising can begin. This includes support-raising training, completing a personal development plan, and more.
-
After the pre-field missionary raises 50% or more of their support budget, they will attend a four-day orientation and missionary training that provides a baseline of missiology, skills for life and ministry overseas, culture and values of Upstream Sending, and provides training on the systems and policies of the organization.
-
After completing Cultivate, the pre-field missionary will finish support-raising, complete any final steps given by their sending church, be commissioned publically by their sending church, and soon after deploy to the field.
Field Network Locations
The Field Network are the places and teams we send missionaries to serve. Our Field Network members are a combination of veteran missionaries and trusted national and international churches, all committed to seeing the gospel declared, new disciples made, and new churches planted. This Network allows for a more flexible, collaborative receiving process, while also connecting missionaries with trusted global leaders and facilitating partnerships with other sending organizations.
Below are the places we currently have teams and churches along with locations that are in the process of joining the Network. If you would like to learn more about the Field Network, please go to the Field Network section of our website or email us at contact@upstreamsending.com.
North Africa
We have a team serving in a coastal city in North Africa with a Christian population of less than 1%. This team takes an incarnational approach: doing business in the city in order to focus on evangelism and serving alongside the local, national church.
Both the city and nation as a whole have limited access to the gospel and need more cross-cultural missionary presence. Our team is looking for additional long-term missionaries to serve both on the team and in the business.
Kathmandu, Nepal
Upstream works alongside a healthy national church in the city of Kathmandu to make Jesus known in the city, disciple new believers, and plant more churches. Along with local church ministry, we work with our team to provided pastoral training to regions of Nepal with limited to no access to ongoing ministry education.
Our team is looking for mid and long-term missionaries to join their team.
Strasbourg, France
Upstream has a mission team and church plant in the heart of the city focused on reaching both French and migrants coming from over 70 different nations. The team also runs a coffee shop and community center that provides a host of services for newly arrived refugees to help facilitate their integration into society.
Our team is looking for mid and long-term missionaries to serve in their existing ministries as well as planting new churches in other neighborhoods and French cities.
Palermo, Italy
Upstream serves alongside a seasoned British church planter and network leader in Palermo, Italy. The largest city in Sicily and home to both locals and migrants and refugees, Palermo is in need of gospel-centered churches. LifeHope is a young church-plant seeking to stabilize, grow and multiply.
Our team is looking for mid and long-term missionaries to help build the church and reach people with the gospel.