This morning’s meeting was a smaller one. It was hosted by Robert Beckman, an innovative church planter and house church advocate in Central and South Florida. It was refreshing to compare notes with a fellow practitioner (Robert spent years overseas) and to hear how God is working around the State.

Adam, a church planter who’s seeing great success in church planting, appreciated the opportunity for missions in Europe. In his mind, he had figured that he would get involved in Central America, but the similarities between the European worldview and that of his current mission field really made him wonder how God might use him in Europe.

Guys like Adam and Robert “get it.” They understand the value of the church being an incarnational witness. Halfway through our appeal for direct church involvement in missions, Adam interrupted us. “Okay, I get it! I’m ready! Where do I sign up?” He didn’t need to be convinced.

That’s the question a lot of people are asking us- “where do I sign up?” The thing is, we don’t have anything to sign up for. When we first started this, we didn’t want to do anything more than start a campaign to get churches more directly involved in missions in Europe. Church networks already exist. We just wanted them to add a level of intentionality in missions.

Now Upstream is more than just a campaign. It’s a call to action. It’s us speaking on behalf of professional missionaries around the world, asking the church to step up.

In the coming days, we’re going to start posting some practical ideas for churches to begin their involvement in missions in Europe. Please feel free to share your ideas as well.