“Right off we knew we wanted to take part in church planting and taking the Gospel to the nations,” said Johnny Grimes, a pastor and church planter. “There was no debate in it. We knew that is who we are.”

Branch Life in Birmingham, Ala., is a church plant that grew from a group of non-believers seeking truth. While serving on a local church staff, Grimes led a few men in a Bible study. When some of them became believers and hungered for a deeper knowledge of what it means to follow Christ, Grimes agreed to lead them in examining systematic theology.

Four years later this core group became a church of seven. Within four weeks they grew to about 25 people. Today, 1 1/2 years later, about 75 people–a mixture of punk and indie rockers, hipsters and an “older generation,” all ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s–meet in a two-story building in the heart of Birmingham’s business district. Even though their members make up a variety of demographics, Grimes said they’re on the same page–they have a passion for telling the world about Jesus.

Grimes said he’s always been fascinated with London. He learned more about its lostness while at an Upstream Collective conference hosted by a Branch Life sponsoring church, Hunter Street Baptist Church. Here Grimes started asking questions and taking steps toward international involvement.

“We didn’t know what to do or how to do it. We just started talking to people who maybe had an awareness of what was going on there.

“I think people get discouraged with missions, wondering, ‘How can you plant a church and already be passionate about going to the nations?’ We just started doing it,” Grimes said. “We want to do so much more than just give money. We want to give money–yes, that’s vitally important–but we want to give time, money and resources sacrificially.”

With these goals in mind Grimes and other church members prayed and felt God confirming their desire to be involved in London. They joined a Hunter Street group that had already been planning on visiting the city, and went on a vision trip. There they identified partnerships and existing needs, and ruled out a few ideas.

Focused on the London borough of Camden–the punk rock capital of the world, according to Grimes–Branch Life’s next trip this May will include bringing musicians to play in pubs and at King’s Cross Baptist Church with the goal of developing relationships.

Grimes said Branch Life members originally thought they would commit to a few years of missional involvement in London. Then they visited the city and knew that wouldn’t be enough.

“We realized three to five years wouldn’t knock a dent in it, and it would take years and years of prayer, resources and planning,” Grimes said.

Branch Life since has committed to focus 10-15 years of sharing the Gospel in the U.K. capital, but Grimes thinks their presence will extend beyond that.

“Probably as long as we’re alive we’ll have a partnership with London,” he said. “A lasting impact in cities like (this) requires lifetime commitment on behalf of churches like us. It takes people committing their lives to sharing the Gospel.”

Grimes has no regrets when reflecting on Branch Life’s evangelistic core.

“I don’t think churches have to get to a certain amount of people, programs or finances before they need to become passionate about the nations,” he said. “Whether (your church size is) 5, 50 or 1,000, you should be passionate about taking Gospel to the nations from the start.”

Grimes said with evangelism as a part of a church’s DNA, members and visitors know that’s what Branch Life is passionate about. Missions isn’t an idea that sneaks up on them.

“It’s strategic, and it’s good stewardship of what God’s entrusted to us.”

Written by Natalie Kaspar. Natalie is a freelance writer for The Upstream Collective and lives in Texas. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work in a few years.

“It’s not a trip, it’s a relationship,” Billy said. “Mission trips imply this is a trip for a certain time, but this is a blood brother-type relationship.”

LifeWay has been involved in reaching the lost in Bryansk since 2000 when Russian immigrants to the Seattle area requested help with a summer camp in their native country. After assisting the Russian believers two years in a row, the church agreed to take their work in Bryansk, which is located about 250 miles southwest of Moscow, to a new level.

LifeWay helped the local believers purchase old Soviet camp facilities that have since hosted multiple summer events focused on sharing Christ with Russian youth.

Billy said LifeWay’s long-term partnership with Bryansk believers can be seen as a triangle. One side involves helping existing churches develop a mindset of expanding the kingdom and partner with bodies of believers in the United States. A second side is developing new churches primarily geared toward reaching younger generations. An underlying or third side includes assisting with recurring summer camps and upcoming leadership development programs.

In addition to watching more than 5,000 students come through the summer camps over the past seven years, LifeWay has seen a new church planted that reaches Russian young adults. The average attendee at History Makers Church is 13-30 years old. Billy describes the group as “young people … reaching very, very disconnected young adults.”

“We believe … we’re going to see God use this (area) as a missionary sending place to the rest of Eastern Europe,” he said. “God is doing some real work in that direction.”

However, individuals in Russia aren’t alone in feeling the impact of this long-term relationship.

“We are trying to grow a partnership that … when you agree to this work overseas, you’re also agreeing to apply the same principles to your home church. The lost around the world aren’t more important than the lost across the street,” Billy said. “It’s not an either-or, focus internationally and not focus locally. It’s a both-and.”

Billy believes while each church needs to follow God’s leading in involvement, not being involved internationally is not an option.

“Churches so badly need to do stuff like this,” he said. “There’s an unlimited amount of places in the world where people can. It’s biblical. Ultimately you have to be responsive to what God leads you to do, (but) you have to connect.”

As far as how to be involved, Billy recommends churches join “something with a strategy. Stop the random mission experiences that become refrigerator magnet missions.”

Instead of sending teams to different locations each year, he suggests a church seeks where others are strategically involved in international partnerships and then takes a vision trip that allows a small team to get hands-on exposure. This can present opportunities for projects to develop and follow-up teams to return to the location.

Billy said while LifeWay is continually learning how to develop long-term international partnerships, he is interested in assisting other pastors and their churches–regardless of size–with connecting in specific ways with the work in Bryansk, and can help point to other needs in Russia. Two churches in the Seattle area currently are joining LifeWay in working in Bryansk, with a third considering a vision trip to the area. Two ministries also are involved in seeing the lost know Christ in this part of Russia.

Contact Billy to learn more about long-term international partnership opportunities in the Bryansk region.

Explore more opportunities for international vision trips by learning about Jet Set tours.

Written by Natalie Kaspar. Natalie is a freelance writer for The Upstream Collective and lives in Texas. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work in a few years.

I wonder if this would work. I have never tried it and I am sure someone has so I would be interested in how did it work?

Instead of you bringing your church to “do” a basketball camp or soccer camp that you could bring a group of people to “attend” a soccer camp in Europe? What if you were able to equip your participants to come and live life side by side with a European and be able to share your faith with them in some natural ways? Not to mention learn some pretty good soccer skills.

You see most of the time we want to go on a mission trip and and “Do” something so that someone can attend it and thus hear the gospel. What if we simply get involved in something that is already going on and find ways to tell our story in that way? To me this is the more natural way to share our faith. It is being the salt and light to a group of people.

From Larry McCrary, with permission

Every year, we invite church leaders to come with us on week- long trips. We arrange meetings with church planters, national beleivers, and nonbelievers. We talk about worldview, cultural translation of the gospel, and missions strategies might pave the way for a church planting movement.

Sure, we could do all of this back home in the U.S., but there’s something about walking the streets, sitting down to coffee, and interacting with people on their terms that allows you to really get a feel for the need and opportunity overseas. Church leaders can see first-hand how God might use their churches to engage the nations missionally.

The best part is the fun we have. Hanging out, taking theology, technology, and every other – ology we’re not qualified to discuss. We see the sights, visit the cathedrals, tour the ruins. We pray for the people.

These trips change you. They ruin your perspective and re-calibrate your opinions. Please follow along as we chronicle the trip. Feel free to comment, as questions, or express your jealousy. Please pray for us. That God would guide our steps and conversations, and that it would be His vision we gain here in Rome and Marseille.