last Monday I attended my final Perspectives class. This was the class that I signed up for thinking it was mostly supposed to be a really good bible study, that turned out to be super mission focused. However if you are not feeling “called to go” DO NOT let that stop you from taking perspectives, you learn so much- its awesome. I can’t really say enough to recommend taking perspectives, instead I want to give you a sort of summary of what we learned and what impacted me most.
The class lasts 15 weeks and is broken down into four sections. The first section was called The Biblical Perspective. In this section I learned that from the beginning it was always God’s desire, and purpose to establish his kingdom, to destroy evil, bless and be worshiped by all nations, all tribes and all of the families of the earth. To be glorified. I learned that the implementation of this plan is not limited to the new testament. God has actually been working throughout history. Beginning with Abraham, Israel was supposed to declare God’s awesomeness so the nations would glorify Him. That while God’s blessing sometimes is displayed by physical success, what it always aims for is the transformation of people, and healing of relations- between man and man, between man and God.
I also learned something I found- find- difficult to wrap my understanding around, that Missions exists because worship doesn’t (Piper) That their primary goal is not human saving, it is worship bringing.
Finally, and maybe most important, I learned that we, as spiritual descendants of the original disciples (and further back of Abraham), have a mandate to GO and SPREAD THE WORD to all people, to make christ followers in all peoples. Now there will be goers and senders, but as one of the perspectives speakers said, your default mode should basically be GO, and then you try to discern if you are CALLED TO STAY. Instead of the other way around.
Historical perspective It turns out that in His quest to spread the the knowledge of himself sometimes God has used a variety of ways to get “missionaries” to where they are needed. Sometimes people movements (voluntary or involuntary) spread the word, other times people set off into unmapped territory because they were called convicted or chosen. Some mission movement awakeners and revolutionaries, include William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Townsend and McGavran. After looking at mission movements in the past we looked at what progress has been made and what there is left to do. What I found impacting was the fact that people are being sent FROM all over TO all over. Inspite of our slowness in getting to the totally unreached people groups, it Will GET GONE. The thing is, YOU have a chance to participate in the quest, to be part of the awesome moment that God is directing. You have been blessed as followers to be able to take part in something amazing!!
One of my favorite quotes comes from one of the other students. Talking about Jesus and his grace, you are not good enough to be on the team, ” you should have been cut- days ago. You shouldn’t have showed up for tryouts.
Jesus’ grace is what allows you to be on his team”
imagine that!
Cultural Perspective This section was really interesting, I had never thought much about how many of our western “christian” practices are cultural. Where do you draw the line between what is needed and what is not? According to Perspectives when conveying the message teachers should disciple followers to first and above all obey Jesus commands. Then with prayer followers need to search out the scriptures with the Spirits leading as to what other rules they may need to consider. We read some amazing stories about how God had primed hearts with truths in stories, and longing for truth and freedom.
We also learned something of the importance of how missionaries interact in terms of, entry identity (learner) and building bridges of love.
Strategic perspective Here we learned some about practical ways to reach people. Basically the point was that Perspectives does not believe in divorcing ministry from aid, and that in order not to create “rice Christians” aid should be given unbiased. We learned some of the importance in discipling believers, and that not only should the missionary disciple, those who are being discipled should disciple and so on creating chains of relationships. I learned that this is very important to the SPONTANEOUS MULTIPLICATION OF CHURCHES, especially because to create the healthiest churches missionaries need to leave them to native leadership after leaders have been trained up. Trusting that the Spirit will take care of those in his hands. That important aspects to starting a people movement include; keep the essential message simple: obedience to Jesus commands. Disciples build up other disciples, lots of prayer, person of peace, whole families.
Finally, what hurt the most; followers everywhere need to live with purpose and intentionality. This hurt because it is something I can implement not- not someday- And not only does that sound like dedication long term, it sounds like vulnerability and effort- and uncomfortable : (
So I know this is like the LONGEST POST EVER!!! but I need to say a few more things. First of all, because I say I learned XYZ- do not think that I THINK that I have by any means perfected them in practice, or even put into practice- the annoying thing is that as one of the speakers said, “This class should come with a giant surgeon generals warning” because you are responsible for what you know. That May not really be much in my case, but I haven’t been very good at implementing the truths I know I should. Also this is not really a summary or perspectives, it is really only a summary of what I remember or what was really impacting to me.
