Perspectives

I've been working on a project to create a new version of the Perspectives Online course. The course name is Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. It was initially developed over thirty years ago by Dr. Ralph Winter (US Center for World Mission) to provide additional mission training to students who attended the 1974 Urbana Conference.

The course has been through a number of revisions. I first took it in 1997 when I first joined the staff of International Christian Ministries. A little later my boss, Dr. Phil Walker, got permission to do an online version of it. Once he had it up and running he passed it to me to coordinate.

I think that it is fair to say that few other courses I've taken have had the impact on my life that this one has. As an instructor in a missionary training program (Agape International Training) I encountered the Perspectives Reader before I became aware of the course. We began using articles in our training program in the early 1980’s. I really enjoyed the breadth of the reader – there was more good information in it than we could use in our program. About the time we joined the staff of International Christian Ministries, Kathy and I took the course together. I took the course coordinators training at about the same time and began coordinating courses, as well as teaching classes in the Biblical and Cultural components in the Bakersfield area. I also got involved in helping to instruct online students through this course.

Through our mission agency we became aware of an unreached people group in western Kenya, the Sabaot, and helped to have the JESUS Film translated into the Sabaot language. For the past decade we have been working in a partnership with several Sabaot Christian leaders, as well as several American churches who have formally or informally adopted the Sabaot to devise and carry out strategies to help this people come to know Christ. Though I’m taking a break from being a Perspectives instructor and coordinator to move to Kenya to work more closely with our Africa Theological Seminary and the Sabaot tribe, I’ll keep my connection to Perspectives up to date as we use the reader as the foundation of our two mission courses there. I know that we would not have gotten involved in these activities if we had not first had our eyes opened through our involvement in the Perspectives Course.