The Perspectives Program
The Perspectives Study Program is a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission - a non-denominational parachurch ministry that works with churches, mission agencies, and campus ministries around the world.
The program is run locally around the country by teams of volunteers; alumni who have been personally impacted by Perspectives and have a desire to mobilize their community to God's global purposes. It is hosted by various churches or non-profit organizations around the country. Usually local coordinators try to have Perspectives classes hosted in a different location each year, so as to involve a network of churches and organizations that can reach out to the nations represented in their communities. These locations serve as hosts and supporters of the study program. Shifting the location from year to year helps foster the mentality of it being a neutral, community wide course.
Perspectives History
Perspectives is not so much a course, as it is a "movement" involving tens of thousands of God's people throughout the world finding their niche in God's overall purpose to bless the nations. Since its beginning in 1974, dozens of other seminars, courses, and materials have been developed after the pattern of the course, both in the United States and abroad.
Core Ideas of Perspectives
The content of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course is undergirded by an integrated set of core ideas. While there are many other ideas in the course that are part of an orthodox Christian worldview, these core ideas are not commonplace. This page introduces these distinctives. Each of these is expanded in an accompanying document not only to articulate them, but also to differentiate them from other viewpoints. The course is designed to provide these key ideas which are normally lacking in the instruction available to most believers.
We desire to provide a philosophical framework for understanding the curriculum's essential core. We hope this will also serve as a guide to those developing supporting curricula and resources. As the Perspectives Movement continues to expand internationally into other languages and cultural contexts, this framework will help those adapting the course to transfer the core concepts rather than merely translating the material.
It is important to note that this is not a summary of the course content (i.e. the specific teaching objectives such as the Kingdom of God, understanding worldview, appropriate contextualization, etc.). Additional tools are currently under development to list content items and relate them to resources used to teach them.
The 16 core ideas are:
1. God initiates and advances work in history to accomplish His purpose.
2. God calls His people to join Him in fulfilling His purpose.
3. God's purpose is to bless all peoples so that Christ will be served and glorified among all peoples.
4. God accomplishes His purpose by triumphing over evil in order to rescue and bless people and to establish His kingdom rule throughout the earth.
5. The Bible is a unified story of God's purpose.
6. God's work in history has continuity and will come to an ultimate culmination.
7. The Christian movement has brought about positive social transformation.
8. The mission task can and will be completed.
9. The world's population can be viewed in terms of people groups.
10. The progress of world evangelization can be assessed in terms of church-planting movements within people groups.
11. Completing the mission task requires the initiation and growth of church-planting movements that follow social avenues of influence.
12. Completing the task requires effective cross-cultural evangelism that follows communication patterns within cultures.
13. Completing the task requires strategic wholism in which community development is integrated with church planting.
14. Completing the task requires collaborative efforts of churches and mission agencies from diverse cultures and traditions.
15. God calls His people to embrace strategic sacrifice and suffering with Christ in order to accomplish His global purpose.
16. By participating in the world Christian movement, every believer can find a way to live with vital, strategic significance in God's global purpose.
Perspectives Lesson Syllabus
Biblical
1. The Living God is a Missionary God
2. The Story of His Glory
3. Your Kingdom Come
4. Mandate for the Nations
5. Unleashing the Gospel
History
6. The Expansion of the Christian Movement
7. Eras of Mission History
8. Pioneers of the World Christian Movement
9. The Task Remaining
Culture
10. How Shall They Hear?
11. Building Bridges of Love
Strategy
12. Christian Community Development
13. The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches
14. Pioneer Church Planting
15. World Christian Partnership
