Dallas, TX - North
Fall 2016
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Perspectives is a 15 week life and learning opportunity that will change the way you view the world around you. In it, you will have your eyes opened to the heart and purpose of God, and how you can take part in His work all over the world, from the urban streets of America to the rain forest and deserts of distant lands. A fantastic array of pastors, theologians, international missiologists and mobilizers will challenge and inspire you with their personal experiences that will open your eyes to see just how big God is, and how much He desires that all might come to know Him. Whether you are single, married, a student, a homemaker, a professional or retired, Perspectives will bless and challenge your life and direction.
Many local churches / organizations have partnered together to bring Perspectives to your community. You don't want to miss this opportunity!
College / Seminary Credit Available
High School Dual Enrollment Credit Available
If you are a Perspectives alumni in the area and would like more information and would be interested in serving on the class's Coordinating Team, please contact us!
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Instructor
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Lesson 1
The Living God is a Missionary God
God's purpose is three-fold: against evil—kingdom victory; for the nations—redemption and blessing; and for God—global glory in worship. God's purpose revealed in promise to Abraham. Exploring God's purpose for the nations: Blessing to the nations described.
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Instructor
Phillip Nelson
SIM, Charlotte NC
Rev. Dr. Phillip Nelson pastored for over thirty years. He has served as a mission mobilizer for over ten years and, in addition, began teaching Perspective classes 25 years ago.
He is the husband of one wife and father of five saved adult children. He is a preacher and teacher of the Gospel for 45+ years. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, August 29, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 2
The Story of His Glory
Exploring God's purpose for Himself: How God has been steadily unfolding a plan throughout all nations and generations to bring about His greater glory, ultimately drawing to Himself the worship of all the peoples. Passion and prayer for God's glory.
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Instructor
Vic Anderson
Dallas Theological Seminary, Mesquite TX
Dr. Vic's passion is helping others understand and communicate truth found in the Bible. This passion presently is channeled primarily through two organizations - Dallas Seminary and SIM. At the seminary, Vic serves as Department Chairman and Professor of Pastoral Ministries, teaching courses related to Spiritual Life and Preaching. With SIM, he continues his work in cross-cultural theological education, focusing primarily on developing church leaders for East Africa, especially Ethiopia. He helped establish a Bible College in Addis Ababa in the 1990's, and now, having finished 15 years of full time missionary service, he returns each summer to Ethiopia to teach for a couple of months.
Vic has been teaching with Perspectives since 2007, and he finds great personal inspiration in the Story of God's Glory. He anticipates that students in every Perspectives class will be stunned as they are gripped by the Master's mission for His world. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, September 5, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 3
Your Kingdom Come
Exploring God's purpose regarding evil: How God has accomplished a defeat of evil powers in order to open a season of history in which the nations can freely follow Christ. The kingdom of God as the destiny of all history. Christ's mission seeks a hindering of evil to bring about a sign of the coming peace of the kingdom of God. Our prayers contend with evil in order to bring about the transformation of society with Christ's kingdom in view.
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Instructor
Charles Sanders
SIL International; Wycliffe Bible Translators (USA), Dallas TX
Chip and his wife, Kathy, served in southeast Asia for eight years as part of the language development and Bible translation ministry of SIL International. They moved to Dallas in 2007 in order for Chip to take on a global role at SIL headquarters. Currently Chip is a global leadership consultant for SIL and is working on a Doctorate of Ministry in Global Christianity and Development through Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, September 12, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 4
Mandate for the Nations
Jesus shows great strategic interest in Gentiles; wise strategic focus by initiating a global mission on a few disciples among the Hebrew people. The Great Commission and the ways of God's sending in relational power. Dealing with the ideas of pluralism (all religions the same) and universalism (all persons saved).
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Instructor
Don
World Team, Orlando FL
Canadian-born, Don received Christ at a YFC rally in 1952 and later graduated from Prairie Bible Institute and Wycliffe's SIL course. From 1962-1977 Don and his late wife, Carol Joy [Soderstrom], an RN, served in Irian Jaya (now Papua, Indonesia) among the Sawi, a Stone-Age cannibal-headhunter tribe. After Don designed a Sawi alphabet, he and Carol taught literacy, planted churches, healed the sick and translated the New Testament. More than half the tribe came to Christ. Author of six books, including "Peace Child" and "Eternity in Their Hearts," Don holds an honorary doctorate from Biola University. He represents World Team at missions conferences and in churches, teaches seminars, and lectures for Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. 17 months after his late wife's passing, Don wed Carol Joyce Abraham, who now serves with him in ministry by speaking to women's groups, singing solos, mentoring, and providing hospitality. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, September 19, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 5
Unleashing the Gospel
The first followers of Jesus: obedient in costly, foundational ways. The climactic act of the book of Acts is the freeing of the gospel to be followed by Gentiles without Jewish traditions as a requirement. A foundational act of God which speaks to the situations where the gospel is hindered today. Strategic suffering and apostolic passion.
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Instructor
Kent Parks
Beyond. Formerly "Act Beyond" and "Mission to Unreached Peoples", Plano TX
http://beyond.org/president/
Kent Parks is President and CEO of Beyond (formerly "Act Beyond" & "Mission to Unreached Peoples"). See beyond.org for a powerful video. This mission sending organization is focused on launching Disciple-Making Movements (also called Church Planting Movements) among the Unreached People Groups of the world. This 29% of the world does not have even access to witness of word or deed about Jesus in any kind within their culture. Act Beyond is focused on global collaboration to change this spiritual injustice.
Kent and his wife Erika worked among Muslims in Asia for 20 years. They continue to lead regular Disciple-Making Movement trainings around the world. He continues to occasionally teach graduate courses in mission strategy.
Previously, he coordinated outreach strategies for Unreached People Groups, and developed trans-national, trans-denominational networks at various levels. Kent also pastored in Texas for 7 years before going to the mission field. He has been a seminary professor, the academic dean of a seminary and has taught internationally in a graduate school. Kent is Co-Facilitator for the Ethne (a global network of UPG-focused leaders; is a part of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission and is Senior Assoc. for Least Reached Peoples with the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization.
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Class Info
Date: Monday, September 26, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 6
The Expansion of the Christian Movement
The story of God's purpose continues relentlessly from Abraham's day until the present moment. An overview of the largest and the longest-running movement ever in history—the world Christian movement. How the gospel surged through the peoples and places of the world. Important insights for our own day.
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Instructor
KK
OM, Dallas TX
Currently serving in hospitality ministry while living abroad b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, October 3, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 7
Eras of Mission History
The greatest explosion of growth ever has taken place in last 200 years in three "bursts" of activity. Why we could be in the final era of missions. The global harvest force comprised increasingly of non-Western missionaries.
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Instructor
Courtney Contos
Cafe 1040, Inc., Cleburne TX
Courtney Contos received a history degree from Texas Tech University, and then worked in a health club as a personal trainer before switching to full-time work in mobilization. From 2007-2010 she lived on the road with The Traveling Team, casting missions vision to college-age audiences around the U.S. That was followed by three years with Cafe 1040, an Atlanta-based group with intensive missional training bases in Africa and Southeast Asia. She currently resides in Cleburne, Tx with her husband where she spent most of her growing-up years. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, October 10, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 8
Pioneers of the World Christian Movement
Today we anchor the race by continuing what others have begun. It's a day of finishing. All the more reason to learn the wisdom and the heart of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in earlier generations. Reading the writings of William Carey and other leaders to discern what these people have left to us. Exploring the contribution of women in missions throughout the centuries.
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Instructor
Brian Considine
Christ for All Peoples, McKinney TX
God took me from marketplace to ministry in 2001 and then around the world. My first Kingdom assignment was with Concerts of Prayer Greater New York as the Long Island Coordinator where I worked to mobilze pastors and leaders in prayer and collaborative initiatives. That role evolved into National Coordinator for a partnership with World Vision mobilizing a response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Then served as International Director for the Global AIDS Prayer Partnership with the mission to mobilize a global prayer response to AIDS. After being sidelined for a few year with a cancer battle, in 2011 I joined the Mission America Coalition (U.S. Lausanne Committee) as the State Facilitator for Texas. In October 2015, I also joined Christ for All Peoples as director of project development. My passion is mobilizing the Church in response to the Diaspora.
I only teach Lesson 8, because I believe it is a pivotal lesson for Perspectives students. My emphasis in on Zwemer's characteristics of a pioneer and on Mandryk's "The State of the Gospel" article, with an emphasis on the 5 essentials of finishing the task. My lesson plan includes a fun discovery group activity, looking at bios of the pioneers, that has received rave reviews from students. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, October 17, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 9
The Task Remaining
God's pressed His purpose forward until the present hour of amazing opportunity. Understanding the concept of "unreached peoples" to assess the remaining task. Recognizing the imbalance of mission resources shapes strategic priorities. The basic minimal missiological achievement in every people group opens the way for working with God against every kind of evil so that the gospel of the kingdom is declared and displayed with clarity and power. The need and opportunity of urban mission.
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Instructor
Marsha Relyea Miles
Pioneer Bible Translators, Duncanville TX
Marsha Relyea Miles is a missionary with Pioneer Bible Translators. Together with her late husband John Relyea, she has served as a Bible translator for the Aruamu people group in Papua New Guinea for 23 years. The Relyeas lived in an Aruamu village, analyzed and created an alphabet for this previously unwritten language, and worked together with local leaders to develop an extensive literacy and scripture-use program, and completed the translation of the New Testament into the Aruamu language. After John's death in PNG, Marsha has continued working as translation advisor to the Aruamu Old Testament team. The full Aruamu Bible was completed and published in 2021. The Bible dedication is being planned in PNG for August 2022. Marsha currently serves as an international translation consultant
During 2007 Marsha served as President of the National Missionary Convention. She served as Director of Church Mobilization and Development with PBT for 5 years. Marsha is married to Nathan Miles of the United Bible Societies. She holds a Bachelor of Theology from Ozark Christian College and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington.
God has given Marsha a passionate heart for world missions, and a very compelling story to tell, drawn from front-line mission experience, sitting in the dirt in steamy jungles sharing with people about the Lord and translating the scriptures for them. Her inspiring challenge to mission involvement comes through with bold eloquence. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, October 24, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 10
How Shall They Hear?
Culture and intercultural communication of the gospel. Communicating the gospel with relevance at the worldview level helps avoid syncretism (blending of cultural error with God?s truth) and also enables powerful movements of the gospel. Sensitive missionaries will look for ways that God has preserved or prepared people to hear the gospel, often finding redemptive analogies for God's truth.
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Instructor
Carl Johnson
Christian Fellowship Union, San Juan TX
Carl grew up in Minnesota and has a BA in Bible and Theology from Crown College near Minneapolis. He has a Masters degree in Cross-cultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Mission. He has served among Latinos since 1987 in various places, beginning in central Los Angeles. He served ten years in Mexico City.
Carl and Rita have been married since 1994. Their son Samuel was born in 2011. Carl is a missionary with Christian Fellowship Union and works with the Perspectives course in Spanish in the U.S. and numerous other countries as an instructor and in instructor development. Carl and his family live in south Texas. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, October 31, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 11
Building Bridges of Love
The incarnation as a model of missionary humility. How missionaries can enter appropriate roles in order to form relationships of trust and respect to develop a sense of belonging, and thus to communicate with credibility for understanding. Explore the intricacy of identification in another culture. Explore the even greater complexity of presenting identity with integrity in a globalized, terrorized, pluralized world. Recognizing the dynamics of social structure in order to initiate growing movements of ongoing communication throughout the society.
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Instructor
Robin Harris
International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE), Dallas TX
Dr. Robin Harris is the director of Dallas International University's Center for Excellence in World Arts (www.diu.edu/arts) and also serves as the president of the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE). She co-edited "Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook" (William Carey Library, 2013) and speaks widely on the topic of arts and cross-cultural service. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, November 7, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 12
Christian Community Development
A survey of world need. Dynamic balance of evangelism and social action. Hope for significant transformation as a sign of Christ's Lordship by Christian community development. Exploring the charge that missionaries destroy instead of serve cultures. Healing the wounds of the world between the peoples.
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Instructor
Jimmy Dorrell
Texas Christian Community Development Network, Waco TX
Jimmy & Janet Dorrell moved into an low-income neighborhood in Waco, TX, in 1978, and founded and is now president emeritus of Mission Waco, a large urban Christian community development organization with 16 programs and 80 staff, with work among the addicted, unemployed, homeless, sick, illiterate and unchurched. In 1992, The Dorrells planted Church Under the Bridge in 1992 as an outdoor church meeting under the Interstate 35 and S. 4th Street underpass (currently meeting at the Magnolia Silos until Summer 2022). As pastor, the church now has 275 very diverse attendees. Dorrell also founded the statewide Texas Christian Community Development Network. As an adjunct professor at Truett Theological Seminary and Baylor, he teaches Christian community development, missions, and community engagement classes. Dorrell has written four books, including "Commonwealth: Transformation through Christian Community Development;" "Dead Church Walking," "Trolls and Truth" and "Plunge2Poverty." The couple, married 43 years, also continue to work in Haiti, India, and MxCity. They have four children (one deceased) and 10 grandchildren. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, November 14, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 13
The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches
Look beyond institutional features of churches to understand churches as dynamic movements of Christ Himself being followed. Such a view of churches as organic, living things opens up the practicality of seeing them multiply rapidly as movements and also flourish in society bearing the fruit of social transformation. Churches as counter-communities, acting as salt and light, bringing change to their cultures. How movements multiply by connecting with entire families and larger social structures.
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Instructor
Brian
Frankston TX
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Class Info
Date: Monday, November 28, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 14
Pioneer Church Planting
The hope of planting churches among unreached peoples. How the breakthrough of the gospel in an unreached people requires that the gospel be "de-Westernized". The difference of contextualizing the message, the messenger and the movement. Distinguish and appreciate people movements, church planting movements and insider movements.
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Instructor
Brian Hogan
Disciple Making Mentors, Fayetteville AR
Brian and Louise Hogan have served in mission since 1987. From the Navajo Tribe to Outer Mongolia, their passion has been to see Jesus glorified and lifted up among those who have never known Him.
From 1993-1996 their team pioneered a church planting movement in Erdenet (AIR-DUH-NET), Mongolia that continues to grow under fully indigenous leadership to this day. Their Mongolian disciples are now training and sending out their own missionaries to other unreached people groups. The story of the work in Erdenet can be read in Brian’s book: There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub (Asteroidea Books), and in the case study article – “Distant Thunder: Mongols Follow the Khan of Khans” – on page 695 of your Perspectives Reader. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, December 5, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Lesson 15
World Christian Discipleship
What it means to integrate life for Christ's global purpose as a "'World Christian". Into the great story for His glory: a Person-driven life as a way of. pursuing a purpose-driven life. The basic practices of world Christians: going, sending, welcoming and mobilizing. The essential disciplines of World Christian discipleship: community, giving, praying and learning. Simplifying your lifestyle as if in "war-time". Exploring the practical ways of pursuing God's purpose. Business and mission. Short-term mission. Welcoming international visitors. Wisdom in working with local churches and in partnership with Christians in different parts of the world.
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Instructor
Jamie Zumwalt
Outrageous Love, Oklahoma City OK
Jamie Zumwalt is the Founder and President of Outrageous Love, an organization that starts Communities of Hope among marginalized peoples. Jamie and her husband, John, served as missionaries in Taiwan among the Hakka and Taiwanese. For 22 years, John and Jamie have been training and sending missionaries out to plant the church among the unreached. She now pastors and a leads a coffee house, church community called Joe's Addiction in a "red light" district of Oklahoma City, doing life together with the poor. She has authored two books: Simple Obsession: Enjoying the Tender Heart of God and Beloved Chaos: moving from religion to Love in a red light district. Jamie travels widely, teaching and inviting more people to plant Communities of Hope. She and John have five children and one grand daughter. b
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Class Info
Date: Monday, December 12, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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Instructor
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Class Info
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