Houston, TX (Humble / Kingwood)
Spring 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 have partnered together to bring Perspectives to the area. Join people from all different local church communities for this amazing course!
College / Seminary Credit Available High School Dual Enrollment Credit Available
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Registration & Orientation
Registration & Orientation
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Instructor
Rick Whitaker
Humble TX
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Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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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
Michael
Houston TX
Michael came to Christ as a freshman at Texas A&M. While attending Texas A&M God began to reveal to him His heart for all peoples and about the unreached peoples of the world. After graduation he attended a missionary training school and upon completion felt the call to advocate for the unreached and mobilize the church in America. Primarily ministering at Texas A&M, Michael spoke at various ministries, taught and coordinated Perspectives, and discipled young men who desired to be long term missionaries.
In 2007 he felt called to move to Houston continue to serve God as a layman. He has traveled to numerous countries encouraging friends on the field. In Houston he has been a part of multiple church plants as well as a non-profit focused on ministering to children in foster care. He has been a Perspectives coordinator and Area Representative. He loves to teach the Bible, especially about God's heart for the nations as well as advocating for the unreached people's of the world and encouraging current and future missionaries however he can. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 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
Greg Despres
East-West Ministries International, Cypress TX
Dr. Greg Despres is the Regional Director of the North American Field for East-West. He lives in Cypress and also directs the Houston East-West Team.
Greg has formerly served as a Lead Pastor, Missions Pastor, and Youth Pastor. He is married to Alli and they have 5 kids.
Both Greg and Allison have a desire to see people get mobilized for Great Commission service. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, February 2, 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
Dwight Edwards
Houston TX
Dwight Edwards is a bestselling author and powerful speaker. He presently serves as pastor of the WatersEdge Community Church in Houston, Texas, and has ministered throughout the United States and many places in the world for the last 30 years. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Time: 1:00 AM to 1:00 AM
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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
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: Tuesday, February 16, 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
Dale Smith
Dobbin TX
Dale Smith has served as lead pastor in local churches for over 30 years along with his wife, Jennifer, and their two daughters. During that time they also served as a church planters in Louisville, Kentucky and Northern Virginia. Currently he is privileged to serve Cy-Fair Christian Church as Executive Pastor. Dale is passionate about mobilizing people from all walks of life to engage people with the gospel of Christ beginning in their neighborhoods and stretching to the ends of the earth. Dale holds two graduate degrees in missions and evangelism. His passion is to lead the local church to identify and engage unreached people groups with the gospel of Christ. He has been blessed to invest his time and energy in the house church movement in East Asia. He has also been blessed to do work in Kenya, Southeast Asia and Mexico. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 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
Brian
Frankston TX
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Time: 6:30 AM to 9:30 AM
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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
Joel Hodges
, Georgetown TX
Joel is a resident of Georgetown, TX and an active member of Hill Country Bible Church - Brushy Creek Campus. Having an MBA from Texas A&M, he is a businessman with a heart for missions.
Joel cut his mission teeth in the Rio Grande Mission Ministry in the mid 80s, participating in construction/repair work, VBS, and evening evangelistic services on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border. That led to a passion for ministry to Latin-America. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 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
Rick Seifert
The Woodlands TX
Rick Seifert is a businessman by day and a missions mobilizer by night. He has been involved with world missions for the past 30 years. For many years he served as the Missions Chairman of Faith Bible Church in The Woodlands. During the years, his wife, Suzanne and Rick have had the privilege of helping on cross-cultural trips to The Philippines, El Salvador, Dubai, Haiti, Romania, China, Albania, the Gaza Strip, Germany and Turkey. Rick is a member of Faith Bible Church in The Woodlands. He is a graduate of Baylor University. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 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
Dan Farr
Circle Pines MN
Dan, his wife Kelly and their 3 children work with Engage Global and minister among immigrants, refugees, and international students in the United States in Minneapolis, MN. We mobilize churches, train disciples, and send out those disciples all over the world to reach the unreached peoples of the world.Our heart is to get the Western Church impassioned to see how they can be a part of the great commission by welcoming unreached people groups to the U.S, and getting involved in the lives of those who up until this point have been left without a witness to the Love that is Jesus Christ.
Our passion is to reach out and help newcomers that have recently arrived in the US by helping with English, tutoring, paperwork, job placement, etc. Many of these internationals have escaped persecution, genocide, and political unrest. By training people here to meet the physical needs of those coming from overseas, we can meet their even greater spiritual needs. The goal is to share the gospel and help develop full devoted followers of Christ. We have hope of seeing those that have entered into the Kingdom return to their home countries as apostolic leaders where still 1.9 Billion people remain without the Good News of Christ.
Prior to coming to Minneapolis our family spent 4 years in Oaxaca, Mexico reaching out to the unreached Indigenous Mixteco people groups, then the last 5 years working in very diverse US cities training the local church and indigenous believers to reach out to those coming to America. The goal and passion of our organization is to see Matthew 24:14 come to pass and that all unreached peoples of this earth will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel of this Kingdom. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, March 29, 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
Richard Gunasekera
Online Perspectives Programs/Courses, La Mirada CA
Richard is assoc dean and professor at Biola University CA and Faculty at Rice University, Houston, TX.
Richard grew up in a Christian family in old Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He earned his undergraduate degree and a doctorate in biochemical genetics at the Baylor University- Medical Center in Dallas.
Richard has served Perspectives Since early 1990s as an instructor, Coordinator, the founding Director of Online PSP Programs and POR. He lives in the Houston, Texas area with his family; wife is an Anesthesiologist and they have two grown children. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, April 5, 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
Jerry Squyres
Innovative Mission Opportunities, Pearland TX
Four years working with university students in Taiwan, Twenty plus years on church staff with emphasis on missions, Nineteen and a half years mobilizing short-term mission teams...last sixsteen years plus to closed countries/unreached people groups. Founded Innovative Mission Opportunities (www.imoi.org) in 1998. Founded Innovative Humanitarian Solutions (www.innovativehs.net) in 2002. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 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: Tuesday, April 19, 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
Steve Vinton
Village Schools International, Mafinga Not in USA
Steve Vinton has served for more than three decades as a missionary in Africa, first as a teacher, and then as an adviser to his former students as they worked together to plant churches, to start primary and secondary schools, medical clinics, a teacher training college and a theological college, as well as to launch various community development projects. Steve and his wife Susan took the Perspectives Course together in 1990, quit their jobs in Washington DC and served as missionaries in the Congo until they were forced by war in 1999 to relocate to the neighboring country of Tanzania. In 2005, together with a number of their former students, Steve and Susan founded Village Schools International. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, April 26, 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
Doug West
East-West Ministries International, Belton TX
Doug currently is engaged in coaching church planters in Muslim areas of Southeast Asia. His prior background is in business start-ups and entrepreneurship.
**This instructor's identity is concealed due to the nature of their work** b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 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
Jon Hardin
Frontiers, Highlands Ranch CO
Dr. Jon Hardin is the National Communications Specialist for Frontiers. He has served in full-time missions work for over 25 years. Jon regularly speaks and teaches in churches, conferences, and various training events around the world--he has taught over 35,000 Perspectives students. Jon has a passion for seeing local churches and ordinary Christians step into strategic roles in the global missions enterprise.
Jon is an ordained minister, holds a PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam, and did post-graduate studies at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. He is also a graduate of Denver Seminary. Jon is a CPA and prior to going into full-time ministry he worked for IBM Corporation for nine years. b
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Class Info
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
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