Class Info

Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Location: Fairview Mennonite Church 2605 540th St SW Kalona IA 52247

Contact: Karla Neuschwander

(319) 328-8733

• • Instructor

    
    

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Luke Hettinger

    Restore Counseling Services, Columbia MO

    When I was 24 I became the pastor of a small town church in Sumner, Iowa. It was there that God began to show my wife and I his heart for the nations through books, people, and Perspectives. Since that time we have had the incredible privilege to work as mobilizers, welcomers and even goers in a number of different contexts. Most recently my wife and I work as counselors and mentors to workers on and off the field through our counseling practice in Columbia, MO.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Wes Taber

    Life in Messiah International, Lansing IL

    Since joining Life in Messiah in 1975 (when the ministry names was AMF International), Wes has served in Jewish ministry in Miami/Miami Beach, Jerusalem, and Chicago, focusing on evangelism, discipleship, and equipping others. He has been privileged to lead multiple short-term teams to Israel, and present God's heart for the lost on four continents, with an emphasis on the Jewish people. After 29 years as Executive Director, Wes took on the role of LIFE Global Ambassador in August 2019 with an emphasis on mentoring, teaching, writing, and sharing God's heart for the Jewish people.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Stan Yoder

    World Partners, Maquoketa IA

    Stan and his wife, Valli, served full-time with World Partners since 1978. Valli passed away in November 2021 after a long battle with M.S. Their experience includes 10 years of church planting and curative medical work in Sierra Leone, West Africa among the Yalunka People; 3 years at the US Center as Administrative Director for the Adopt-a-People Clearinghouse; 3 years mobilizing churches to adopt unreached people groups; 2 years training students at Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN; 4 years coaching workers in Africa and the Middle East; and 16 years reaching out to Middle Wast refugees in Kansas City, Missouri. They moved to Maquoketa, Iowa in October 2018 and will begin a new ministry to Middle East students. Stan will continue to serve with World Partners as a traveling evangelist among Muslims and instructor for Perspectives.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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).

  • Instructor

    

    Randy Scheil

    Charles Simeon Trust, Cedar Rapids IA

    I served as Lead Pastor of Stonebridge Church for 27 years. I've served Christ in short term missions in Haiti, Guatemala, Germany, Poland, Bosnia, Ukraine, France, Thailand, Viet Nam and China. In September 2019 I joined the Charles Simeon Trust as Associate Director of International Workshops focusing on Brazil.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, February 5, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Adam Steinbock

    Crossroads Community Church, Sheboygan WI

    Adam currently serves as the Staff Pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Sheboygan, Wis. - an 18-year-old, 3rd generation church plant. He and his wife, Tabitha, have a passion for church planting, both here in Wisconsin, but also around the world. Over the past fifteen years he has been on short-term church planting mission trips to Ecuador, Israel and Russia.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Orville Erickson

    Greenhill Baptist Church, Cedar Falls IA

    Orville served as a campus missionary for 5 years before becoming pastor of Greenhill Church in Cedar Falls, a small church intently focused on sending to unreached people groups, after a few members of the congregation took Perspectives and were ruined for the ordinary! Other exciting missionary opportunities were teaching at a Bible school in Ukraine, as well as leading short term teams of college students into inner city Dallas/Ft. Worth. He and his wife Jennifer have 3 daughters, Mikayla, Marissa and Taylor.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Todd Ahrend

    The Traveling Team, Fayetteville AR

    Todd Ahrend graduated from Northeastern State University, has a Masters from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the founder and international Director of The Traveling Team, a national missions mobilization movement. He and his wife, Jessica, have spent almost two decades traveling both nation-wide and abroad, speaking to thousands of people about involvement in world evangelization. Todd has exposure in over sixty countries and has lived in the Middle East. He is the author of The Abrahamic Revolution and In This Generation. Todd and Jessica have six children: Camden, Brody, Axel, Noble, Quincy and Cruz!
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Andrew Herbek

    Perspectives, Omaha NE

    God took this farm boy from the middle of nowhere in Nebraska and sent him to serve among an unreached people group in East Asia doing ethnographic research. God used this experience to shape Andrew into a mobilizer and sent him back to North America to equip the body of Christ back home to engage and participate with God in His global purpose. Andrew is a member of Perspectives and serves on the Curriculum Revision Team. He has a Masters of Divinity and a MA in Intercultural Studies, and has field experience in thirteen countries. His heart is that of an educator and discipler, and he desires is to see Christ named and known by all the peoples of the earth, so that Christ can be loved and obeyed within all the peoples of the earth.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 6:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Robin Ludeking

    Grace Evangelical Free , Eldridge IA

    Robin developed a heart for other cultures and missions at a young age. After graduating from college, she had the opportunity to spent 6 months in Thailand, learning more about some of the good as well as difficult aspects of living cross-culturally. Currently, Robin works as an Emergency Room nurse in the Quad Cities where she also enjoys mobilizing the church through coordinating the local Perspectives class.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • 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.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Jim Erickson

    Ankeny IA

    Jim and his wife Marilyn served as missionaries in Cameroon for 20 years, translating the Tupurri New Testament, teaching, preaching, and doing administrative work for both the mission and the African church. In 1995, they returned to the US and pastored a church in Mayville, ND for 5 ½ years. After Mayville, they moved to Fergus Falls where Jim served for 6 years in the Lutheran Brethren International Missions as Assistant to the Director for Africa missions. In this capacity, he helped launch the mission to reach unreached people groups in Chad. In November 2006, Jim and Marilyn moved to Fullerton, CA where he served in a congregation as lead pastor for 11 years. They both retired from full time ministry in August of 2017. Jim and Marilyn have 4 sons. All of them are married and we have 7 grandchildren
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Cody Lorance

    Endiro Coffee, Aurora IL

    Cody Lorance is a Co-CEO, Brand Manager, and Corporate Executive Chef for Endiro Coffee; CEO and Master Roaster for Endiro Community Harvesters; Supervisor of Agricultural Innovation and Ecological Stewardship for Endiro Growers Uganda; and the President and CEO of Borderless. He and his wife, Katherine, have three children and live in Chicagoland.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Bradley Buser

    Founder Radius International, San Diego CA

    Brad came to faith in Christ at 17 and soon after was challenged with the need of unreached people groups. He began training for this directly after High School. Beth is from St. Johns MI., her Mom and Dad love the Lord Jesus and raised her with a heart for the world. They met, had two boys and left for Papua New Guinea in January of 1979. Soon after arriving they moved in among the Iteri people who live in the headwaters of the Sepik River Basin. After 4 years of studying the language and culture of the Iteri people they were fluent and began to share Christ with them for the first time. The baby church was discipled and in a few years leaders were ordained. The Busers worked on the New Testament translation and by 1999, after 20 years in the village, with the translation done, the church up and thriving, their need to be among the Iteris was over. Upon returning from PNG he and other men saw the need for appropriate training for missionaries who would be sent to Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. In 2010 he helped found Radius International as a ministry to do such training. Radius is currently the largest training program for those going into Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Tribal peoples. For those who desire to do church planting among the least reached it is the premier training available.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Joe Showalter

    Rosedale International, Columbus OH

    Joe Showalter is president of Rosedale International in Columbus, OH. RI sends workers globally to make disciples and plant churches, giving priority to people groups who have been isolated from the gospel. Joe and his wife Janice are the founding leaders of the multicultural Columbus Network of Microchurches.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

• • 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.

  • Instructor

    

    Brooks A Simpson

    Grace Community Church, North Liberty IA

    Brooks Simpson is Pastor for Teaching and Preaching at Grace Community Church in North Liberty, IA. Brooks came to faith in Christ as a college student athlete while attending Grace in 1988 and has been on staff since 1998. Brooks’ heart is to see Christ magnified and exalted in the lives of people. The spiritual battle described in Ephesians 6 is real and Brooks’ passion is to equip people to take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Too many Christians see this battle as defensive and miss the fact that there is an offensive component as well. Brooks took Perspectives in 2008 and is excited to be a part of the team which equips the saints to offensively take the sword of the Word to the ends of the earth. Brooks has been married to his bride Stacy since 1989. They have two children, Ryan and Katelyn.
    
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  • Class Info

    Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2019

    Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

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