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Grand Rapids, MI S22
Spring 2022
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Registration & Orientation
There is much to learn in preparation for getting all you can from Perspectives! Tonight, we'll start to get to know each other and we'll get familiar with how to keep up with the course requirements.
Registration & Orientation
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Instructor
Joe and Kathy Sindorf
Rockford MI
Kathy and Joe are World Christians. They have lived in Kenya and the Philippines on mission assignments, and have worked together or solo in more than 85 nations. They keep informed and involved in the current news and needs of the global church. Joe and Kathy have a passion for telling stories of what God is doing around the world, and helping those on the field tell their stories in a visual and compelling way.
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Date: Thursday, January 13, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 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
Dan Kroeze
Kuyper College, Wyoming MI
Since 1999, Dr. Dan Kroeze has been the professor of biblical studies at Kuyper College. He received is BA from Calvin College, his MDiv from Fuller Seminary, and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Dan is a former pastor, has led numerous student mission trips and has a true heart for the nations and for Perspectives. He has four children and plays and coaches basketball. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 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
John Wagenveld
Zeeland MI
John Wagenveld grew up in Argentina in a missionary family. He received a M.A. in Missions at Calvin Theological Seminary and earned a Doctorate in Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. John is married to Angela and has four adult children. He worked as a church planter in Puerto Rico and volunteered as an interdenominational trainer in Church Planter Bootcamps all over Latin America. He then took a position at Bible League International where he eventually supervised the global work in over 50 countries. Since 2010 John leads the ministry of the Multiplication Network training leaders for healthy and verifiable church planting around the world. John has traveled to over 120 countries and has written or edited several books on church planting and church health. The most recent is A World of Gods: Church Planting in a Pluralistic World. John also serves as Global Catalyst with the Lausanne Movement Church Planting Issue Network. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 3
Your Kingdom Come
This lesson explores 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. View 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
Michael Wittmer
Ada MI
Dr. Mike Wittmer is the professor of historical and systematic theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary since 1996. Prior to that, he taught for two years at Peoples University in Beijing, China, and continues to teach abroad in Thailand and Liberia. Mike received his BA from Cedarville University, two masters degrees from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and his PhD from Calvin. He has written six books, focusing on treasuring and applying the Gospel to life. He and his wife Julie have three children. Mike is an Ohio native and a demoralized fan of the Cleveland sports teams. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, February 3, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 4
Mandate for the Nations
Jesus shows great strategic interest in Gentiles; and wise strategic focus by initiating a global mission on a few disciples among the Hebrew people. We'll look at 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
Samuel Vinton, Jr
Grand Rapids MI
Dr Sam Vinton Jr was born and raised in Congo, Africa, where his parents served for 76 years. After graduating from Grace Bible College in 1955, he and his wife Rebecca were married and five months later left for Congo where they served for 21 years: training pastors, writing textbooks, and heading a Swahili translation project. From 1976 to 1990 Dr Sam taught missions and theology at Grace, was the academic dean for 2 years, and the president for 5. He then assumed the presidency of Grace Ministries International from 1990 to 2010. Dr Sam earned two masters degrees from Grand Rapids Seminary and a doctorate in missiology from Trinity Seminary. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 5
Unleashing the Gospel
The first followers of Jesus were obedient in costly, foundational ways. The climactic act of the book of Acts is the freeing of the gospel, allowing gentiles to follow Christ 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
Bruce Huseby
Crossover Global, Grand Rapids MI
Have served in Pastoral Ministry for 46 years. 24 in Student Ministries in churches in Iowa, Michigan, Florida and Colorado. The past 22 years as Missions Pastor in Colorado and Michigan. Currently serving as Global Advisor for Crossover Global. Married for 43 years, 4 children, 8 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. The passion of my life is to see people develop a Great Commission passion flowing from a Great Commandment heart. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 6
The Expansion of the Christian Movement
The story of God's purpose has continued relentlessly from Abraham's day until the present moment. This lesson will give an overview of the largest and longest-running movement ever in history—the world Christian movement. We'll examine how the gospel surged through the peoples and places of the world... giving us important insights for our own day.
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Instructor
Gary Bekker
Kentwood MI
Retired after directing Raise Up Global Ministries, a unit of the Christian Reformed Church in North America forcused on nonformal education programing for pastors, school teachers, and small group leaders around the world. For 16 years he directed the Christian Reformed Church's international missions agency. He served previously on the faculties of Calvin Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and as a church planter and theological educator in the Philippines. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 7
Eras of Mission History
The greatest explosion of growth ever, has taken place in the last 200 years in three "bursts" of activity. We'll explore those three epochs and ask if we could be in the final era of missions. For the first time, the global harvest force is comprised increasingly of non-Western missionaries.
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Instructor
David Guerrin
Manna, Holland MI
Dave has been married for 35 years to Diane, has 6 children, and is currently holding at 6 grandkids. Dave has been involved in ministry his entire adult life (35 years--Yikes!), and has had the privilege of bringing the gospel to such places as Japan, Hong Kong, Ecuador, Cuba, and Slovakia. He has also been involved in 4 church plants, and currently co-pastors Manna Church in Holland, Michigan. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, March 3, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 8
Pioneers of the World Christian Movement
In this session we look at those who God used in history to reach the unreached. It is our privilege to continue in their footsteps. As we work to complete the task, we need to learn the wisdom and the heart of those ordinary people who did extraordinary things in earlier generations. Plus, we'll explore the contribution of women in missions throughout the centuries.
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Instructor
Barbara Yandell
Hope for the Nations, Round Rock TX
President Hope for the Nations, director of Engage Course and teacher at Horizons International, ordained minister and board member of the Alliance of Reformed Churches, Interserve USA, founder of Legacy Muslim Ministry conference. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 9
The Task Remaining
God's pressed His purpose forward until the present hour of amazing opportunity. This session will help you understand the concept of "unreached peoples" and use it to assess the task still remaining. You'll see the imbalance of mission resources and it will likely shape your strategic priorities.
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Instructor
Charles White
Spring Arbor University, Spring Arbor MI
Chuck White has taught the life of Jesus to Islamic
studies majors in Nigeria, Perspectives to students in
the Philippines, Bible stories to teachers in India,
evangelism to physicians in Mexico, and hermeneutics
to pastors in Iraq. He is professor of Christian
Thought and History at Spring Arbor University where
he teaches Perspectives as a regular college class. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, March 24, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 10
How Shall They Hear?
Tonight we'll look at the impact of 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
Stephen Holman
Kenya Hope, Hudsonville MI
A second generation missionary, Steve has served in the nation of the Philippines as an urban team church planter for 18 years. After serving as a pastor in West Michigan for more than nine years, he returned to missions and served as a non-resident missionary to the persecuted church in closed countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, from 2008 to 2018.
For the past 3+ years, Steve has served as US Administrator for Kenya Hope, a ministry to rural communities in the Maasai region of Kenya. This has involved developing administrative systems for a rapidly growing organization.
In addition, his job includes developing and implementing a long term pastoral training strategy and church planting strategy for these communities. To further the goal, Steve works to mobilize churches in the United States to send teams to help build up these communities. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, March 31, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 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
Georges Houssney
Horizons International, Boulder CO
Georges Houssney, raised in the predominantly Muslim city of Tripoli, Lebanon, came to the Lord as a teenager. At a young age he began to sense God's call for full-time service among Muslims; preaching, teaching and planting churches.
Georges is well known for his work supervising the translation and publication of the Bible in modern Arabic. He and his family moved from the Middle East to the United States in 1982 to minister to Muslims and international students. He is the founder and director of Horizons International. Georges is passionate about reaching Muslims here and abroad with the great news of salvation. He writes and lectures internationally and longs to awaken a new generation of bold witnesses to the gospel. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 12
Christian Community Development
This lesson is a survey of world need. We'll explore the dynamic balance of evangelism and social action. We will also look at the accusation that missionaries often destroy cultures instead of serving them.
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Instructor
Jeff and Danette Johnson
International Needs, Hudsonville MI
Jeff and Danette Johnson have been involved with mission work for the last sixteen years. They have spent the majority of those years with work in Zambia, Africa, working with widows, orphans and youth touched by the AIDS crisis. They have ministered to over sixty teams and interns both in Africa and in the States. Jeff Johnson, M.S., was originally Director of Community Health World Wide with World Hope International and has dealt extensively with the issues of HIV/AIDS in Africa. He has coordinated many efforts to diminish poverty and AIDS and has ministered to both Africans and Americans, in the areas of health and spiritual guidance. His two passions are to reach the lost and impoverished and see people walking in the fullness of the Gospel message.
Danette Johnson has had trainings through Over Comers Through Christ, a South African based ministry; John G. Lake’s Healing Rooms in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Wellspring Ministry – an inner-healing counseling ministry. She has done extensive research in the areas of spiritual gifts, deliverance, healing and spiritual warfare. She has ministered to Africans and Americans in all these areas, along with her gift of prophetic intercession. Her passion is to see the Body trained and equipped to reach the hurting and oppressed and has developed a missions training manual and seminar being used for mission teams and interns. Along with her father, Dr. Richard Matteson, Danette also travels to various countries training indigenous pastors and lay leaders the curriculum How to Love a Grieving Child, a program that ministers to orphans and grief.
Jeff currently serves as the President of International Needs where they provide a wide variety of Gospel outreach and compassionate ministries services to the poor and oppressed of the developing world.
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, April 21, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 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
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Mary D. Brown
SowHope.org, Rockford MI
Mary Dailey Brown is the Founder and President of SowHope.Org, which is dedicated to inspiring women in the Developing World.
Over the past 30 years, Mary has visited and traveled to over 60 countries and been involved personally and vocationally with the poor. She has led over 125 short-term mission teams to over 30 countries. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, April 28, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Lesson 14
Pioneer Church Planting
This lesson looks at the hope of planting churches among unreached peoples. We'll see how the breakthrough of the gospel into an unreached people often requires that the gospel be "de-Westernized". We'll examine the differences between contextualizing the message, the messenger and the movement.
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Instructor
Brad Gill
Frontier Ventures, Livonia MI
Brad and his wife, Beth, helped launch the U.S. Center for World Mission after meeting at the early Perspectives course in 1975. They served in student mission mobilization and in 1980 gave leadership to the Int'l Student Consultation on Frontier Missions in Edinburgh, Scotland. They then served among the Muslims of North Africa for 13 years. They returned to the States (Detroit) in 1998 due to medical needs, and worked initially in the development of training programs for Muslim ministry. Brad is presently the senior editor of the International Journal of Frontier Missiology and has served as president of their society. He speaks and teaches on mission history and Muslim culture in campus and church settings. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 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
John Kresge
, Perrinton MI
Craig and his wife Dorothy spent twenty years in the Philippines with SEND International. During their time there they assisted in church planting, national leadership development, and mission administration. The Johnsons returned home to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2010, and Craig and Dorothy serve as coaches, mobilizers, and missionary encouragers through their home church.
Jon is a mobilizer, encourager, and sender of missionaries around the world. His day job is running a dairy farm in St. Johns and he has been an integral part of coordinating Perspectives classes in that region. b
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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Celebration
International Potluck Dinner
Celebration
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Instructor
Joe and Kathy Sindorf
Rockford MI
Kathy and Joe are World Christians. They have lived in Kenya and the Philippines on mission assignments, and have worked together or solo in more than 85 nations. They keep informed and involved in the current news and needs of the global church. Joe and Kathy have a passion for telling stories of what God is doing around the world, and helping those on the field tell their stories in a visual and compelling way.
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Class Info
Date: Thursday, May 19, 2022
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
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