If you’re up for a challenge—and want to expand your knowledge of and commitment to helping fulfill Jesus Christ’s Great Commission to the ends of the earth—then you’ll want to consider enrolling in Perspectives, an intensive course on world missions.

Now, I mean a CHALLENGE! Perspectives is a ministry of Frontier Ventures, a non-denominational ministry based in Pasadena, California, whose goal is to enhance the effectiveness of the mission movement among the world’s least reached peoples. You can check it out at https://perspectives.org. Classes are offered around the country.

I’m currently taking Perspectives and it has truly revolutionized my thinking about how to “declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples” (Psalm 96:3).

We began in early January and meet through the end of April—15 weeks total. Enrollment for fall classes will soon open. Normally and ideally you meet in person, but because of Covid, we merged the group from western North Carolina with the one in the Boone area and we’re making it work virtually each Monday evening. There are some sharp, dedicated and creative strategic thinkers in our class!

The reading assignments are daunting and believe you me, they stretch my 67-year-old brain to the limit. Fortunately I’m retired so I’ve been able to keep up. But most everyone in our group—from all walks of life—have proven adept at balancing work, family and church responsibilities along with the course load.

The course examines four vantage points or “perspectives”—biblical, historical, cultural and strategic. Each one highlights different aspects of God’s global purpose and what His heart is for all people. And we have a major project due at the end regarding how we can be more intricately involved in God’s ultimate plan for reaching the nations. We have a guest speaker every week who, from home, ties together what we’ve studied with practical lessons he or she has discovered from a lifetime of ministry.

Psalm 67:1-4 is a key passage: “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us—That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, God; May all the peoples praise You. May the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with fairness And guide the nations on the earth.”

God deserves all glory and all our worship. He spoke the universe into being and created you and me in His image. But because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden by joining Eve in eating the one fruit God declared off limits, we have inherited Adam’s sin nature. But God set into motion His plan to redeem us, which ultimately was fulfilled in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on our behalf. He took our sins onto Himself and His death on the cross paid our penalty forever. We certainly don’t deserve His grace. Soon we will celebrate His resurrection from the dead on that first Easter Sunday. We were dead in our sins but through Christ God makes us alive in Him as we turn from our trespasses, receive Him as our Savior and follow Him as Lord! That Good News we take to all peoples, all tribes, all nations in all languages around the world.

God’s calling to that glorious purpose compels us to serve, whether at home or across the globe, and will ultimately sustain us over the long haul, despite the risks and possible, if not probable suffering.

John Piper, in his provocative book “Let the Nations Be Glad,” contends that “missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.” Intriguing thought to ponder, isn’t it?

Piper goes on to say, “I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth.”

Then from what’s become my favorite excerpted reading, Tim Dearborn surmised: “Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by a lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying peoples’ passion for Christ so that the passions of his heart become the passions that propel our hearts.”

I’m looking forward to seeing what transpires next as we move to a rousing conclusion. And how my project may integrate with a possible short-term missions trip to Japan this October, Lord willing.

ACTION STEP: How about you my friend? If you want to better see how you can get threaded into God’s incredible story of redeeming people from every tribe, tongue and nation to Himself, then prayerfully consider Perspectives. I guarantee you will be challenged, yes, but better yet, transformed…and encouraged and equipped for a lifetime of fruitful ministry for His glory.