Grace Community Church
Developing Bibically Grounded Followers of Christ
Touch of Grace
The third Perspectives class that GCC has hosted is within a few weeks of completion. If you’ve been around GCC for awhile, you’ve probably heard about Perspectives. This is a 15-session seminar-style course that is often thought of as a missions-focused course. In reality, it is a broader look at the biblical revelation of the glory of God and how that impacts us and the world, most specifically in terms of taking the message to all people and language-groups of the world.
In 15 lessons, participants study the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic aspects of fulfilling the Great Commission of making disciples, or followers, of Jesus Christ. Costs for the course vary depending on the degree of academic credit desired. The course can also be audited for a lesser amount. If you take the class, you will be asked to read significant amounts of material and attend weekly classes taught by highly qualified and articulate people who have real-life experience in what they are teaching.
I enrolled in Perspectives for the first time this year. In trying to put together a personal reflection on how it has impacted me so far, I’ve tried to avoid using the word “perspective.” However, I found it to be the best term to describe what has happened in my own mind and heart. My perspective has been greatly enlarged. I’ve been in Bible college and seminary and have studied many aspects of the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic aspects of missions and God’s world-wide purposes. But my heart has been refreshed greatly by many new things I have learned, by the powerful personal stories of experienced missionaries, and by the up-to-date reports of what is happening around the world. My perspective on what God is doing, and wants to do, around the world and in this church body has been significantly expanded.
As a pastor, I am especially thankful for these three years of hosting Perspectives. God is building a core of people at GCC who have a deeper understanding of God’s plan for all the peoples of the world, and a higher level of sensitivity to God’s plan for how they will be personally involved - whether through supporting financially, praying, mobilizing, or actually going. I am very thankful for the encouragement of learning that one can trace God’s hand in the expansion of the Gospel through the centuries in a purposeful way. I am energized as I am reminded that in spite of the gloom-and-doom perspective of some, the Church around the world is expanding in astounding ways, and the percentage of Christians in the world is increasing, not decreasing. We are not losing, we are winning.
I hope and pray that if God enables us to host Perspectives again, or if another church in the community hosts it, you will consider going. Perspectives alumni can attend for no cost. A significant percentage of people who have been through the course attend again, and greatly profit from it as it is almost impossible to absorb everything the first time through.
Our Lord is building His church around the world, and He is using Perspectives as a significant part of that building process.
By Dave Reimer