March 01, 1990 by Bob Hall

Dr. Bob Hall, a sociology professor from New Zealand, visited the campus for a few weeks and shared how New Zealanders have imported the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course.

MF: Bob, when did the Perspectives course hit New Zealand?

Bob: Perspectives was begun in New Zealand in 1987, when a retired architect named Don Cowey returned from the Coordinators Workshop) in Pasadena and taught the first course. He had wanted to begin a missionary training school, but had had only one applicant His paste at New Life Centre in Christchurch, who had taken a Perspectives course in the States, persuaded him to go for the training. I was among that first class of 45 students, and Cowey "leaned on" me to take over the responsibility to teach further courses. The enrollment figures since then lode like this:
1987  1 Course  45 students
1988  6 Courses  200 students
1989  20 Courses  600 students
Estimated:  
1990  40 Courses  1200 students

MF: Are there that many New Zea-landers willing to take such a demanding course?

Bob: Actually our colleges are like the British system: no credit unless courses are taken on-campus. So instead we developed cross-credit arrangements with several Bible colleges toward a diploma in missions. But we have also aggressively targeted churches, both to host the courses and to encourage their members to take them. We first urge pastors and church leaders to get involved, so they will know what to do when their members get excited and ask, "Why aren't we doing more to reach unreached peoples?"

MF: How were these courses spread geographically?

Bob: A number of them centered in and around Christchurch but there were also courses running in seven other urban centers. So we had a fair geographic spread throughout both islands.

MF: What does this increase mean compared to the number of courses running in the U.S.?

Bob: Forty courses doesn't sound like too many. But if you bear in mind that New Zealand has a population of only 3 million people, then in comparative terms it means that if the program over here were to match proportionately what is happening in New Zealand, there would have to be over 2,000 courses here in America, with around 80,000 enrolled!

MF: Those figures are startling!

Bob: I have to admit that sometimes the impact of what's going on in New Zealand keeps me awake at night.

MF: How do you schedule enough lecturers for all these courses?

Bob: It was obviously not possible to get them from the States, so we used some of the video tapes from the U.S.—converting to our own PAL system of VCRs—and tapped many of our own missionary leaders for the rest It may not be well-known that New Zealand has a higher percentage of the evangelical population sent out as missionaries than any other country.

MF: How many staff members do you need to sustain such a level of activity?

Bob: We have no fullrime staff. But we have a hard core of committed volunteers and an array of other interested people who help from time to time. We try to run things in a fairly stripped-down mode that keeps things simple and minimizes the need for over-involvement That and a bit of "Kiwi" ingenuity and God's grace have seen us right so far!

MF: Any other adaptations you have made on the North American model?

Bob: Yes, we have removed much of the academic stress on quizzes and papers, and have emphasized discussion questions and personal growth applications. The Coordinators assign some projects according to the level of the students, but they would be along the line of: Design a Sunday School curriculum with an Unreached People's emphasis. Plan how to get a missionary vision across to the rest of your church. Design ways to reach out in your own neighborhood.

Also, we take less time each meeting for lectures and more time for small-group discussions, to bring out questions and encourage personal responses. These small groups are led by assistant coordinators, thus putting more people to work and helping create a team approach. Our concern has always been that students master the basic concepts so they will catch the vision!

MF: How can you tell how well the course is being comprehended?

Bob: Several ways. One is that weekly the participants fill out a sheet in their workbook on what they got personally from their reading. Another indicator is their willingness to do something about what they have learned—in their local church, or by taking the Coordinators' course or by going out on a cross-cultural mission. Our goals and prayers have been that everyone will become a sender, an equipper, or a missionary!

MF: What has been the overall fruit of your efforts so far?

Bob: We've seen a lot of people mobilized. Some have signed the Caleb Declaration; many subscribe to the Global Prayer Digest. Some have gone overseas. We've also seen churches transformed in their missions vision as they have taken up the challenge of Adopt-a-People and Frontier Fellowships.

MF: So you are linking the Perspectives course with other aspects of mission mobilization?

Bob: We've made a start on a number of these. We print and distribute the Global Prayer Digest. We distribute mission-related books and materials. We produce missions videos, and are starting to plug into Global Mapping's research activities through access to their software and data. We'd also like to see structures put in place so churches can be more involved in the Adopt-a-People program and in Concerts of Prayer.

MF: Is there any particular high point for most students as they go through the 21 weeks of the Perspectives course?

Bob: It is usually Lesson 16 on the spiritual multiplication of churches. This gets most of them asking. Why isn't our church working this way? As a result, an excitement is created to help the church reach out, to grow and to start daughter churches.

MF: Any advice on mission education for others in countries outside the United States?

Bob: I feel one of the secrets of the widespread acceptance of the Perspectives Course in New Zealand has been that God first helped us gain the approval of the Evangelical Missionary Alliance (a group like your IFMA or EFMA) and we were accepted as a curriculum course by the country's Bible colleges.

This helped bridge the gap between denominations, which have been mainly Pentecostal and Baptist churches. But recently interest has been expressed by people from Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Brethren churches. So I think it is only a question of time before we get a wider spread. The point is that associational and network endorsements are extremely helpful.

I would urge other world centers to check out Perspectives to mobilize their country. It is an amazing mission tool!