“God totally transformed my perspective about missions.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

For seasoned believers, it can be a challenge to find solid, fresh training to take your faith to the next level. That’s precisely what the Perspectives Study Program does, as alumni can attest.

“It changed everybody I ever saw go through the program,” says Ron Nehring, the program’s Ottawa coordinator. “It’s impossible not to know what you are going to be doing after this course. You want to see God work in you so you just go to those areas.

“It changed my life when I went through it in 2003. It put all the dots together and in 2005 [my wife and I] went to China [as missionaries] for half a year. In 2007 we went to China for three years.”

The program is a comprehensive, 15-week discipleship course that focuses on the biblical call to mission. It provides an overview of current mission strategies and how God has spread His gospel since Pentecost. Nehring says it is so effective that many mission agencies now require all aspiring missionaries complete the course.

One woman, who preferred not to give her name, said her heart had been burning with a deep desire to be more engaged in missions. She was among 40 participants who took the course last January, at the MET.

The Perspectives class from January 2016. Photo courtesy of Ron Nehring.

“Perspectives allowed me to understand that the mission field could be at home during this season,” she says. “I needed to be willing to stay or go. I always thought we had to leave our home to be in missions, but I now know how much there is to do right in our own city, while I wait for further instructions from our Heavenly Father.”

The woman has volunteered with the homeless in downtown Ottawa for some time, but after the course that work took on a new meaning.

“Volunteering along the marginalized people of our city is where God is calling me. As Jesus said, when we serve the least of these we are serving Him, and that is one clear way to re-energize one’s life.”

Suzanne Yelle was another participant last year. She went in guarded, not wanting God to change her too much.

“Shortly after starting the Perspectives course, I was finally able to tell the Lord ‘I am ready to do Your will.’ We learned different ideas about how to go forward in whatever we feel led to do for Christ. We also learned how missionaries have been successful in reaching the lost for Christ. My project is to reach the French Canadian population living east of Ottawa.”

“The Lord opened a huge door for the gospel right here.”

Abraham Sudhakar is doing part-time studies toward his Master of Theology degree. When Heritage Seminary told him he could take the Perspectives course for a credit, he initially brushed it off. But two days before it started, he suddenly felt God lead him to sign up.

“I am glad I did,” he says. “Each week opened my eyes to new concepts on evangelism and outreach. God totally transformed my perspective about missions. The lessons learned at the course, helped inspire the launch of a weekly prayer fellowship for the Tamils in Ottawa.”

The fellowship, which started mere days after Sudhakar completed the course, recently expanded and became the South Asian Christian Fellowship of Ottawa.

“The Lord opened a huge door for the gospel right here. As an immigrant, myself, I feel the need and urgency to reach out to the many who are newly settling in Canada.”

Nehring has organized a new season of the Perspectives course for early 2017. The program will run every Monday evening starting January 16, 2017, at the MET.