The content of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course is undergirded by an integrated set of core ideas. While there are many other ideas in the course that are part of an orthodox Christian worldview, these core ideas are not commonplace. This document introduces these distinctives. Each of these is expanded in an accompanying document not only to articulate them, but also to differentiate them from other viewpoints. The course is designed to provide these key ideas which are normally lacking in the instruction available to most believers. We desire to provide a philosophical framework for understanding the curriculum’s essential core. We hope this will also serve as a guide to those developing supporting curricula and resources. As the Perspectives Movement continues to expand internationally into other languages and cultural contexts, this framework will help those adapting the course to transfer the core concepts rather than merely translating the material. It is important to note that this is not a summary of the course content (i.e. the specific teaching objectives such as the Kingdom of God, understanding worldview, appropriate contextualization, etc.). Additional tools are currently under development to list content items and relate them to resources used to teach them.

1. God initiates and advances work in history to accomplish His purpose.
    
2. God calls His people to join Him in fulfilling His purpose.
    
3. God’s purpose is to bless all peoples so that Christ will be served and glorified among all peoples.
    
4. God accomplishes His purpose by triumphing over evil in order to rescue and bless people and to establish His kingdom rule throughout the earth.
    
5. The Bible is a unified story of God’s purpose.
    
6. God’s work in history has continuity and will come to an ultimate culmination.
    
7. The Christian movement has brought about positive social transformation.
    
8. The mission task can and will be completed.
    
9. The world’s population can be viewed in terms of people groups.
    
10. The progress of world evangelization can be assessed in terms of church-planting movements within people groups.
     
11. Completing the mission task requires the initiation and growth of church-planting movements that follow social avenues of influence.
     
12. Completing the task requires effective cross-cultural evangelism that follows communication patterns within cultures.
     
13. Completing the task requires strategic wholism in which community development is integrated with church planting.
     
14. Completing the task requires collaborative efforts of churches and mission agencies from diverse cultures and traditions.
     
15. God calls His people to embrace strategic sacrifice and suffering with Christ in order to accomplish His global purpose.
     
16. By participating in the world Christian movement, every believer can find a way to live with vital, strategic significance in God’s global purpose.

Core Ideas - Expanded document