The Official Site of Andy Boucher

The authors posed the following questions and instructions at the beginning of Part 1 to "When Helping Hurts".  I've answered the questions for myself.  If anyone else would like to join me in answering and disucssing these, I'd be honored.

Instructions:  Please write short answers (one sentence each) to the following questions:

1. Why did Jesus come to earth?
2. For what specific sins(s) was Old Testament Israel sent into captitivity? Do not just say "disobedience."  Be specific.  For example: "The Israelites were constantly robbing banks."
3. What is the primary purpose of the church?
   

There is a saying goingaround that proclaims “now more than ever”. I agree with that sign—especially in a new way after a recent lesson andchallenge in church. 

• Now more thanever leaders in Christian educationneed to be training their students for ministry.
• missions should bean imperative and integral part of the prerogative of Christian education, nowmore than ever.
• Now more thanever the Church needs Christianeducation to be functioning as a servant partner[1] to local churches thatprovides biblical not-denominational training so that our common students aresolid in the tenents of our common faith, strong in their personal faith andbelief in Jesus Christ, and well equipped and trained for their service of thelocal and global church.
• Now more thanever the church needs to rise up andbring the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Over the history of the church, the population of the world hasoutstripped the growing Christian population[2].  There are more unsaved and unreached peoplein the world now more than ever in history.
• The 4.5 billion people in the world who don’t know Jesusand the 2.7 billion who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ needChristian education now more than ever to stand up and train students to advancethe Kingdom of Heaven more that than need Christian education to be aboutstandardized test score, academic rankings, comparative Christian school sizes,or state championships.
• Now more thanever Christian education needs toplay its true role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission by beginning atthe youngest ages to build a biblical mindset about evangelism, the Kingdom ofGod, and international missions.

K-12 Vision

• I have a visioninvolving the entire K-12 student body in a progressive missions emphasis program that begins withage appropriate missions, service, and outreach teaching andactivities that culminates with student voluntarily leading their own missions trips in their Junior andSenior years in high school.
• I envisionpartnerships with organizations like the Springs Rescue Mission, Camp Elim andother local ministries to progressively build a passion and habit of missionsand outreach[11]into our student body.
• I envision CSCSgraduates who consider the Great Commission as their number one calling and avocation as a vehicle by which to live out that calling.

Leadership Training Program;

• I envision amissions training track as a combined partof the Bible and Student Ministries Internship programs that specificallytrains students to think philosophically,theologically, and practically about planning missionstrips.  This track would be the capstone of ourmissions emphasis for those who desire to focus onleading missions trips and would have the emphasis on student led trips.
• In order to do so,our long term vision is to establish long-lasting domestic partnerships withwhom we can develop the concepts of missions and service that are ageappropriate as well as enduring relationships with a foreign missions programfor our fundamental missions experience as well as.  We are looking for foundational foreignprograms that:
• give our students atrue and meaningful experience working in a needy country;
• provide a safe, aswell as socially, emotionally, and spiritually challenging internationalexperience;
• provideopportunities for students to explore missions beyond high school;
• have a staff andsystem that is sympathetic to our missions training vision and our passion forstudent led-leadership;
• are desirous topartner with us and our missions vision.

[1] Philosophy of Youth Ministry in a ChristianSchool abridged, Andy Boucher, 2008, p. 5, paragraph 2.

[2]

Year Estimated Christian Population Estimated World Population Estimated Unsaved People Estimated Unreached People Groups

100 AD 1,000,000 (.0055%) 181,000,000 180,000,000

60,000

1000 AD 50,000,000 (18.5%) 270,000,000 220,000,000

50,000 (220 million never heard the Name of Jesus

1989 AD 1,700,000,000 (32.6%) 5.200,000,000 3,500,000,000

12,000

2010 AD (www.JoshuaProejct.net) 2,200,000,000 (32.8%) 6,720,000,000 4,500,000,000

6,838 (2.74 billion people haven’t heard the Name of Jesus) (40.8%)