4/14 Window Strategy Handbook

I was introduced to Luis Bush several years ago by our mutual friend, Dr. Alan Johnson. Alan is a former teacher of mine at Wheaton College and has become a dear friend over the years. Alan also serves on the advisory board of ACT 3 and is a champion for me and the work that I do. Alan also has the wonderful habit of introducing his friends to other friends that he has made over the years. He is one of the most faithful retired professors I know, continuing to give himself to the kingdom actively each day.

Thus I came to have a memorable lunch at the Wheaton College Commons with Luis Bush about five years ago. Since then I have shared several more private meetings with Alan and Luis. For some reason these two brothers continue to invite me into their conversation and fellowship. a fellowship that engages my mind and soul very profoundly. I want you to know about Luis Bush and also pray for him as I do.

Luis Bush was born in Argentina, but was raised in Brazil. In 1970 he graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., in economics. He then worked in Business Consulting for a Big Eight accounting firm in Chicago before deciding in 1973 to devote his life to Christian ministry. After his graduation from theological seminary in 1978, Luis, with his wife Doris and their family, relocated to San Salvador to serve at the Iglesia Nazaret as senior pastor. Bush also led a movement of missions called COMIBAM (from Latin America) during its initial phase and later served as CEO of Partners International from 1986 to 1992, an organization that seeks to grow communities of Christian witnesses in largely non-Christian areas by partnering with indigenous Christian ministries. He served as the international director of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement from 1989-2001. If you know missions at all you can readily grasp that this is an amazing biography. Men like John R. Mott and Lesslie Newbigin are known to many as my "deceased" missional heros. Luis Bush has become my "living" missional hero. You can readily see why I wanted to get to know him given my passion for world missions.

Luis is actually the person who coined the now well-known term 10/40 Window. This idea helped millions of Christians to focus on the region of the world with greatest human suffering combined with least exposure to Christianity. Transform World was the name given to the first global event in Indonesia in 2005 when Luis was asked to serve as international facilitator for other related events processes. Transform World Connections (TWC) exists to build a community of servant-catalysts engaged in God’s mission of transformation that results in the healing and blessing of the nations. Our of this background the blog I wrote yesterday, about the 4/14 Window developed.

Luis Bush completed a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Fuller School of World Mission in 2003. The study of catalytic antecedents of today’s mission led to a World Inquiry conducted from 2002 to 2004 involving participants from more than 700 cities. It became clear that a compelling new paradigm of “mission as transformation” has emerged at the beginning of the 21st Century. It is out of this paradigm that the 4/14 Window developed.

Question: Can we reach and transform young people from inside the 4/14 Window and through such a movement plant vital new churches?

Answer: This is happening all over the world, even in the U.S. I know this is true because my own son, Matthew, served middle school teenagers in public schools for eight years and out of this effort planted New Hope Community in Streamwood, Illinois. This church is thriving, reaching many new adult Christ followers and discipling them faithfully. New Hope grew directly out of a 4/14 Window paradigm without even knowing the term at the time. I am sold that this is a strategy that is both biblical and anointed by God for the present time.