Mission Strategist: New Focus Should be on 4/14 Window
Christian leaders need to reprioritize and direct efforts towards the 1.2 billion people in the "4/14 Window," insists the mission strategist who coined the more widely known term "10/40 Window" two decades ago to refer those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator.
The 4/14 Window, explained Luis Bush, international facilitator of Transform World Connections, does not refer to a geographic frame like the 10/40 Window – the geographical area with the largest population of non-Christians in the world. Rather, it describes a demographic frame – children and youths between the ages of 4 and 14.
"There is a recognition that we are losing the children of the world spiritually," Bush told The Christian Post on Tuesday, the last day of the Transform World Conference on the 4/14 Window in New York.
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Statistics show high percentages of teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 are departing from the Christian values they were raised with, he said.
"So this becomes a very critical moment to aim lower at the 4 to 14 [age] as the beginning place and come back to there with significant concentration," contended the mission strategist.
Bush noted that the decade represented by the 4/14 Window is the most critical period in terms of human development. During these years, the perspectives of children are profoundly shaped – either positively or negatively.
Mission strategies developed for the 4/14 Window would be implemented by parents, pastors and other role model figures who play key roles in shaping a child's worldview.
The new vision, Bush said, is "raising up" a generation that will be "agents of transformation" that God will use in the various spheres of society.
"God is calling us to radically change the way we view children and to respond to their strategic importance and rightful place in His Kingdom," states the brochure for the 4/14 Window global summit.
However, while Bush is calling on Christian leaders to focus on the 4/14 Window, the Argentina-born Ph.D. holder doesn't mean to say the 10/40 Window is any less important now. For Bush, the highest priority is the 4/14 Window (children ages 4 to 14) within the 10/40 Window.
Since Sunday, more than 350 people from 70 countries attended the global summit in Flushing, N.Y., titled "Raising Up a New Generation from the 4/14 Window to Transform the World."
During the three-day conference, Christian leaders from around the world committed to prioritizing the mission to reach, equip and empower the 4/14 generation to maximize their transformational impact while they are young, and continue to impact the world for Christ for the rest of their lives.
On Monday, Christian leaders launched the 4/14 Initiative at 5:30 a.m. during a morning prayer meeting. More than 1,000 people – conference attendees and members of Promise Church, where the event was taking place – took part in the morning gathering.
Since its first gathering in 2005, the Transform World movement has spread to five continents with national gatherings taking place in India, Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Burundi, Africa, and across Latin America.
Its most recent meeting was hosted in partnership with Promise Ministries International.
