The 4/14 Window - "The Core of the Core"

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At the end of the last century I wrote a pamphlet entitled The 10/40 Window: Getting to the Core of the Core. In the first years of this new century, I am urging a new missional focus: The 4/14 Window. Although in a different sense, it too can be called "the core of the core." The 10/40 Window referenced a geographic frame; the 4/14 Window describes a demographic frame—a life season comprising the ten years between the ages of 4 and 14.

Christian leaders from around the globe are coming together to make an urgent appeal to consider the strategic importance and potential of the 1.2 billion children and youth in the 4-14 Window. It is a plea to open your heart and mind to the idea of reaching and raising up a new generation from within that vast group—a generation that can experience personal transformation and can be mobilized as agents for transformation throughou the world. Our vision and hope is to maximize their transformational impact while they are young, and to mobilize them for continuing impact for the rest of their lives. I invite you to join with many others who are making a commitment to fulfill this vision and realize this hope.

To maximize the transformational impact of children and youth in the 4/14 Window we must address the spiritual, mental, physical, relational, economic, and social issues they face. We must also confront their "ministry poverty"—the scarcity of opportunities for them to exercise their gifts and achieve their potential in ways that honor God and advance His Kingdom.

It is crucial that mission efforts be re-prioritized and re-directed toward the 4-14 age group worldwide. This requires that we become acutely aware of what is taking place in their lives. We must also endeavor to understand their nature and the essential means to nurture them. Only with this kind of informed awareness will we be able to reach them, shape them, and raise them up to transform the world.

To meet this challenge we must comprehend the needs, nature and potential of children and youth in the 4/14 Window. We must also recognize the very real opposition and obstacles to raising them up as a transformational generation. However, we must not be defeated by the opposition or deterred by the obstacles; and as we engage in strategic global thinking and answer God’s call to catalytic action, we must do so within a biblical framework.

Such global transformation will only take place as God’s people are individually re-made through the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:1-2). Then they will discover the good and perfect will of God, this will be their "spiritual act of worship," and they will be led to engage in God’s mission.

The transformational mission of God involves bringing together all things under the headship of Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10) through the church, which is His body. The body of Christ worldwide—including children and youth in the 4-14 Window—are God’s agents of transformation under the headship of Jesus Christ. Every Christ follower in every community and nation—even children and youth—are called to involvement in Christ’s transformational mission.

As we approach this bold initiative, engaging and seeking to equip a new generation to transform the world, we do well to adopt the watchword, "transformed and always transforming." This simple phrase reminds us that transformation is a process and is not fully realized until Jesus comes again. We are co-laborers with Christ, under His headship, collaborating with Him in His transformational mission to raise up a new generation from the 4/14 Window to transform the world.

May God renew our minds through His Word and the vision presented in this brief introduction. May we be God’s change agents to transform the world for the glory of Christ. And, by God’s grace, may the world as we know it be transformed.

Luis Bush

Download PDF version of 4/14 Window Brochure