GUEST-POST: A "Bell Curve" Perpsecitve?

Posted by Reimagine Curator on April 16, 2024 at 16:27

GUEST-POST: A "Bell Curve" Perpsecitve?

Trends on any issue need to be viewed from the center of the bell curve.

Activists like to categorize the opposition by looking at the extremes.

Jeff Hilles • Quotes • 04/16/2024

Quick Quote - Source - Jeff Hilles

A Biblical Christian worldview perspective - With every issue, there will always be extreme opinions. I recently responded to a reader who stated that Christian preachers were calling for the execution of gay people.

I am sure one can find extreme views such as this if we look hard enough. However, in most cases, the extremes on both sides of an issue are in the minority. But they do garner media attention and gaslight viewers into believing extreme positions are mainstream. It is important to look to the middle of the bell curve, rather than the vocal extremes when evaluating the popular direction on an issue, especially a divisive one.

From the center of the bell curve, Christians don't hate gay people, they don't want to turn America into a Christofascist state, and most realize there are times when abortion is an appropriate medical need.

Author - Jeff Hilles | BCWorldview.org

Guest Post: #ReimagineEVANGELISM...

Posted by Reimagine Curator on February 3, 2024 at 12:50

Ultimately evangelism is not the saving of America, but of Americans.

One-on-one evangelism.

By Jeff Hilles

Quick Quote – Source – Jeff Hilles

A Biblical Christian worldview perspective – We need to build relationships with individuals.

Largely gone are the days when events like crusades effectively brought the gospel message to large groups.

In today’s culture, evangelism, faith, and discipleship are founded on the establishment of personal relationships.

Jeff Hilles | BCWorldview.org

Guest Post~ #ResetYourChristianity…”Deinstitutionalize”

Posted by Reimagine Curator on January 6, 2024 at 17:25

Guest Post: #ResetYourChristianity…”Deinstitutionalize”

CAN CHRISTIANITY BE DEINSTITUTIONALIZED?

BY MARTIN THIELEN

January 2, 2024

NOTE from Phil @ Reimagine.Network:

When you finish this article, click here for our Mini-Course on Worldview>>>

My all-time favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. This classic prison film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker falsely convicted of the double murder of his wife and her lover. A profound movie on many levels, The Shawshank Redemption broaches significant subjects including the priority of friendship and the power of hope. And it concludes with a fantastic prison break!

“He’s Just Institutionalized”

In one memorable scene, a senior adult inmate named Brooks (who managed the prison library) was slated for parole after spending fifty years at Shawshank. The thought of leaving the security of prison life felt so overwhelming, Brooks created a dramatic scene in order to remain behind bars. He accosted a fellow prisoner (and friend) named Heywood and placed a knife to his throat. Brooks explained his startling action by saying, “It’s the only way they’ll let me stay.”

After the incident was resolved without harm, Heywood vehemently complained to his friends about Brook’s threatening actions. “Red,” a fellow inmate and major character in the film, defended Brook’s behavior by explaining that he had become “institutionalized.” Heywood, still upset from the knife incident exclaimed, “Institutionalized my ass.”

But Red pushed back on Heywood’s outrage. He said, “The man’s been in here fifty years, Heywood. Fifty years! In here, he’s an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside, he’s nothin’! Just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Couldn’t even get a library card if he applied. You see what I’m saying?”

Another inmate named Floyd said, “Red, I do believe you’re talking out of your ass.” Red replied, “Believe what you want. But these walls are funny. First, you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.”

Over the centuries, most Christian believers, like Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption, have become institutionalized. We have become dependent on the stability of institutional religion, including familiar doctrines, creeds, structures, liturgies, and traditions. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For those who find meaning in traditional religion, being “institutionalized” can be a comfort and a blessing.

When Being Institutionalized Is No Longer Helpful

But for a growing number of modern believers, the old familiar institutional dynamics are unraveling. The doctrines are no longer relevant. The creeds are no longer believable. The traditions are no longer meaningful. The liturgy is no longer helpful. The rigid structures are no longer palatable. What’s a Christian to do when centuries old institutionalism no longer holds? What happens to followers of Jesus when they, like Brooks, contemplate departing the institutionalized religion of their past and face a changing world without the familiar structures that used to ground them? It can be disorientating indeed.

I’m not suggesting that it’s time to throw away all the vestiges of institutional Christianity. As already noted, for many people, the old wineskins still work. But a growing number of restless believers are looking for new wineskins of Christian expression. They want less institution and more flexibility. Less certainty and more ambiguity. Less arrogance and more humility. Less doctrine and more connection. Less exclusion and more inclusion. Less focus on creeds and more focus on compassion. Less time meeting in church buildings and more time serving in the community. In short, a lot of twenty-first-century believers are seeking a post-institutionalized (or at least a less institutionalized) version of Christianity.

What’s Old Is New Again

Thankfully, the Christian faith has experience with this kind of minimalist institutionalism. You have to go a long way back in church history to find it. But it’s there. I’m referring to the mostly pre-institutional faith that existed during the first two centuries of the Jesus movement. In a real way, what’s old (the first two centuries) has become new again (the twenty-first century). And that ancient pre-institutional way of following Jesus might serve as a useful model for people seeking a post-institutionalized version of Christianity.

The only Christianity today’s world has ever known is institutionalized Christianity. But it wasn’t always like this. In their provocative book, After Jesus before Christianity Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, and Hal Taussig argue that during the first two hundred years of the Jesus movement, no such thing as institutional Christianity existed.

In the first two centuries CE we do not see anything resembling contemporary “Christianity,” or, for that matter, “Christianity” as it was in the later ancient world, in the Middle Ages, or across human history. In the first two centuries, what we think of as “Christianity” did not exist. (p. 4)

For example, during the first two hundred years after Jesus—and before institutional Christianity became the norm—there were:

No set doctrinal beliefs
No set structure or organization
No set order of church leadership
No set authoritative Christian writings
No set traditions, liturgies, or sacraments
No set Christology
No set name for the movement

According to After Jesus before Christianity the early Jesus movement was open-ended, fluid, noncentralized, and diverse. It had no settled theological orthodoxy, no “New Testament,” no formal clergy, and no established ecclesiastical structure. In short, it was not yet institutionalized.

You could argue that After Jesus before Christianityoverstates its case. And to some extent, that’s probably true. Some of the author’s findings, while fascinating, are based on brief and obscure ancient documents. But the core thesis of the book is correct. The first two centuries of the Jesus movement were dramatically less institutionalized than today’s Christianity. And, for good or bad, that’s what many followers of Jesus are seeking today.

Although the early Jesus movement was extremely fluid, common denominators could be found among the various groups. For example, the following four distinctives were found in virtually every Jesus community:

An affinity for Jesus of Nazareth
Regular communal meals
Close sustaining friendships
A focus on correct practice rather than correct belief

“Stage Four” Christianity

In many ways, these early years of the Jesus movement sound a lot like Brian McLaren’s description (see Faith after Doubt ) of “stage four” faith. According to McLaren, stage-four faith is post doctrinal. It’s not about religious beliefs but about living a life of love. This expression of faith minimizes doctrines, embraces paradox, exudes humility, welcomes diversity, cares about the common good, and seeks to live out “faith that expresses itself in love.” According to McLaren, stage-four faith communities need to be “big on action, big on love, small on beliefs, and small on bureaucracy.”

This kind of fluid and informal stage-four religious expression described by McLaren is similar to many of the dynamics found during the first two hundred years of pre-institutional church history. However, as already noted, this fluidity will not appeal to everyone. Plenty of people, like Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption, will prefer to remain “institutionalized.” And that’s a perfectly viable option for many (if not most) Christians.

But for the growing number of believers seeking a less institutionalized version of Christianity, the first two centuries of the Jesus movement offer historic precedent, encouragement, and promise. That period also offers a boatload of unanswered questions and an uncertain future. In short, it’s an extremely ambiguous approach to the Christian faith.

It will be interesting to see what happens to this movement in the years ahead. Will it, like the early Jesus movement, eventually become institutionalized and lose its edge? Will it fade away? Will it gain traction and become a sustainable and viable expression of modern Christianity? It’s too soon to accurately predict.

As a retired minister who spent decades of his life fully institutionalized in organized religion, but who is fascinated by a less institutionalized expression of faith, I can’t wait to find out.

Martin Thielen, a retired United Methodist minister and writer, is the creator and author of www.DoubtersParish.com

√here for our Mini-Course on Biblival Worldview

GUEST POST: What Is a Biblical Worldview? Definitions, Dilemmas, and Dangers

Posted by Reimagine Curator on June 1, 2022 at 16:42

GUEST POST: What Is a Biblical Worldview? Definitions, Dilemmas, and Dangers

Bobby Harrington | Bio Photo of Daniel McCoy

Daniel McCoy | Bio

What is a biblical worldview, and does it matter?

A biblical worldview is a view of the world which seeks to answer life’s biggest questions from the teachings of the Bible. Many people see having a biblical worldview as unimportant. This includes non-Christians who see the world from a different worldview, as well as Christians who don’t want to apply what the Bible says to cultural issues or everyday life. Yet if the teachings of the Bible are true, then we do well to hold them up like a lantern to the rest of reality in order to illuminate the answers to life’s biggest questions.

Let’s explore what worldviews are, as well as the dilemmas and dangers we face when we study them.

What is a worldview?

At its simplest, a worldview is a person’s view of the world. It’s your framework for understanding reality and answering the big questions about it. It’s basically a roadmap for navigating reality. Here are a couple of metaphors that can be helpful: Your worldview is like a pair of glasses; it determines how you view the world. Your worldview is also like a jigsaw puzzle box top; it gives you the big picture so that you can make sense of the individual pieces and arrange them in place.

“Your worldview gives you the big picture so that you can make sense of the individual pieces and arrange them in place.”

There is overlap between your worldview and the grand story you believe about reality. Steve Wilkens and Mark L. Sanford, authors of Hidden Worldviews, describe worldviews as “cultural stories” we believe about reality. For example, if your worldview is “scientific materialism” (one of the eight worldviews described in their book), the story you believe about reality is that the physical world encompasses all reality—it is all that was, is, and will be.

What kinds of questions does your worldview help you answer?

Your view of the world helps you make sense of life’s biggest questions. Like what? Here are five common big-picture questions people have:

Origin: Where do I come from?
Identity: Who am I?
Meaning: What is my purpose?
Morality: How should I live?
Destiny: What happens when I die?

Christian philosopher Dallas Willard boils it down to three main worldview questions:

What counts as knowledge of reality?
Who is really well-off?
Who is a “really good” person?

“What counts as knowledge of reality? Who is really well-off? Who is a ‘really good’ person?”

James Sire, author of the landmark book on worldviews called The Universe Next Door, lists eight main questions:

What is prime reality—the really real?
What is the nature of the world around us?
What is a human being?
What happens to a person at death?
Why is it possible to know anything at all?
How do we know what is right and wrong?
What is the meaning of human history?
What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview?

These are the kinds of questions thinking people have contemplated throughout history, and our answers to these big-picture questions shape how we live everyday life.

Why is it helpful to understand worldviews?

Thinking about worldviews can help you grow in empathy and pursue truth.

Empathy. “Worldview” may sound a bit philosophical and academic, but it’s actually one of the most important concepts you can understand if you want to grow in empathy. It might make zero sense to a Christian why another person may be uninterested in hearing her talk about the truth of the gospel (they explain that they’re happy she has her truth, but they have their own truth). It can help you be a lot more empathetic if you can understand the worldview of postmodernism they have embraced. When you take the time to consider the worldview another person is coming from, it can help you to not dismiss the person as crazy.

“When you take the time to consider the worldview another person is coming from, it can help you to not dismiss the person as crazy.”

Truth. We should always be seeking to form our lives around truth—so that 1) our beliefs align with reality and 2) our lifestyle aligns with our beliefs. Keeping the concept of worldviews in mind can help in both ways. For example, as you seek for your beliefs to align with reality, it is good to consider the big-picture questions people have asked and answered throughout history—and to line up the answers to explore which one best corresponds with reality. And as you seek to align your lifestyle with your beliefs, it is helpful to ask if you are living consistently with the beliefs you say you believe? If you’re a Christian, do you really trust God when you’re tempted to be anxious? Do you really worship God when you’re tempted to idolize fame or financial security?

It’s also worth mentioning that, if you’re a Christian, one of your core convictions will be that other people need Jesus too, for part of the core teaching of Scripture is that human beings are eternally lost without repentant faith in Jesus. Learning other people’s worldviews is key to knowing your audience when you get the opportunity to tell them about Jesus. The apostle Paul was a Jewish Bible scholar, and yet he knew the worldview of Stoicism well enough to where, when he was asked to address the Areopagus in Athens, he preached the gospel in a way that made sense to the Stoic mindset—and even quoted from Stoic poets (Acts 17:22-31).

What is a biblical worldview?

We want to be a little cautious here before delving too deeply too quickly. By focusing too much on a biblical worldview, we can make it seem like our faith is primarily a set of answers to questions. But the Bible wasn’t written first and foremost to be an answer book. It’s more of a storyline for humanity. This is why Wilkens and Sanford’s insight in Hidden Worldviews is especially helpful: Worldviews may help us answer life’s biggest questions, but worldviews are perhaps best described as “cultural stories” we believe about reality. In this light, the gospel of Jesus (his incarnation, death, resurrection, enthronement, return, etc.) is far more foundational than “the biblical worldview.” It’s insofar as we gather our answers to life’s biggest questions from the Christian gospel that we can say that we have a biblical worldview.

“The Bible wasn’t written first and foremost to be an answer book. It’s more of a storyline for humanity.”

So, onto our central question here. What is a biblical worldview? A biblical worldview is a view of the world which seeks to answer life’s biggest questions from the teachings of the Bible, with a special focus on the gospel storyline. As such, here is a sampling of basic biblical answers to some of these big-picture questions:

Where do we come from? We are created by God.
Who are we? We are the creatures God made in his image.
What is our purpose? God created us to know and follow him as we fill the earth and reign over it as the managers he has put in charge.
What is our core problem? We fall short of God’s glory because we pridefully resist his authority as a threat to our well-being.
How is this problem solved? We turn from our self-centered ways and trust and give our allegiance to Jesus the Messiah as our Savior, Lord, and King, and he forgives us, fills us with his Spirit, and restores us to our original image.
How should we live? We should live according to the way of Jesus the Messiah, which can be summarized as loving God and loving people as he teaches.
What happens when we die? We are either with the Lord or apart from him for eternity, based on our relationship with Jesus through faith in him and his gospel.

“There are massive differences between the different worldviews.”

There are other big questions to answer, and some Christians may offer slight variations in the answers they give. But looking at different big-picture worldview answers is instructive: If we were to put together a chart with these questions as columns and include a different worldview per each row, it would quickly become clear that there are massive differences between the different worldviews. It would also clearly show that having a biblical worldview is far from a default perspective, even in a Christian-influenced part of the world like the Western world.

What other worldviews exist besides a biblical worldview?

If “worldview” is simply a person’s view of the world, then it would make sense that there are as many worldviews as there are people on the planet. Yet since worldviews typically zoom out to life’s biggest questions, we can categorize most people’s worldviews into a few basic ones.

There are helpful books which list some of the world’s most prominent worldviews. For example, the philosophy-oriented Worlds Apart: A Handbook on Worldview (Wipf and Stock, 2003) by Norman Geisler and William Watkin lists seven basic worldviews:

Theism: There is one God who created all.
Atheism: There is no God.
Pantheism: Everything is God.
Panentheism: God is in an eternal process of growing and becoming.
Deism: God created the world but doesn’t intervene in it.
Finite Godism: The God that exists is limited in some way (e.g., is not all-powerful)
Polytheism: There are many gods.

“James Sire walks through worldviews in a somewhat chronological order, based on the succession of dominant worldviews in the Western world.”

In Universe Next Door (IVP Academic, 2020), James Sire walks through worldviews in a somewhat chronological order, based on the succession of dominant worldviews in the Western world (adding a final one, Islamic theism, which is not yet dominant but is nonetheless growing in popularity):

Christian Theism: The triune God created all and restores us by grace through faith in Jesus.
Deism: God created the world but doesn’t intervene in it.
Naturalism: All that exists is the physical world.
Nihilism: There is no ultimate truth, meaning, or right and wrong.
Existentialism: We create our own truth and meaning.
Eastern Pantheistic Monism: We merge with the divine through meditative techniques learned from Eastern religions.
New Age-Spirituality: We combine elements of Eastern Pantheistic Monism (e.g., reincarnation and Eastern meditation) with popular psychology and occultic practices.
Postmodernism: The concept of absolute truth is a human construct used to get power, so we need to prioritize the stories of our own tribes and emphasize our own truth.
Islamic Theism: The singular God Allah created all and saves those who submit to him in obedience.

In Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives (InterVarsity, 2009), Steve Wilkens and Mark L. Sanford list eight worldviews which are often less obvious than a person’s religious affiliation, but which have massive influence under the surface in Western hearts and minds. In addition to the already-described worldviews of New Age, Postmodern Tribalism, and Scientific Naturalism, they discuss the following:

Individualism: My interests are the center of reality.
Consumerism: My worth is tied to what I own.
Nationalism: My nation is more above all.
Moral relativism: My truth is more important than the truth.
Salvation by Therapy: My deepest problems can be solved by psychology.

“Many people’s worldviews are syncretistic combinations of common worldviews.”

No list is perfect. For example, the highly influential religion of Buddhism doesn’t neatly fit into any of the worldviews listed above. As researchers are finding (see below), many people’s worldviews are syncretistic combinations of common worldviews. As an example, longtime researcher George Barna suggests that “America’s most popular worldview” is basically a combination of deism and “salvation by therapy” called “moralistic therapeutic deism” (a term coined by sociologist Christian Smith). Although lists like these are imperfect and can never really pinpoint a particular person exactly, such categorizations do help us in exploring common worldview answers to life’s biggest questions.

Does it matter whether you have a biblical worldview?

If the teachings of the Bible are true, then it absolutely matters whether you allow those beliefs to affect the way you view the world. To use common metaphors, if you don’t look at reality through the true worldview, then it’s like trying to make sense of thousands of individual puzzle pieces without the box top. Or it’s like trying to make sense of the outside world with a pair of glasses that distorts rather than bringing clarity.

George Barna released unfortunate news regarding how syncretistic the worldviews of Christians in America have recently become, whether parents or pastors. Most shocking of all is how, based on Barna’s 54-question survey taken by 1,000 Christian pastors (including senior, associate, teaching, children’s/youth, and executive pastors), “just slightly more than a third (37%) have a biblical worldview and the majority—62%—possess a hybrid worldview known as Syncretism.

Think about the implications. These are pastors and parents who call themselves Christian but have a worldview only partially informed by Scripture. With cultural winds blowing Western culture ever-farther from biblical Christianity, it will take an act of God for the people under these pastors’ and parents’ shepherding to develop a biblical view of the world.

“These are pastors and parents who call themselves Christian but have a worldview only partially informed by Scripture.”

If we’re looking at the world biblically, we will acknowledge a war going on in the realm of worldviews and how people think. Here’s how the apostle Paul articulated the war:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:3-5)

Church leaders are to equip and train people to “take captive every thought to make them obedient to Christ.” How we think and what we believe really matter. Statistics like those from Barna’s surveys (as well as perhaps stories in your own church and family) tell us that there are many, many spiritual shepherds who, far from demolishing arguments that contradict Christ, are welcoming wolves as guest lecturers. Instead of thinking according to the ways of Jesus, too many Christians are now thinking according to the ways of the world around us.

“…spiritual shepherds who, far from demolishing arguments that contradict Christ, are welcoming wolves as guest lecturers…”

What major dilemma unfolds as we study worldviews?

There are some people who prefer not to get involved in worldview disputes. They are happy to claim Switzerland-style neutrality when it comes to questions of ultimate truth. A problem that emerges for these people is that, when it comes to worldviews, everybody has one.

Let us say that again: everyone has a worldview.

Even the position that says, “Everybody’s truth is equally valid” is itself a worldview (“relativism”), which, if true, would mean that all contradicting worldviews are false. So, there’s no neutrality in the collision of worldviews. Everyone will have answers to big-picture questions which will slope their view toward or away from truth.

“Everyone will have answers to big-picture questions which will slope their view toward or away from truth.”

Unfortunately for people who prefer not to get involved in such debates, it’s actually more spiritual war than intellectual debate (again, see 2 Cor. 10:3-5 above), and each person is already on one side or another.

What are the potential dangers of teaching a biblical worldview?

Although it is a necessary thing to teach the biblical worldview to Christians (which both of us have done and continue to do), there are some potential pitfalls to be aware of. For one thing, if we teach biblical answers to only a narrow list of worldview questions, we’ll have a disproportionate, almost checklist style of faith formation. It’s possible to think, okay, if we just get them to believe Christianly in this list of areas, then it’ll be a foolproof path to lifelong faithfulness. Many Christian traditions have taken this narrow approach. But faith formation is more all-of-life, a matter of holistic, relational discipleship—of heart, soul, mind, and strength—not of checking answers on a test of worldview questions.

Another potential danger: It’s easy to consider a person’s worldview (let’s say the person is a Muslim) and assume you know most of the relevant spiritual information about the person. Is it helpful to know about the official answers given to life’s biggest questions according to the person’s religious persuasion? Yes. But individuals are more complex than that. Nothing can substitute for relational interaction and genuine care.

“Nothing can substitute for relational interaction and genuine care.”

Here’s a final danger to be aware of: It is possible for well-meaning preachers and teachers to use biblical worldview training as an opportunity to sneak in teaching which is more about the cultural and political leanings of the teacher than about what the Bible actually teaches. Let’s say you were wanting to dissuade your students from embracing socialism as an economic system. Training your students in the virtues of free market capitalism and the failures of socialistic policies is one thing. But doing so and calling it “biblical worldview training” is a stretch. It’s probably better to reserve the term “biblical worldview” for the bigger questions which the Bible provides clear answers on.

What’s dangerous about not teaching a biblical worldview?

Have you thought about what your Christianity or discipleship becomes when it remains disconnected from how Scripture answers life’s biggest questions? In other words, when we claim to be disciples, but we get our actual views of reality from somewhere else? For too many, Christianity has become a personal, inspirational, watered-down “faith” without any meaningful implication for how we live life. As Christian sociologist Os Guinness lamented, “Many Christians have a faith too privatized. Privately engaging, publicly irrelevant. It’s not integrated.”

Where should we start in teaching a biblical worldview?

To start with, every disciple and every child raised in a Christian home needs to know the basic worldview of Scripture, with a focus on the gospel. Church leaders have an obligation to make that framework crystal clear. It is the priority in disciple-making homes and churches. We teach preachers and elders, who tell us they want to shift to disciple making, to start with this focus first. We teach leaders to start with the gospel itself. Make it clear for the people.

“Start with the gospel itself. Make it clear for the people.”

New Testament scholar Matthew Bates helpfully summarizes the gospel, our response to it, and its benefits for us in the following ways:

What is the gospel?

Jesus is the saving king who[1]

preexisted as God the Son,
was sent by the Father,
took on human flesh in fulfillment of God’s promises to David,
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
was buried,
was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
appeared to many witnesses,
is enthroned at the right hand of God as the ruling Christ,[2]
has sent the Holy Spirit to his people to effect his rule, and
will come again as final judge to rule.

What is the gospel response?

Our response to the gospel is faith, which is allegiance, loyalty, and faithfulness to Jesus the king.

What are the gospel’s benefits?

The gospel’s benefits for those who have faith is new life in the forgiveness of sin, the indwelling Holy Spirit, new identity, purpose, kingdom life here and in eternity, and all of God’s promises for the new heaven and new earth.

Conclusion

Again, there is a bigger storyline to a biblical worldview, but the gospel is the magnificent core.

In Scripture, God gives us the true view of the world. Everyone will be blessed by knowing and believing it. So, let’s share the gospel and Scripture’s answers to life’s biggest questions. As we do so, we help the people we disciple think and live with Jesus Christ at the center, in a way that is personally and publicly relevant.

And in so doing, we will invite a hearing for the truthfulness of our faith in a rapidly changing world that needs the hope of a biblical worldview now more than ever.

[1] Matthew Bates, The Gospel Precisely: Surprisingly Good News about Jesus the King (Renew, 2021).

[2] The reason Bates italicizes #8 is that Jesus’ enthronement is often repeated in the New Testament as the gospel’s climax.

Posted with permission of and thanks to Discipleship.Org
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GUEST POST~ GUEST POST~ How Your Worldview Affects How You Make Disciples

Posted by Reimagine Curator on January 12, 2022 at 12:49

GUEST POST~ How Your Worldview Affects How You Make Disciples

Worldview Discipleship

By Freddy Davis

In years past, in America, Christians could easily get away with a superficial understanding of their faith because it was pretty rare that anyone would challenge their beliefs. That was a time when most people actually went to church, at least on Easter and Christmas, when schools would not schedule sporting events on Wednesday evenings because that was prayer meeting night, when school children prayed The Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of the school day, and when being a member of a church was a good look for one’s business. In those days, it was pretty much assumed that people believed in God, and if someone came out as an Atheist, it was considered socially scandalous.

Of course, even in those days, not everyone was a Christian – even those who self-identified that way. A lot of people who did go to church only did it for show, or because that was their tradition. While they might not have had other scheduled events on Wednesdays, they, themselves, never went to prayer meeting. While the children may have repeated The Lord’s Prayer at school, many, if not most, didn’t really pray it sincerely – it was just a tradition repeated by rote. And many of the business people who were active in church really did view it as a means for making a good impression on people, and networking to promote their business. Yeah, those might have seemed like the “good ol days” for the church on a superficial level, but in some ways the church was a mile wide and an inch deep.

So how is it different today? Well, it’s different in a very profound way. In modern society, the script has, in many places, been completely flipped. Now, many people consider it scandalous to be associated with a church, church activities are not considered at all when schools schedule sporting, and other, events, it is against the law to have a school sanctioned prayer, and church is not considered to be a reputation enhancer for business. And, on top of that, it is not unusual at all for people to openly challenge the beliefs of Christians.

While in the past, a superficial understanding of one’s Christian faith may have been sufficient in order to successfully navigate local society, in many places that is just not the case anymore. In fact, for people who actually do want to live out their Christian faith, it is not even enough to simply know what we believe – even at a deeper level. If we want to be able to stand upright in the radical anti-Christian society that currently exists, we not only need to know what we believe, but why what we believe is the truth. But even that is not enough in many cases. We even need to know why the beliefs of those coming against us is NOT the truth.

So how do we do that? We do it by understanding worldview concepts, and by using those concepts to understand our own faith and the faith of those who oppose us.

What is Worldview?

So just what is a worldview? The quick formal definition is that a worldview is the assumptions people make about the nature of reality. That is, it is a set of beliefs that define for an individual what they consider to be real vs. what they consider to be fantasy. Now that is an easy definition to quote, but the depth and significance of the definition needs to be pondered a bit for it to truly hit home in our lives.

Interestingly, most people’s worldview beliefs are assumed to the degree that they are totally unconscious. After all, if a person considers certain particular beliefs to be fantasy, it is not even worth the time to give deep thought to them at all. People consider their own worldview beliefs to be true – just because they are true.

For example, as a Christian, you believe in God. The idea that someone would say they don’t believe in God seems rather senseless – a fantasy. It seems that way because your experience, at the most foundational level, has brought you to the place where you believe. You have met Christ and interact personally with God in your spiritual life. Many Christians reason that, “Yeah, they say they don’t believe in God, but just wait until a serious crisis hits ....”

But here’s the kicker, those Atheists have the same sense of assurance that God does not exist that you have that he does. They look at your belief in God as a fantasy. Very few have ever considered why they believe that way. It is just that, to them, the idea of God simply doesn’t make sense.

So a worldview is a set of assumptions that people hold, generally at an unconscious level, that helps them organize their thoughts about what is real and what is fantasy.

How Do We Recognize a Worldview?

The next question relates to where a person’s worldview comes from. And there are actually three different possibilities.

•Circumstances

The first possibility relates to the environment a person was raised in. Every person has been raised by people who, themselves, held some set of worldview beliefs. Those beliefs were simply assumed to be true, and they taught them to their children by word and by deed without even realizing they were doing so. A social environment just is what it is, and those raised in it just pick it up. It’s never questioned because children don’t know enough to question them.

•Conversion

The second place a worldview can come from is by conversion. At some point in life, most people will come face-to-face with an opposing worldview. In many cases, the beliefs they were raised in are strong enough that the conflicting worldview beliefs are merely seen as fantasy – nonsensical.

But some people encountering those new beliefs are challenged by them – they somehow make sense. When that happens, it shakes them to the core, because if those new beliefs are true, that means their previous understanding of reality is a lie.

This is what happens when a person comes face-to-face with the realization that God is a real person that they can know in an objectively real personal relationship, and they invite Christ into their life. It is a conversion experience. It also sometimes happens the other way around. When a person who was raised in a Christian home is taught the Theory of Evolution in school, for instance, and it somehow ends up making makes more sense to them than the belief that God created life, they will convert to Atheism. The shock of the new belief is such that they change their understanding of reality and convert to believing a different narrative.

•Choice

The third place a worldview belief can come from is choice. Since most people’s worldview beliefs are completely unconscious, there is not a conscious choice to be made. But if a person comes to a place where they actually study worldview concepts and learn the various possibilities, it is then possible to analyze those possibilities and choose the one that seems to best match up with what they experience as reality. This is probably the least common way people come to their worldview beliefs because so few people actually ever study worldview concepts.

What Are the Implications of Thinking in Worldview Terms?

It is important to understand that grasping worldview concepts is not simply an academic exercise. There are very real and practical implications in these concepts that relate to real life. These implications not only affect our understanding, but also the way we think about our own, and other people’s, beliefs, and the way we interact with other people. There are five primary areas where the practical implications of worldview knowledge come into play.

1. It Defines the Essential Elements of the Christian Faith

We are all aware that there is a lot of variety within the Christian faith. Sadly, this variety accounts for much of the division we see within the Christian community. The variety, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing, but it becomes a problem when people who hold certain theological views are not willing to accept those who hold differing views.

At this point there is a certain distinction that needs to be made. Not all beliefs within the Christian faith are equal. There are certain beliefs that are essential and others that are not essential.

The essential ones actually define the outer boundaries of the faith itself. Those who hold to beliefs that are outside of the essentials are actually outside of the Christian faith. Those essential beliefs relate to what the Bible teaches about God, man, and salvation. We get at these beliefs by answering three questions:

1. Who is God?

2. What is man?

3. What is salvation and how do we achieve it?

The non-essential beliefs relate to other doctrines such as what one believes about baptism, predestination, eschatology (last things), and the like. Note, it is not that these other doctrines are not important. They actually are. But they are not important to the extent that they affect whether or not one is legitimately a Christian. A person can even have absolutely wrong beliefs about these non-essential things and still be within the family of believers.

Having a firm grasp on what the Bible teaches about God, man, and salvation provides Christians with the absolute essential core elements of the faith. This is the starting point for being able to use worldview knowledge in ways that strengthen our Christian faith.

2. It Defines the Essential Elements of Other Faith Systems

The essential beliefs that were referred to in the previous section also have an important part to play in our understanding of other, non-Christian, belief systems. In fact, every belief system in existence has some way that it answers the three essential questions about God, man, and salvation. The answer to these three questions based on the beliefs of any given belief system, defines it’s essential core beliefs. Having that information allows us to understand other beliefs, and gives us a tool to analyze them for truth.

3. It Defines the Core of the Gospel Message

There is a third value for understanding a worldview paradigm when it comes to expressing our Christian faith out in the world. As it turns out, not only does knowing the biblical answers to the three essential worldview questions help us understand the core essentials of our Christian faith, it also provides us with the information we need to share our faith. In fact, the biblical answers to the three questions comprise the Christian plan of salvation. We are sharing the gospel message when we share with a non-believer how the Bible answers those three questions.

4. It Can Be Used as a Means of Bible Study

Another value of understanding the worldview paradigm is that it helps us focus in on the essential elements of biblical faith as we read the Bible. There are a lot of topics that are addressed in the Bible, and it is possible to discern various doctrines from the biblical text as we read it. Proper biblical interpretation would have us search the entire Bible to see what it says on particular topics, and that gives us the whole counsel of Scripture on those topics. More importantly, as we study the Bible, if we read with a view to how particular passages and verses answer the three essential questions, we have a way of studying the Bible that keeps us focused on the essential core of the Bible’s message.

5. It Can Be Used in Incursion Apologetics to Break down Non-biblical Beliefs

One other value in understanding the worldview paradigm is that it gives Christians the tools to stand strong against those who try to attack the Christian faith. These days, many people, particularly those who hold a naturalistic worldview, are not content to merely believe something different, they want to destroy Christians to the greatest degree possible. To do that, they use all kinds of arguments and tactics – from questioning the validity of the Bible’s message, to condemning the beliefs and values of Christianity, to asserting that the Bible has been accurately preserved through the centuries, and others.

When people become antagonistic like that, it is generally not sufficient to merely answer their taunts. Rather, one must actually question the validity of the attack itself. The use of a worldview paradigm to understand the beliefs and weaknesses of an attacker is extremely valuable in pulling off that kind of response. When we know what other people believe and why what they believe is not true, we are in a position to make them justify their attack before being required to answer them. This approach also puts us in a position to express the truth of the gospel message and share a Christian witness to them.

What Does a Church Need to Do to Prepare its People?

In these days, false beliefs are ubiquitous – that is, there are scores of different false beliefs that are prominent in the public square. So how can a church help its people deal with this issue – not only for helping them discern between true and false beliefs, but also help them become able to share an effective Christian witness in this complicated societal soup?

The key is to do what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 4:11-13 – to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We should not abandon the ministry that is already being done, but at the same time an increased emphasis must be placed on Christian discipleship efforts. And a special emphasis needs to be placed on biblical worldview training.

Make no mistake about it, this is much easier said than done. People get settled into their regular routines in all areas of life – including church life. But unless this new emphasis is intentionally implemented, Christians will continue falling further and further behind. We need to be equipped!

MarketFaith Ministries exists to equip Christians to become more knowledgeable of and confident in their Christian faith by providing worldview training. We have resources to help individuals as well as the ability to train congregations to stand strong for Christ in our rapidly declining society. Contact us today at 850-383-9756 or info@marketfaith.org and let’s discuss how to bring this cutting edge training to you. Also, be sure and check out the free worldview training resources as well as those available for purchase on the MarketFaith Ministries website at www.marketfaith.org.

Reprinted from Worldview Made Practical; a free e-zine produced by MarketFaith Ministries featuring practical teaching and life tools to help Christians become more effective in their faith life. Discover MarketFaith Ministries at www.marketfaith.org.

***Related articles:

The Danger of A Homogeneous Blindspot by Phil Miglioratti

Discipleship That FLows From A CHristian Worldview

https://reimaginenetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/mini-course-discipleship-flowing-from-a-christian-worldview

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