The Basics Course
Lesson 3: The Power of Story - Worldview Basics
What exactly is a worldview, and what does it do? How does it shape the culture of a nation, city or family—how does it shape the life of an individual? We will learn answers to these questions and will see how the gospel is not simply a message of salvation but, rather, a comprehensive worldview that transforms culture. As Christians, we are called to engage—to create culture that aligns with reality as God created it—to witness to the truth.
1. Introduction
Everyone has a worldview. Every culture has a “story”, a worldview. Worldviews are powerful because they determine how we see the world, they shape our values and behaviors and they determine the kind of societies we will build.
In some cases, even the Church has abandoned a biblical worldview, and the consequences have tragically influenced our understanding of the nature of the Church and the Great Commission.
2. Presentation
Watch video 1 of 4: What is a Worldview, Why Does It Matter?
Darrow Miller explains that every person in the world has a "map" in his or her mind--a map that says what the world is like. We call this a "worldview." Our worldviews matter because they determine how we live and what kinds of communities and nations we will build. Christians often have "born again" hearts, but their worldviews can still be shaped by their surrounding cultures. We need to be born again, again.
Discussion
What is the difference between looking at worldview as an academic subject and looking at worldview as the lens by which we examine and solve problems?
These are two different processes and I would like you to reflect on the difference between these two.
Watch video 2 of 4: Worldviews Shape Our Lives and Our Cultures
Darrow Miller explains how our worldviews shape our values and behaviors and how our behaviors have consequences for our lives, families and society. He describes how worldviews spread around the world, are transmitted from one generation to the next, and move vertically through culture. The gospel is not simply a message of salvation; it is a comprehensive worldview. It must not only move around the world, but it must penetrate and transform culture. This is what it means to disciple nations.
Discussion
What does it mean for the gospel to penetrate culture?
Watch video 3 of 4: The Role of the Artist in Discipling Nations
Darrow Miller explains how ideas shape culture. The process often begins with a small group of intellectuals whose ideas are picked up by artists. As they create film and music, and write stories that embody the new ideas, they shape the professionals in society--the educators, business leaders, economists, and politicians. At this point, the new ideas become institutionalized, impacting the lives of everyone in the society. To disciple nations, the church must understand this process, and encourage Christian artists to play a prophetic role in shaping their culture.
Discussion
Culture is upstream from economics and politics.
What does this mean for Christians and what are the implications of this as you look at your own culture and the political and economic processes that are going on today?
Watch video 4 of 4: The Gospel is to Penetrate and Reform Culture
Darrow Miller explains that evangelism and gospel proclamation are not the end goals of the Great Commission but rather the vital first steps in discipling nations. The goal is reformed cultures that reflect God's glory. Darrow explains that our cultures are a reflection of the God, or gods, that we worship. He then turns to John 17:15-19 to show that Christ is calling the Church to intentionally work to impact culture.
Discussion
I’d like you to reflect on these three different types of churches:
-the church that is withdrawn from society
-the church that is conforming to society, and
-the church that is consciously seeking to impact society, that is engaging culture outside the walls of the building.
Which is your church?
3. Reading – see end of document
Worldviews at Work in the World
Darrow L. Miller, Bob Moffitt, and Scott D. Allen
4. Application
Think of an example of a "worldview" story accepted by your community that contributes to poverty. Share your thoughts on this with another person, and hear his/her thoughts on it as well.
5. Quiz
This 10-question quiz will help you review the key ideas from this lesson.
Question 1 of 10
What limited the discovery of Prince Henry the Navigator to discover a sea route to Asia around Africa?
A Real physical barriers that prevented his ships from sailing further
B The map in their minds
C The physical map that they carried on their ships
D None of the above
Question 2 of 10
Which of the following does our worldview NOT determine?
A How we see the world.
B How we go about solving a math problem.
C The kind of nations we will build.
D What we see, not what there is to be seen.
Question 3 of 10
While there is a wide range of philosophies and religions in the world, they can be distilled down into one of three basic worldview categories. Which is NOT one of these categories?
A Animism
B Theism
C Taoism
D Secularism
Question 4 of 10
Which of the following statements is accurate?
A Today, Western nations are predominantly shaped by a secular worldview that sees reality as ultimately physical.
B Many Asian and African nations are shaped by an animistic worldview that sees reality as ultimately spiritual.
C The Biblical worldview sees reality as an integrated whole composed of a spiritual and physical realm. Both are created by God, and both are important and valuable.
D All of the above
Question 5 of 10
Paul calls Christians to “not be conformed to the world.” How does one avoid being conformed to the world?
A By not going to movies and doing other worldly things
B By following Christian rules
C By having your mind renewed to conform to the Biblical worldview
D By spending your time in the church, doing church-organized programs and activities
Question 6 of 10
Which of the following does the tree diagram NOT illustrate?
A Ideas have consequences.
B The roots of the tree will determine the kind of fruit the tree will produce.
C There are shady ideas in the world.
D Ideas are organic by nature, and they impact people and societies.
Question 7 of 10
Darrow taught that worldviews spread in three ways. Which of the following is NOT one of these ways?
A Inwardly
B Vertically, through layers of society
C Through time, passed from one generation to the next
D Geographically, from one area of the world to another
Question 8 of 10
Which statement is NOT true?
A Culture is upstream from politics and economics.
B Plato said “Give me the songs of the nation and it matters not who writes its laws.”
C Culture has nothing to do with politics and economics.
D Artists have the opportunity to speak prophetically to culture.
Question 9 of 10
Which statement is true?
A Salvation should be connected to personal and societal transformation.
B Salvation is only personal and spiritual; it has nothing to do with society.
C True revival will lead to reformation.
D Both "A" and "C" are true.
Question 10 of 10
Which is the most accurate description of the church?
A The church is a warehouse for saved souls going to heaven.
B Because the world is so full of evil and sin, Christians are to disengage, get out of the world, and retreat into the church building.
C Because Jesus wants his people to be in the world, Christians should leave the church building and become like the world.
D Jesus wants the Church to impact the world; therefore, Christians are to be in the world, but not like the world. They are to represent the kingdom of God in the world.
Quiz Complete!
6. Going Deeper
Book – The Worldview of the Kingdom of God by Scott Allen, Darrow Miller and Bob Moffitt (YWAM Publishing, 2005) is a short, accessible inductive Bible study that serves as a great starting point for further study.
Book – LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day by Darrow Miller (YWAM Publishing, 2009) is a call for all Christians to deeply integrate the Biblical worldview into their daily lives and vocations, and in doing so, to fully participate in discipling our nations.
Book – Pollution and the Death of Man by Francis Schaeffer and Udo Middleman (Crossway, reprint edition, 2011). In this groundbreaking book, Schaeffer and Middleman reintroduce the concept and significance of worldview to the church. They show Christians how the biblical message is comprehensive, including a call for the church to steward God’s Creation.
Book – Lectures on Calvinism by Abraham Kuyper (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1943) is a classic. Kuyper was a great Dutch pastor, theologian, educator and politician who did more than perhaps any other to develop the idea of a Biblical worldview. The book contains Kuyper’s famous lecture series at Princeton University in 1898. Also available is a scan of the 1931 book in PDF.
Book – The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue by James W. Sire (InterVarsity, third edition, 1997) is a simple yet comprehensive book on worldview. Sire develops the basic concept of worldview and examines the worldviews of a number of modern philosophies and world religions. There are multiple editions and updates of this popular book available.
Worldviews at Work in the World
Darrow L. Miller, Bob Moffitt, and Scott D. Allen
Josie was a Peace Corps worker and nurse at the Serabu Mission Hospital in Sierra Leone, a nation on the west coast of Africa. She had just completed teaching a course in microbiology to ten Sierra Leonean nursing students. All the students had passed their examinations. In doing so, they had demonstrated an understanding that viruses, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms cause disease.
After the class discussed the results of the final exam, one student raised her hand and said, “Miss Josie, I know what you taught us about how white people get sick, but do you want to know how people really get sick?”
“How?”
“It’s the witches! They are invisible and fly around at night, biting people’s backs!”
Josie later explained, “At that moment, with a heaviness of heart, I realized that—as far as the Sierra Leonean students were concerned—I didn’t know what I was talking about when it came to the cause of disease. Their grandmothers had taught them that witches were real and that microorganisms were what white people believed in.”[i]
Josie and her nursing students operated from different sets of assumptions regarding the cause of disease. Each set of assumptions was part of its holder’s worldview, or “belief system.” Josie believed in a physical cause of disease; her students believed in a spiritual or supernatural cause. While the manifestation of any particular disease was the same, Josie and her students had different understandings of its nature and cause. Their respective beliefs were rooted in different worldviews and created conflicting ideas about how to cure diseases.
Like Josie and her nursing students, each of us possesses a worldview. This worldview shapes our choices and how we live. According to scholar Samuel Huntington, “In the back of our minds are hidden assumptions…that determine how we perceive reality, what facts we look at, and how we judge their importance and merits.”[ii] These hidden assumptions also determine “what we believe is real and true, right and wrong, good and beautiful.”[iii] For this reason, understanding our worldview is both practical and important.
Our worldviews literally form who we are. These beliefs are deeply ingrained in our minds, and unearthing them is not easy. In many instances we remain unconscious of their existence or influence until alternative views challenge them. Nevertheless, a critical issue for any follower of Jesus is whether or not his or her worldview is rooted in biblical truth or if instead the surrounding culture has shaped those beliefs.
In many ways our worldview functions like a pair of eyeglasses for the mind. We wear them all the time and they shape and color everything we see. They focus our attention upon certain issues while filtering out others. Josie’s worldview focused her attention on the physical causes of disease—the microscopic organisms that negatively affect the cell life of a human body. At the same time, her worldview tended to filter out possible spiritual causes for disease. Meanwhile, the worldview of her Sierra Leonean nursing students did the opposite.
As we grow and develop, others impart their assumptions about reality to us. Our beliefs are shaped by input from parents, friends, teachers, mentors, and role models. The broader culture we live in also influences our worldview, which we absorb as we go about our daily lives, from sources like television and radio, what we read, the music we listen to, and even conversations with others.
The Big Questions of Life
Worldviews are extremely important, partly because they help answer “the big questions of life.” For example: Does God exist, and if so, what is he like, or are we alone in an impersonal universe? Are there many gods, and if so, what are they like and how do they relate to us? Who am I and what is the purpose of my life? How should I understand the natural world around me? Is there purpose to history, or is it meaningless? Is history ultimately going somewhere, and if so, where? What happens after I die? Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Interestingly, wherever one travels in the world, the big questions of life are basically the same. However, the answers vary tremendously. That is because they are founded upon different assumptions about life.
Ideas Reap Consequences
One of the purposes of this study is to provide you with an opportunity—perhaps for the first time—to examine your own worldview. Our hope is that you will take off your worldview glasses, handle them a bit, and examine them carefully. This is a powerful exercise—one of the most important exercises you can ever do! Your worldview is not simply a set of ideas floating through your head, with no bearing on the rest of your life. Rather, your worldview largely determines how you live, how you function within your family, the role you play in your community, and the type of society and nation you create with others.
You can compare a worldview to the roots of a fruit tree. We cannot see the roots. They exist below the ground. Yet they determine the kind of fruit the tree will produce. Jesus used this analogy to warn us against the teachings of false prophets.
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (italics added). -- Matthew 7:15-20
Objective truth is recorded in the pages of Scripture and revealed in the created order. Yet Jesus warns us that lies also exist, and often they are subtle and difficult to detect. They arrive through “false prophets,” who “come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves.” Jesus also tells us that there is a direct link between false ideas (the roots) and the result or consequence of these false ideas in everyday life (the fruit). If our roots are formed according to the truth, the fruit of our lives will reflect that truth and be good, a positive addition to our world. On the other hand, if our lives are the outgrowth of roots formed by lies, our fruit can only be more of the same, without worth and fit only to be discarded.
Just as people who look at a tree do not see the roots, those who observe our everyday lives and actions cannot see our worldview. Like the roots of the fruit tree, our worldview exists below the surface of our lives. Yet also like the roots of the fruit tree, our worldview produces fruit that has the same character as the worldview itself. The things we value, the decisions we make, and our daily actions reflect and grow from the assumptions we hold about the big questions of life.
In short, our worldview produces a certain kind of fruit, or consequences, in our everyday lives. A healthy worldview—one based on biblical truth—produces productive consequences. An unhealthy worldview—one based on lies—produces destructive consequences. These consequences not only affect our own lives, but also the lives of the people around us. This is even more reason to examine our own worldview with care.