What is Worldview?

Worldview is our basic set of assumptions about the world and our relation to it. There are aspects to our worldviews. These are reflected in how they affect our beliefs, attitudes and behavior. One of the most important aspects for witness is that of our spiritual worldview. It is our basic understanding of our spiritual being and our relation to whatever affects or controls our purpose for living, the very course of our lives and our eternal destination. That includes our knowledge and attitude toward God and Jesus. It affects our openness and closedness to any change. Satisfied people are not likely to change unless something happens or information comes to destabilize their beliefs and outlook. Hurting people are looking for change to their circumstances and for hope that they can find it.

In the media and commercial advertising world the pursuit of worldview information is called market research. When a toothpaste maker wants to sell his brand of toothpaste, he will want to know what motivates people to buy toothpaste. Is it because they desire to reduce their cavities? Is it to give them fresh breath? Is it to whiten their teeth? What flavor or colors sell toothpaste best? What packaging should it be in? With the recent ban on gels in airplane carryon this may favor going back to tooth powders instead of gels. So outside issues can also influence the choices the buyer will make.

Is Change Needed?

Remember I said that satisfied people are not likely to change. They are living in an equilibrium and are satisfied. But is all really well? Down deep inside we have fears—perhaps fear of change or the consequences of change, we have gaps in our knowledge which may cause us to shrug off change like the agnostic does when he says that he doesn’t know if there is a God, so is not concerned with any benefits or consequences of not knowing. Change may be relational change that we fear if we make a decision that affects our relationship with spouse, siblings, parents and grandparents, or others who are our peers. We value our “peerness” and do not want to upset it. We have traditions and patterns which are also part of our culture we are comfortable with and value them for whatever benefit we believe to receive from them.

Some Are Seeking Change.

These are people who are unhappy with who they are, the circumstances or situations they find themselves existing in, with inside feelings of guilt or unworthiness, of shame or embarrassment of what has happened to them, with physical wants and needs, and with any of the Maslow hierarchy that includes acceptance and love. Many of these people may have only a superficial knowledge of “the Man Upstairs” or “the Good Book” or that person they call “Jesus.” Some believe that a church and its services can help them find the peace they seek. Also many of these while seeking change also fear change and any consequences it may have for them or their families. But they are open. Our task is to find these open doors, even ones that are open only a crack where we might get a hearing and even an extended opportunity to teach and extend our witness to deal with their worldview issues which may be holding them back as barriers and to find those worldview bridges over which we might continue connecting and keep our hearing.

Discovering Worldview Issues.

So our task then is to set about discovering these issues which may exist as bridges or openings and to be aware of those worldview issues which are hindrances or barriers to changing belief and making decisions that may affect their lives and relationships to others. It is at once a fairly simple task and also a difficult task. Some people are very open in expressing their desire to change. It is much easier to witness to someone who is seeking than to witness to someone who is not seeking. But even those who are not seeking may have a weak spot in their beliefs where they are vulnerable or at least feel they are needy or unsatisfied.
For those using Bible Storying, knowing these worldview issues is most helpful in choosing the best stories and delivery to begin setting up the desired spiritual changes. There are some simple directives that can help to find those openings and clue us as to what stories might be a good beginning point, even how to tell the stories, and how to talk about the stories or lead a conversation regarding the stories. For those of us who have used these directives in our ministries they have served us well. But I will admit that we never know all of a person’s worldview issues and often find new ones we didn’t know about as we began to tell our stories. It is usually a case of refining our understanding the longer we work with people of a particular group however it is categorized and incorporating the new knowledge into refining our methodology.

What Are The Consequences of Not Knowing Worldview Issues?

One way to discover how this works is to walk up to a Muslim and begin telling him about Jesus the Son of God. You will be standing on his worldview toes from the word go. Among educated Hindus I found that because of certain beliefs in their understanding of Hinduism that if you begin with the familiar Romans passage about all being sinners you will find that they feel sorry for you because you are a sinner. One of their revered teachers said that it is a sin to call a man a sinner. They do have understanding about sin but you need to be more subtle in how you get to it. In Latin America among cultural Christians (Catholics) if you begin a lengthy Bible Storying strategy starting in Genesis and trudging through the Old Testament they may not stay with you until Jesus. But if you begin with Jesus and his miracles and teaching you are more likely to connect. Now this doesn’t mean they don’t need to know about the Old Testament, they do, but it may later help them to understand why Jesus had to die and how the broken relationship with God affected all mankind and what God was preparing to do about it. Their open door is Jesus.

Let me go back to Hindus for a moment. It was by accident that I discovered a deep desire among them for real peace in their hearts. While this information came out of a previous radio ministry, it also served well in storying to follow-up groups. Here are two examples from among Muslim women. I had prepared the God and Woman story lesson series. To make the stories simpler I took out most of the character dialog and simply narrated the stories. The women didn’t like it. I had to go back and insert all the usable dialog into 90 stories. The women enjoyed listening to the characters in the stories speaking to one another. Then I discovered an even more serious flaw. As it turns out not many Muslim women are that interested in paradise. It is a place where faithful Muslim men go for their reward of a pleasurable life. So the stories and lessons were sort of moot as they really failed to connect. I did a second set of story lessons that I called Heaven Is For Women and in it was more aggressively evangelistic and I dealt with salvation and eternal life as something that began now, not sometime in the unfathomable future, and that it was through acceptance and a relationship with the Father made possible through Jesus, the one who showed great concern for women and dealt with them compassionately. I thought that I was satisfied but then found that there were many very conservative Muslim women who were not interested in any “Christian” teaching. Then I found a study that investigated how women in that part of the world would get together to share their misfortune stories in order to discharge their pent-up emotion. This led to the third set of stories (no lessons with “Christian” teaching) of Bible women who suffered misfortune in their lives. Then I added how God redeemed their lives. As it turned out, when a storyer would tell the stories, it provoked questions and discussion, so that in time as trust in the storyer built, opportunity came for “Christian” teaching, the very thing the women thought they didn’t want. There are many other examples I could give you. I’ve learned my lesson in the value of knowing spiritual worldview issues before storying the Bible.

How Do I Discover a People Group’s Worldview?

First let me give you some areas to explore in your discovery process and then I want to talk about how to actually get this information. I’ve been accused of simply pandering to listener’s perceived needs. No, I am looking for those open doors to get a hearing and a heart tuned to what I have to say. I want to find where they are on their spiritual journey. It is kind of like the function of the diagnostic question in EE III. Then I want to know some of the factors that may be hindering or precipitating toward change, and finally the out-and-out explicit barriers and bridges. Let me list these for you:

1. Explore the people groups’ perceived needs. Where do they see themselves as needy or lacking in their lives? This often points to an openness for new information that will lead to changing their circumstances. Where there is perceived satisfaction there is greater resistance to change. Also look for where they feel strong or most competent or satisfied, especially as this relates to their understanding of salvation and how to obtain it.

2. Explore the changes occurring among a people—changes in their history, culture, beliefs, attitudes, fears, religion, safety and political situation as it may relate to their national status.
a. Changes in the past that could precipitate either an openness to the gospel or that further hardened attitudes against the Gospel, the Bible and evangelical Christianity. Also look for factors which may have led to a greater openness or expectation of future change as bridges.
b. Changes occurring at present which occupy their attention and energy. These are generally topics of conversation and general interest in public and over the media. If these are immigrants who have left their culture and people, there is much change going on.
c. Changes that are feared or impending that can generate a climate of fear of outcome, upsetting of communal, social or religious harmony. In the same vein there are expectations resulting from dreams and other factors that provoke a desire to change, such as a desire for peace and harmony, education or literacy, safety, health, nutrition and housing and work.

3. Observe and note obvious Barriers which are freely and openly voiced often by gatekeepers, religious or political opinion leaders who seek to preserve their status and control. Some of these are traditional barriers that commonly exist and others may be more covert and embedded in their culture. Family elders are often gatekeepers. For immigrant people groups a good knowledge of the folk forms of their national religions is good to know. What parallels and differences does it have with Christianity?

4. Observe and note obvious Bridges which freely expressed most often by younger people, those dissatisfied with the status quo, or who have suffered a failure of their religion to fulfill their needs and so are open to change. Peers may provide bridges, especially peers who are already settled, or who have already made satisfactory changes.

Developing a Practical Working List of Worldview Issues

There are several ways to come at worldview information and put it into a usable form. You need to be aware of this information and then process it into a usable form. Here are typical ways to gather the needed information:

1. What is obvious and already known (or suspected) among a people about their beliefs, religious rituals, and understanding of the relationship to God? What is considered as sin and what effect does it have on people, what are sin’s consequences? Where does one find forgiveness for sin? Write down what you already know and add to the list from your continued observations.

2. What has already been written regarding your people group? Are there some educational studies you can refer to? These often contain a wealth of information even when connected with secular studies—birth rituals, death rituals, their typical work, festivals, family structure, their religion rituals for worship and seeking help from the deity. Some of my best initial information came from these kinds of sources. Check internet sites (be sure to compare and weigh all sources as some sources are biased though may still contain useful information.)

3. Plan to interview a wide variety of people from among the ethnic center. These should include new believers (if there are any), unbelievers, men and women representing youth, married, and older adults. The older adults will be more conservative and knowledgeable of the customs and rituals of their people. Younger people will be more open and idealistic, curious, often desiring to experiment with change. Generally pastors and longtime believers are not as reliable a source for the needed information as their worldview may be more “Christian” than typical of the group as a whole. Do not ask “why” questions, but do ask “what” questions. What do you do when someone wrongs you? What do you do when you know in your heart that you are guilty of sin or wronging another? How do you worship? When do you pray?

4. Look for trends. Some worldview issues are non-negotiable and therefore not subject to much change over time. Other worldview issues are undergoing change or are likely to change—unstable or no longer seen to be satisfactory explanations for life—Westernization, secularizing trends, old ways are no longer relevant, “our gods have failed us.”

5. Have some informal discussion groups in which the questions of life and spiritual issues are brought up. Talk about worship and why they do, power encounters, the source of blessing, how to restore broken relationships, and some general questions about life, death and life beyond death. When someone wrongs you what is done: revenge, forgiveness or restitution?

6. Share and compare notes with other Great Commission Christians working among the same people.

7. Ask for some of the people’s stories. In this you are looking for how they tell stories, and how morals or other teachings may be embedded in their stories and passed along to the next generation. If there are collections of stories in books, read these as well.

8. Compile your list, collecting together issues which are related. One handy way to do this is to put the worldview findings on 3x5 cards and then sort them into categories. If you have a relational database computer program, use that.

9. Collate your list by looking for issues that are related or dependent on one another. Can these be expressed collectively so that addressing any one it addresses the whole group?

10. Prioritize the list giving highest priority to those issues which obviously will affect openness and receptivity to Bible truth and ability to act on it. Consider delaying to a later list those issues which could be addressed in discipling.

You should have a list ranging from the most significant (as you can tell at this time) to the least significant. The larger your sampling, the greater your accuracy. You can always update your list as you tell the stories and teach the lessons and get feedback from your listeners by their questions and from answers in the pre-story and post-story dialog sessions.

The worldview information will consist of a list of issues which may or not appear to be related in any way at all. It is essential to look for general trends and characteristics and combine those issues which are similar or related. There will be issues which are beyond your purpose and scope to address. Simply be aware these exist but do not include them in your working list.

Much of the above information may already be known by you but needs to be brainstormed, written out and verified as to whether it is generally true or not and among what segment of the population. New believers are a good source of information about what attracted them to the gospel whereas longtime Christians usually are not a good source for this information.


J.O.Terry, Bible Storying Consultant & Trainer, 8/06