Worldview Awareness and Engagement in USA

1
Worldview Awareness and Engagement in USA

• A Look At Three
• Worldview Awareness and Engagement Approaches Now
  Offered Operating in the USA

2
The Three Most Common Worldview Approaches in USA

• A Biblical, Panta ta Ethne Approach to
  Identifying, Engaging and Influencing
  Non-Biblical Worldviews toward Christ (This
  Worldview format also draws on compatible social
  science findings and facts.)
• A Business-Setting Worldview (Cultural
  Intelligence) Approach Designed for Business
  People Working in Cross-Cultural Settings
• An American (Mainly Anglo) Classical Biblical
  Approach to Worldview Awareness and Challenge

3
Background Basics of A Biblical, Panta ta
Ethne Worldview Approach

• Worldview realities that take a Church Planter to
  a Biblical Panta ta Ethne Great Commission
  Focus
• Worldview Realities that take a Church Planter to
  Scientific Research Findings Concerning Worldview
  that are Compatible with a Biblical Panta ta
  Ethne Great Commission Focus

4
Background Basics of A Biblical, Panta ta
Ethne Worldview Approach

• Worldview Realities that take a Church Planter
  into a Collective Restatement of the Basics of
  Worldview Awareness and Engagement

5
Worldview realities that take a Church Planter to
a Biblical Panta ta Ethne Great Commission
Focus

• From Abraham to Revelation God developed a panta
  ta ethne awareness and engagement approach for
  Christian believers to follow. There are close to
  2,000 references in the Old and New Testament
  related to Gods plan for a panta ta ethne
  focus.
• The Great Commission focus flows out of a
  developing ethnic people group approach to the
  mandate for making disciples within each and
  every panta ta ethne

6
Worldview realities that take a Church Planter to
a Biblical Panta ta Ethne Great Commission
Focus

• Matthew 2819-20, Luke 24 and Acts 1 2 provide
  a cohesive summary of Christs plan for the
  emergence and implementation of His panta ta
  ethne focused Great Commission
• Christs plan was and is to start with a panta
  ta ethne focus in each persons Jerusalem, that
  continues into ones Judea and Samaria and even
  to ones uttermost.
• Each believer is to be aware of each ethnic group
  around them and engage them in their heart
  language. (See Acts 2)

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Worldview Realities that take a Church Planter to
Current Compatible Scientific Research Findings

• Modern research findings in the fields of
  anthropology, pedagogy, psychology along with
  common sense are found to be compatible with the
  Biblical panta ta ethne focus
• A narrative perspective concerning the basics of
  worldview research findings

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Christian believers are called upon to
  continually be aware of and looking for each
  ethnic person and people group around them,
  starting in their Jerusalem and going to the
  uttermost
• Christians are to inform themselves of the
  linguistic situation among each of the panta ta
  ethne. Gods choice for the Greek books of the
  New Testament to be recorded in Koine Greek
  instead of Classical Greek is an illustration and
  indication compatible with the Acts 2 heart
  language hearing event. Last year, SIL was
  asked by the US academic community to become
  responsible for identifying even the dialects of
  each language group in the world. SIL has agreed
  to do so.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• The worldview of each person begins forming at
  birth in the idiom of each persons heart
  language. Consequently each persons worldview
  is housed in idioms of his or her heart language
  (mother tongue).
• Worldview formation watersheds occur at 4-6 years
  of age and by 11-12 years of age, if not earlier.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Individuals are seldom aware of the elements of
  their own worldview until they age
• Some are made aware of certain of their worldview
  elements when those around them continue to point
  out specific worldview beliefs, values, habits,
  attitudes and practices. Some are positive and
  some are negative.
• Persons often quite easily recognize worldview
  traits in others, especially those close to them,
  while not recognizing their own.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• To engage and attempt to influence and change
  another persons worldview in favor of a
  Christian and Biblical worldview is more
  successfully achieved when engaging the other
  persons worldview in their heart language.
• If not addressed in their heart language the risk
  is that the other persons worldview will not be
  engaged, and thus seldom result in lifestyle
  change.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Multilingual persons, who are multilingual from
  birth, or who became significantly multilingual
  within the 1 to 11 years of age formation
  period, present a more complex worldview
  situation for those engaging their worldview in
  order to influence those persons worldview to
  change in favor of a Biblical and Christian
  worldview.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Multilingual and thus multicultural gatherings of
  persons when evangelizing them and planting a
  church among them also present a very
  complicated, and thus difficult worldview
  engagement situation. The heart language
  engagement is compromised and multiple barriers
  to worldview understanding and lifestyle change
  occurs. At best, in such cases individuals
  understand enough to know better but dont do
  better.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• In cases where the Gospel sharing and the broader
  and for sure deeper discipleship relationships
  are attempted and discipleship sharing is
  conducted, but not in the heart language,
  individuals seldom get the picture and again
  learn and know better but no lifestyle changes
  result from the relationship.
• The same is true when worldview change is only
  attempted through academic teaching without
  functionally being with the person when daily
  worldview events occur.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• More and more is being learned daily by us highly
  literate individuals concerning the very
  different learning styles of literate and oral
  communicators
• More and more is being learned by us highly
  literate individuals concerning the
  conceptualization abilities or styles of oral
  communicators

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Early on in the ministry of Jesus to His
  disciples we see Him in the Sermon on the Mount
  trying to help His disciples understand how there
  was going to be a more moral and Christian
  interpretation of even the Ten Commandments.
• They had a very difficult time getting the
  picture of the lifestyle change that Jesus was
  instituting and calling for His disciples to
  embrace. They failed in the Samaritan village.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Exegesis in a persons heart language is critical
  for conceptual understanding to occur and for
  lifestyle change to occur. This is one reason
  why we are so determined to put the Bible into
  the heart language and dialect of every
  ethnolinguistic people group in the world. That
  aim should not be ignored and allowed to die when
  they arrive at our American shores. Heart
  language is a must.

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A Collective Restatement of the Basics of
Worldview Awareness and Engagement

• Translation and use of excellent exegesis in one
  language for use in another heart language
  usually looses its focus and thus is not
  understood for it did not engage those people in
  their heart language

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Eight Deadly By-Products of Neglected Worldview
Identification and Use

• These are Singled Out for Emphasis

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• Increased generic witnessing, preaching and
  church planting habits that do not engage and
  speak to the worldview of the people within the
  EPG
• Increased knowledge of the Bible without
  significant and measurable change toward maturity
  in Christian lifestyle and propagation of the
  Gospel according to New Testament principles and
  practices
• Syncretized Christian beliefs and lifestyles
• Ritualism and legalism in the churches

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• Likely rejection of the Gospel as irrelevant to
  them within their cultural, worldview setting
• Inability of believers to relate the Gospel to
  the lost within the EPG in relevant cultural and
  linguistic ways that would result in spiritual
  and lifestyle changes
• Inability of believers in the churches to see and
  understand ethnic distinctions that are barriers
  or bridges to the Gospel
• Increased backdoor losses in the churches

22
A Business-Setting Worldview (Cultural
Intelligence) Approach Designed for Business
People Working in Cross-Cultural Settings
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(No Transcript)
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An American (Mainly Anglo) Classical Biblical
Approach to Worldview Awareness and Challenge
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• See the following Internet site for the
  Classical Biblical Worldview Engagement approach.
  You can read the columns below and other columns
  at ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

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• Prepared by Dr. Jim Slack
• For Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Use in
  Church Planting Forum
• March 2008