Addressing Worldview

From SPARK

Introduction

One of God’s major purposes for the Bible is to communicate a different worldview to mankind. But He is communicating to people with contrary worldviews, which takes time and experience to modify them. God has designed the Bible so that it can modify worldviews in a progressive and principled way, leading people to salvation and encouraging church planting. This can be done by helping people read or hear the portions which will be most helpful to them and in the most helpful sequence. This requires consideration of the audience’s existing worldview(s) and other elements of their culture. Then two questions can be addressed:

1. Which Scripture will help them accept the worldview of the Bible?
2. What are the best ways of communicating these stories?

Let’s examine a community in northern Africa that we’ll call the Hundai.

Barriers

The worldview of the Hundai includes some foundational assumptions that make it difficult to understand the Scriptures or accept its message.

Let’s look at some of these “barriers”:

• They believe God created the earth with evil and death and that these are not the result of sin.
• They believe God is distant, unknowable, and impulsive, and that this is unrelated to man’s sin.
• They doubt God’s love, justice, consistency, and purposeful management of history.
• They believe that God can do anything, good or bad, whether consistent with his laws or not, so He can save whomever he wants.
• They believe that people are basically good and just need to be taught what to do; they do not need regeneration.
• They believe that they will be punished in hell for a period of time proportionate to their sins, unless God forgives them, but that infidels and rebels go to hell forever.
• They believe that the punishment for one’s sins cannot be borne by a sacrifice or by another person.
• They believe that Jesus was a prophet and was called the Messiah.
• They believe that Jesus was not Lord, Savior, or God.
• They believe that Christians have corrupted the Bible and that it should be avoided.
• They think Christians believe Jesus is the physical son of God and Mary.
• They think that Christians worship three gods: God, Jesus, and Mary.
• They believe that Christianity should be shunned.
• They believe that converts to Christianity are a danger and shame to their community and should be severely punished.

Bridges

Some Hundai worldviews encourage them to listen to the Scriptures which help them understand its message.

Some of these “bridges” to communication are:

• They already know something about God, Satan, angels, demons, prophets, Scriptures, laws, trespasses, forgiveness, resurrection, judgment, paradise, and hell.
• They respect Scripture, even if they think it has been corrupted.
• They relate well to Old Testament culture.
• They admire the prophets and want to know more about them and their messages.

Good news!

There are some Biblical themes that conflict with the Hundai worldview but which they still find attractive. These themes are good news to them and create interest in hearing the Message.

1. God’s goodness, love, reliability, and care for his servants. These qualities are demonstrated in the stories of Abraham, Joseph, the Exodus, Daniel, Jesus, and the Apostles, among others.
2. God’s benevolent management of history as he works through events to oppose evil, to train his servants in righteousness and truth, and to fulfill his good purposes for his people. This is clearly seen in the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, David, Jonah, Daniel, Job, and in Revelation.
3. The portrait of Jesus himself: his kindness, devotion, wisdom, power, and ongoing reign as Savior and King. Jesus is presented in all of the Gospels, but Luke is used the most to introduce people to Jesus.
4. The love and forgiveness exhibited by true followers of Jesus.

This can be seen in stories from the Acts of the Apostles and in the lives of true disciples who people meet today. A similar theme is present in the life of Joseph.

1. The offer of personal forgiveness and acceptance by God. This is presented in the Gospels and in Acts.
2. The assurance of salvation from hell and acceptance into God’s kingdom. This is foretold in Isaiah 53, and again in the Gospels (Matt. 11:27–29 and Luke 7:36–50; 10:20; 12:32; 23:42–43; John 3:14–16; 11:25–27; 20:31).
3. The offer of a personal relationship with the Lord, fully realized in the next life. Matt. 18:20; 28:20; John 14:16-2; Acts 18:10; Rev. 21–22
4. The offer of inner cleansing and renewal through the Holy Spirit. These are presented in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles.
5. The offer and example of grace to live a godly life through the strengthening and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is described in Acts and in some of the Epistles.
6. Power to resist and repel Satan and evil spirits in Jesus’ name. This is found in Luke 10:17–20, Acts, James, and 1 Peter.

Other relevant characteristics of the community

The Hundai have an oral culture. They prefer and learn best from narratives, proverbs, poetry, songs, and drama. They mentally store information as stories, proverbs or songs. They organize stories in relation to their historical settings and sequence and in relation to the personalities involved. They will accept concepts that conflict with their worldview quicker if they are demonstrated in a story of an historical event rather than stated in an exposition.

Even those Hundai who are literate, think reading is tiresome and unsociable. Most people have access to a radio and cassette player. They enjoy gathering in groups and listening to broadcasts or recordings. Their favorite material is songs, drama, dramatically told stories, and poetry. Recordings must be well done, since the sound quality of what they hear is as important to them as the content.

Most Hundai people hesitate to read or listen to a Scripture story about Jesus, but will gladly read or listen to a story about Abraham.

What we did

Scripture narratives addressing worldview

Considering these factors of Hundai culture, the local team (consisting of local, national and expatriates) chose to produce a panoramic Bible that took advantage of the power of narratives to change worldview. This provided the people with much of the worldview and contextual information they needed to understand the Gospel.

Biographical portions

Instead of selecting whole books from the Old Testament, the team selected biographical portions that fit into a story about a certain person. This took advantage of the interest the Hundai have in the Old Testament heroes and prophets.

This series is called The Lives of the Prophets. It begins with Adam and ends with Jesus the Messiah. The biographical portions are printed as individual booklets and also together as a single book. The Hundai team also rewrote the biographical portions as drama and recorded them with multiple voices. The recordings are in 13.5-minute modules, each with an introduction and closing. This makes them suitable for radio programs and is a good size for discussion and memorization. The recordings are on cassettes and CDs. They can be downloaded from the web as MP3 files. This is also true of the series called The Lives of the Apostles

Each section is introduced using a dramatic modern-day setting. A respected elder narrates a story about a prophet or hero of the Bible who speaks to their questions or issues. Before narrating the story, the elder provides some information and clarifies the historical link between his story and other stories his listeners have heard. In dramatized versions there are multiple speakers. In either case, there are sound effects and appropriate local music. Sometimes the narrator uses poetry.

Most of the sections end with a mention of the theme of the story. Often the theme is mentioned by one of the listeners who has gotten the point. Sometimes the listener repeats the theme by saying something like, “This story reminds me of something that Jesus said in the Gospel, that ….” Sometimes the narration is interrupted a listener who asks a question or wants confirmation that she has inferred the correct conclusion. These are the essential “footnotes”, but they are not allowed to interrupt discourse units. In a few cases, if the narrator relates an event that the Hundai find shocking or contrary to their culture or beliefs, one or more of the listeners interrupt with their own exclamation, and the narrator then clarifies the event's meaning. This helps the Hundai to identify with the people on the tape.

Characteristics of the Selections

• They make good stories
• The setting and sequence of passages should provide a progression of themes.
• The total set of portions should present all the major themes of the Bible with a minimum of bias.
• The total set should include the stories that are used by the local church for evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, and church planting.
• The selections should build on bridges, remove barriers (by multiple examples of the contrary view), and clearly present the “good news”.
• The selections should aim to build confidence in the Scriptures early in the series.
• Other things being equal, priority should be given to passages that address felt needs, reflect commonalities of culture, and do not require too much contextual information.

Here are the portions that were chosen:

The Lives of the Prophets

Adam

Noah David with some Psalms

Job Psalms of David in song or poetry

Abraham Solomon with some Proverbs

Joseph Jonah

Moses in Egypt Isaiah

Moses in Sinai Daniel 1–9

Ruth Jesus (Luke) Hannah, Samuel

* abridged

Follow-up to The Lives of the Prophets is provided in The Lives of the Apostles.

The Lives of the Apostles

Pentecost, Peter, Stephen Acts 1–7

Inclusion of the Gentiles Acts 8–12, James

Paul in Asia Minor Acts 13–15, Galatians

Paul in Europe Acts 15:36–18:22, Phil, 1 & 2 Thess

Paul in Ephesus Acts 18:23–20:15; 1 Cor; Rom

Paul in Judea Acts 20:16–25:12

Final words of Paul & Peter Acts 25:13–end, 1&2 Peter, 1 & 2 Tim, Titus

Memoirs and revelations of John John 14–17:8, 1 John, Rev 1:1-4, 3, 7:9–17, 19:11–21, 20:10–21:4, 21:22–22:9

* abridged

To summarize, these portions consist of narrative and dialogue, poetry, and proverbs, which present a panorama of the Biblical metanarrative. Trust in the Scriptures is built early in the series. The portions present all the major themes of the Bible, in a progressive, learner-friendly manner. They clearly demonstrate God's goodness and love, faithfulness and justice. They show man's hopeless sinfulness and the role of sacrifices in atoning for sin. They present the prophecies of the Messiah and show Jesus as Savior and Lord. The work of the Holy Spirit is described, alongside a model of discipleship, church life and ministry. The selections also affirm women and appeal to them.

Progression of themes and responses

The progression of themes and responses can be illustrated using the chart, called a “Gray Matrix” after Frank Gray of FEBC. Most of the Hundai community begin at the lower left. They are shown at the left because they lack confidence in the Scriptures. They are shown near the bottom because their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures is low, even distorted. As they listen to the portions, discuss them, and memorize them, many of them become convinced that the stories are true and relevant for their lives. This is shown in the chart by the rightward path of a wide arrow, towards acceptance of the message. Because of the confidence in the Scriptures that is built up in the Old Testament portions, people who have listened to those have little hesitation going on to the story of Jesus.

As the people read or listen through the series, their understanding progressively improves. This is shown by an upwards path of the wide arrow. After completing the Gospel and listening to the preaching in Acts, some people become uncomfortable with the implications and stop listening for a while, while others carry on. This is shown by a split in the arrow.

Results

Lives of the Prophets/Apostles

The series has been popular with the entire Hundai community. Some of the observed responses are listed below:

• Many people have purchased the series, especially the audio cassettes.
• Radio ministries have broadcast the tapes.
• Many have listened to the radio broadcasts, and some have recorded the broadcasts onto blank cassettes.
• Because these tapes are entertaining, people give them to others as gifts or even copy them to resell on the market.
• Believers let friends overhear them playing the tapes and then let them borrow them. Some people have had ten or more of the same tape out on loan!
• Believers also invite their friends to listen to the tapes as a group and then discuss them. This helps them to present the Word and model openness to it.
• People commonly memorize several tapes.
• People who listen to the stories of the Old Testament prophets go on to listen to the Gospel and the Apostles.
• As people listen to the series again and again, their understanding improves and their worldview changes.
• Many fellowships of believers have formed.
• Some readers have changed from listening to audio tapes to reading the Scriptures.
• Some non-readers now want to learn to read.

Of course, this is all by the grace of God, Who has given us His Word that it might bear fruit in the lives of people from every nation.

by Richard Brown © 2004

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