Let’s Talk Worldviews

In my last post, I suggested that at the core of the disagreement between Job and his friends was a difference in worldviews. Job saw God and humanity very differently than his friends did. That’s a pretty core belief. Rather than listening and learning from each other, they just argued. So if I wanted to, I guess I could say polarization is biblical. ;)

If you want a great deep dive into what follows, pick up the book Effective Intercultural Evangelism: Good News in a Diverse World by Jay Moon. 

In his book, Jay unpacks four dominant worldviews. The dominant worldview in the Western Church has a guilt/justice framework in regards to sin. It goes something like this: you have sin, and the assumption is how you feel about that sin is guilty. The way to fix that problem is justice. Jesus died for your sin and paid the price (justice) for your sin. This is very simplistic, read the book. For the older generations in the church, the ones in control, this is their worldview. When they share the gospel, it’s very much from this perspective. 

Jay talks about an emerging worldview. Their posture toward sin is very different. He describes it as an indifference/belonging worldview. The emerging generation is indifferent to sin. They don’t feel guilty about it. In some cases, they are proud of it and find identity in it. So when the old guard comes along and says you’ve got sin and should feel guilty, it doesn’t go well. One of the most common complaints about the Church today is that people are “judgey”. The good news doesn’t sound good. It sounds well, “judgey”. 

Jay retells the story of Zaccheus (Zack) as a model for how to share good news with someone from an indifference/belonging worldview. Zaccheus was a wee little and a… Ok for a few of you that old kids song is now stuck in your head. You’re welcome. What we see in the story. Zaccheus climbs the tree to see Jesus over the crowd because he’s curious. 

Now Zack was a tax collector. He was despised. Why? Because he was a sellout. He disowned his Jewish people and faith in order to extort taxes from his own oppressed people and send the money to their oppressors. And along the way he took a little extra to build his wealth. 

So if anyone should feel guilt for their sin it was Zack. But Jesus doesn’t start there. It’s fascinating. What does Jesus do? He’s like “Hey Zack, can me and my friends (the disciples) come hang at your place?” Zack was like “yeah, let’s do it”. Dude probably didn’t have a lot of friends. As they hang, Zack is like “man I like this group of people”. And then what do we see. Zack wants to be part of the group, so he says I’m going to not extort money anymore. I’m going to make amends. He wants to belong and so he begins to align his behavior with the group. Good news for Zack was belonging.

Here’s another example. I started playing pickleball a couple of years ago. I ended up meeting a group of people at the local park who played together regularly. They invited me to play. At the time I was playing with a cheap paddle. They all had really nice paddles and most had one from the brand Engage. I enjoyed playing with the group. After a couple of months, I ordered an Engage paddle. No one from the group shamed me into that. They just invited me into their group. Once I belonged, I started to change my behavior (I learned a lot of good tactics) and my preferences (now I’ve got an Engage paddle). See how that works? 

Over the next couple of posts, we’re going to break down the predominant worldview we see in control in the Western Church along with what we are observing in this emerging worldview. I hope what you are able to see is that like Job and his friends, these worldviews are clashing. That clash is a part of what leads to deconstruction. And that worldview difference demands that we all share the gospel in a way that resonates as good news. 

Written by: Doug Foltz