Worldview is a common term in mission discussions that at times can be somewhat fuzzy. Sometimes worldview is reduced to certain values, and at other times it is somewhat synonymous with culture.
I believe that worldview is not just a synonym for culture and is more comprehensive than values such as shame/honor, fear/power, or guilt/innocence. Yes, these values are an important aspect of a worldview, but a worldview answers other questions as well.
Introducing Story-Strategic Methods: Twelve Steps toward Effective Engagement by Robert Strauss is part of a four-book series written by the consultants from Worldview Resource Group. I reviewed A Novel Approach in a December 14, 2017 blog post.
Tom Steffen’s book in this series, Worldview-based Storying, was published May 8, 2018. The fourth book in the series by John Cosby and Elena Steiner is coming out soon. I look forward to reviewing both of these in future posts. I’ve started reading Steffen’s book and it is looking really good.
The series advocates an approach to storytelling that recognizes that there is always “more to the story.” That “more” is the worldview of both the teller and the hearer of the story.
I have frequently been asked about resources for local church missions programs. In 2015, Steve Beirn, Global Ministries Pastor at Calvary Church in Lancaster, PA, published Well Sent: Reimaging the Church’s Missionary-Sending Process. Steve served at our sending church in Holland, Michigan before going to Calvary so I know him well. He writes with passion and experience. In the introduction he writes:
This book seeks to elevate the role of the local church in the sending effort. The trend in missions today is to place the individual at the center of the sending process. Sometimes the agency is placed at the center. This book places the local church at the center of the sending process. – Well Sent, p. 17.
Is facilitating better than teaching for disciple-making? In my opinion, both are essential for disciple-making. An online search on the difference between facilitators and teachers found the following:
Traditionally, teachers are the ones with knowledge and expertise in a particular field. They impart knowledge through a variety of means to their students. Facilitators build on the knowledge base of the group of students to find the answers to questions. Both methods of instruction serve a purpose and allow students the chance to grow.
Stubborn Perseverance: How to launch multiplying movements of disciples and churches among Muslims and others (a story based on real events) by James Nyman with Robby Butler.
How-to manuals are generally difficult to read, and those who purchase them are not often motivated to read them from start to finish. Stubborn Perseverance is a different sort of how-to manual. Now in a second edition, the book explains a step-by-step process of starting a church planting movement among an unreached Muslim people group. But it is presented as a story, a novel that walks through the experience of a small group of Indonesian believers who work together to start such a movement among their own people group. The story is based on real events. The characters and their experiences were created by combining various people and their situations, both to protect their identity and to better illustrate a number of principles in one short book.
The author is telling a story that probably reflects his own experiences and the stories of many of his own friends. James Nyman (a pseudonym?), serves as a cross-cultural missionary in Indonesia. He and his wife have been actively seeking to start a church planting movement among an unreached people since 2009, and in the past few years, have been coaching various missionary teams and training workers in the skills and strategy outlined in the novel. So this novel is real-to-life, and its principles have been tried and refined in practice.
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