Sent: 2006-08-25 08:33:42 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: A Blah story

"Get the big picture before you dive."


Fellow Buzzards,


Here's a Blah story I've recently sent out, along with some teaching tips I picked up from the guy who wrote it. Enjoy!



A BLAH STORY
Let me share with you an incredibly exciting story from New York City about how God used Blah, Blah, Blah recently at an international students getaway. At this event were students from perhaps 15 nationalities, including Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners and Europeans. Here's the report:

Hi Bayard,

I just got back from our international student conference. I did a workshop on Blah and it was a big hit. We had a Muslim who bought three of your books. I sold 16 copies in all. I divided the students in 6 small groups and each group made a poster for one of the worldviews. Then each group had to make a presentation about their poster/worldview. They really got into it and they took pictures of the posters. They remember the worldviews really well and one student from Denmark later came to Christ at the end of the conference. I think the discussion of worldviews really helped him to make his decision. . .

May Blah be greatly used in many lives.


Tim

This story blew my socks off! What made it particularly gratifying was to see how Blah worked in a genuinely pluralistic setting. Only about half the students were Christians, the rest were from all kinds of backgrounds. Using Blah's worldview categories helped them see the major worldviews and how the Biblical worldview is totally unique and attractive. How awesome!

On a didactic level, Tim used his 75 minutes very creatively. He took about 15 minutes to outline the Worldview Mantra (principles/rules that all worldviews share). Then he passed out descriptions of each of the six worldviews to six groups and gave each group the assignment to create their own poster and to explain the core ideas of the worldview to the larger group. The groups had about 25 minutes to work up their presentation. The last bit was the presentations to the larger group.

This approach is outstanding. Minimum of lecture. Student participation and involvement. Class interaction with the material. Not just one-way communication from teacher to students. Students teaching the material to each other. No boredom. What could be better?!

Sent: 2006-08-25 08:17:53 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: 1st Night - Intro to Worldviews

"Get the big picture before you dive."



Fellow Buzzards,

Last night I taught my first evening of classes at Channel Islands Bible College & Seminary. It was really fun. I've outlined the two sessions below.

My audience was adult learners. (I'm curious if my approach would fly with 11th & 12th graders in Christian high schools.)

Either of these sessions below could be added to the "What if you only have one shot?" post.



SESSION ONE
1. Had a discussion about what apologetics is ("I'm really sorry I'm a Christian" is not an example) and how Blah, Blah, Blah is NOT typical apologetics.

2. Pulled out of the class the basic definition of apologetics (defense of the faith, giving reasons for faith, appealing to people's minds/hearts) and 1 Peter 3:15. I asked the students to name the typical kinds of things apologetics does. Each time something was mentioned -- on the white board, toward the upper center of the board, I'd draw a smallish circle, all the circles pretty tightly packed. The circles represented things like trying to prove the existence of God; how do you know what you know; trying to show the superiority of Christ, or Christian ethics, and a whole bunch of others.

2. After we named all these types of typical apologetic activities, I drew two slanting lines down from the cluster of circles representing the two sides of a mountain. I then wrote "Mountain of Xn Assumptions" on the mountain and said that typical Christian apologetics almost always assumes a mountain of material before it ever gets started. In other words, it starts with conclusions that need to be proven, rather than really examining the assumptions upon which those conclusions are based. I then had the students name the kinds of assumptions upon typical Christian apologetics are based (God as creator, Jesus as Son of God, the atonment, the Bible as the Word of God -- and a whole bunch of others).

3. Then I said, typical Christian apologetics is all fine and dandy if everybody basically agrees on the mountain of assumptions. But too often we end up talking only to ourselves. Because -- and you need a little dramatic flair here as you start drawing other clusters of circles with other mountainsides stretching toward the bottom of the page -- other people & cultures have completely different mountains of assumptions and sets of conclusions that they're working with. The problem is that too much of typical Christain apologetics doesn't grapple with this whole mountain range of assumptions -- worldviews. I then asked students what they thought the simplest definition of worldview could be. They guessed right! ("It's your view of the world!") Exactly -- what you see as real, true and good. The issue of worldviews is: We Christians just look at the other conclusions (mountain tops) and say, "Wrong -- doesn't conform to the Bible." And they do the same to us! We lack the ability to get on others' wavelengths, walk in their moccasins, have empathy for where they're coming from as human beings.

4, This leads to the big, honking point. I then asked, "What's the way around this? Is there anything that all humans have in common?" A bunch of things could be named, but I was angling for this answer, and finally had to give it myself: "We're all created in the image of God (whether we believe in God or not)." I wrote at the bottom of the white board, in a way that spanned all the mountain bases, the words "CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD." This is titanically important, because it's a deep truth that's too often neglected by typical Christian apologetics, and it's the surest basis for us finding common ground and common humanity with people who don't think like us, who have different worldviews. It gives us a chance to connect with them in ways we haven't before. It helps us as Christians to see that we're not superior to non-Christians, nor inferior to their "really smart ones," but that we're all in the same boat.

SESSION TWO
I passed out copies of the Worldview Mantra (the five points from chapter 3). I asked if they knew what a mantra was (they'd heard of chanting cults and so on). I said, yes, by chanting they hope to name a god or get in harmony with the vibrations of the universe. That's NOT what we're about to do. But I do want us to chant these five points because they are so important and they're the basis for many other things we'll be doing in the next seventeen weeks.

2. So I got the students out of their chairs and had them chant along with me the five points. It sounded kind of like what you'd hear in a Catholic mass, not that that's the only way to go about doing a chant.

3. Then we talked about each of the points one by one, showing the significance of each. Each of these points levels the playing field in two ways: they take away disadvantages that Christians are saddled with all the time, and they "bring Christians down" to the level of human beings just like everybody else. Disadvantages: that Christians "have religion/myths/fables/superstitions" while other people "facts/science/reason;" that only Christians operate on the basis of "faith;" that only Christians "don't examine their assumptions;" that only Christians "are exclusivistic and narrow-minded;" and that only Christians "have strict, inflexible rules." Bringing Christians down to the level of human beings: Christians also have a worldview (we're not excepted); Christians also operate on faith (we cannot "prove" God's existence through science or reason beyond the shadow of a doubt); Christians also fail to examine our assumptions; Christians (to an extent) are narrowed by worldview just like everybody else; and Christians also believe in strict, inflexible rules that must be obeyed.

4, This exercise can make Christians nervous because it seems to be taking away the one advantage they have been taught they have (Truth). In fact, this exercise gives us a sounder foundation on which to build Christian truth and a more effective way to communicate Christian truth to non-Christians. But it's good to acknowledge the nervous factor and to allay some fears. The way I did it was by reminding students that the president and founder of the school liked my book and asked me to teach the class and that if they had any concerns to read ahead in the book to see where I was going with all this. I tried to assure them, while sticking to my guns that it's important not only to believe certain things are true, but WHY those things are true. Jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our MIND and all our strength. Too often we ignore the fact that Jesus added MIND to the OT formula.

Sent: 2006-08-21 19:50:49 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Writing a Decent Paper

"Get the big picture before you dive."

Fellow Buzzards,

If you're going to teach worldviews, and you want people to actually "get it," you're going to have to assign some papers. And read them.

To keep from driving yourself crazy, start easy, assigning some simple, personal discription of something that someone knows wll (like oneself). See how they do there, then work up to more complicated ideas.

It's not a writing class per se, but nothing aids thinking like writing one's own thoughts down.

To that end, I offer this essay:


WRITING A DECENT PAPER
By Bayard Taylor (created 8/5/2006)


Writing and Thinking
If you want to write a decent paper, meaning one that makes sense, you've got to realize that the only way I can know what's going on inside your brain is through your words. Clear writing indicates clear thinking. Fuzzy writing indicates -- well, I think you see where I'm going with that.


Planning Your Paper

• Narrow your big idea down into one simple sentence. This is your thesis, your core idea, your purpose statement, the one thing that everything else will refer to. You don't have to use this exact sentence in your paper, but everything you say in the paper should support this main idea.
• Jot down your ideas and organize them in the order you want to present them.
• Craft your introductory paragraph to include your purpose and how you intend to approach it.
• Make sure the ideas flow from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next. Don't jump around from one unrelated idea to another.
• Give a clear summary at the end.

Essentials for an Effective Paper

• When you use pronouns such as this, these, it, his, her, their, and so on -- make sure it's clear to the reader what you're referring to.
• When you're summarizing what someone else has said -- make sure you clearly distinguish between yourself and the other person. (Hint: inject phrases such as, "she continued" or "he concluded" or "she built this idea upon…" Also, use phrases such as "it seems to me" to set your thinking apart from someone else's.)
• When you make a point -- support it! You can support it with authorities (experts, repected leaders, God's Word); with reasoning ( logic, persuasive arguments); with evidences (facts, testimonies, scientific studies, universal experiences); or with concrete examples (comparisons, contrasts, historical events, illustrations, scripture, current events, books, movies). Don't leave the reader guessing what you mean.
• When you give your opinion on something -- reveal the assumptions, reasons, or facts that back you up. (Hint: Pretend you're somebody else and ask of your own writing, "Why are you saying that?" or "How do you know that?" If such questions are unanswered, answer them, or explain why such answers are beyond the scope of this essay.)
• Use a spell-and-grammar-checker, but don't depend on them totally. If you're not sure if it's the right word or the right spelling, use a distionary.
• Read the essay "out loud" to yourself as if you were reading a story to someone else. If it's choppy, or if it doesn't flow or make sense, rewrite it so you can read them out loud, like a story.

Writing the paper

• Stay on point.
• Keep it simple.
• Assume you're writing to an intelligent reader who is curious but unfamiliar with your topic.
• Go from the known to the unknown, from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
• Observe the rule of first use: When you first use an unfamiliar term, adequately define it.

Beginner's Mistakes -- If you must make mistakes, at least avoid these

• Contradicting yourself.
• "Filler" and "fluff." Make every sentence count. Don't repeat unnecessarily.
• Phrases like "the fact that. . ."
• Using "always" or "never" -- unless you can defend them.
• The passive voice ("the ball was hit by the batter"); the active voice ("the batter hit the ball") is almost always better.
• Run-on sentences and sentence fragments.
• Switching tenses in the middle of a paragraph (such as from present to past).
• Switching persons in mid-paragraph (such as from "he" or "she" to "they" or "you").
• Wrong names, dates & places. Check if yo're unsure.
• Inaccurate descriptions of others' viewpoints. (Avoid "straw men.")
• Not following through on what you've said you're going to do. (Don't "bait-and-switch.")

Theological Guidelines

• For Bible quotes or allusions, give Bible references in parentheses, like this: (1 Cor. 5:7).
• Cite which translation(s) of the Bible you are using, like this: (KJV for the King James Version; NIV for the New International Version).
• When using the Bible, always try to make sure that the message you're taking out of the passage comes out of the text itself (avoid forcing meanings onto the text).
• Don't assume that everybody believes just like you. Try to bring your readers up to speed with where you're coming from.
• Avoid "Christianese" in-language.
• Show how Christian teaching overlaps with or is different from other beliefs.
• Expose the lies of our culture in the light of God's truth.
• Engage the culture. Use illustrations from real life.
• Aim for building lifelong disciples of Jesus, not just one-time decisions.
• If you're using a Bible passage about which you know there has been significant controversy among Christians in the past, acknowledge that fact, present the main alternatives and show why you think your interpretation is the best. Don't just assume that your interpretation is the only possible way to see things.
• Tell stories. Jesus gave almost all his theology through stories, so we can use stories, too.
• Tell something about yourself: your story, your studied opinion, your feelings. Self-disclosure is incarnational, and the Christian faith is nothing if not incarnational.
• Avoid forcing the Bible into contorted numerological schemes and codes.
• Learn how to do basic word studies accurately.
• Allow the Bible to be an ancient book and speak to its earliest intended audience. Try to recover that message first before you make applications to today.

Sent: 2006-08-21 19:27:20 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Anti-Apologetics

"Get the big picture before you dive."

Fellow buzzards,

Exciting news:
1. Tanja Geue, former professor of Education at Azusa Pacific University, will be using Blah, Blah, Blah as the text for her first semester 11th grade course in Bible & Apologetics at Ventura County Christian High School (Ventura, CA).
2. I'll be using Blah, Blah, Blah as the text for a 3 semester hour course in Apologetics at Channel Islands Bible College & Seminary (Oxnard, CA).

In each case the Blah approach is different from how apologetics is usually done.

Usually teachers of apologetics force their students to take a leap off a steep cliff into deep waters on the first day. Instead, Blah starts where people are at and allows people to slowly get acclimated into the subject at hand.

Often teachers of apologetics start with words like "epistemology" and "modal logic." These kinds of terms are impractical for 99% of people. They're fine if you're going to be an academic teaching other academic types. But they're not for the day to day life of any buy a very few.

Almost always teacher of apologetics start with a particular denominational or theological agenda that must be proven correct and everything that disagrees with that agenda must be proven wrong. The conclusions are pre-set. Instead, Blah prefers to get people very grounded in the basics of the biblical worldview and how the biblical worldview works. It leaves it to the reader to work out the details later.

Usually apologetics uses logic, probability, evidence, the authority of what God has said or personal experience as the main analytical tool. With Blah, the main analytical tool is comparing conceptual worlds (worldviews).

Finally, usually apologetics classes spend much of their time explicating big-time philosophers and theologians. In contrast, Blah begins with kid stories, fables, movies and other stuff people are familiar with.

So you could say that, from the perspective of how apologetics is usually done, Blah is anti-apologetics.

Sent: 2006-08-01 19:43:35 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Phase 2 topics

"Get the big picture before you dive!"


Fellow Buzzards,

I said it before and I'll say it again: I really hope you are signing up other worldview teachers for this newsletter. This stuff is important enough that we need to be talking to one another.

In my previous three posts, we expanded on the first, third and fifth resources in the list below:

1. One-shot 20- to 40-minute presentations.
2. Weekend seminar outlines (3-5 session).
3. A basic 7-week worldview orientation - phase 1 topics.
4. An intermediate 7-week worldview orientation - phase 2 topics.
5. A semester-long college-level syllabus for a worldview course.
6. Stuff on leading discussions on worldviews for Christian high schools and home schoolers.

In this post, you'll find the 4th resource: Phase 2 topics, designed for after the basic 7-week orientation is completed.

People often want to tackle these hot-button topics before they're ready before they've firmly established a basic biblical worldview. I encourage you as a teacher to resist the temptation to dive in before people have gotten the big picture.

Here's how I've done it with high schoolers: Near the end of Phase 1 I ask the group to vote on which topics they want to cover in Phase 2. This gives them some ownership of the topics and helps prevent me from teaching stuff nobody cares about.

I plan to do something similar with students at Channel Islands Bible College & Seminary, but some of the topics below won't apply to them because they've already gone to college or don't plan to go.



Soooo -- ladies and gentlemen, I give you. . .

PHASE 2 TOPICS
Note (a): It's not absolutely necessary that people go through Phase 1 before they do any of these Phase 2 topics. But if people aren't familiar with Phase 1 it slows things down because of all the review or because you have to spend precious time laying the groundwork for the issues at hand.

Note (b): I'm sorry if this list seems a bit tedious. I'll probably end up shortening it later.

• Revelation Knowledge: How to live a supernatural life, depending on the Holy Spirit while at the same time respecting scholarship, logic and other intellectual disciplines -- and avoiding the trap of living a super-rational life, depending totally on your rational capabilities.
• How to Talk to Absolutely Anybody: The art of conversation and earning the right to be heard. What it takes to be approachable instead of talking "at" people about the gospel.
• Resisting Groupthink & Committing Thought Crimes: Ill-liberalism and intolerance on the college campus and how to respond. Turning the tables on the Thought Police and Political Correctness; overcoming social control and censorship.
• Free Speech: Your precious right! Learning that disagreement is not hate speech, bigotry or intolerance. Also, the most disarming but direct thing you can say regarding your Christian faith to a postmodern audience.
• The Five Best Socratic Questions: How to use creative questions to clarify issues and to get others to think with you.
• Storytelling: The amazing key to reaching human hearts. The principles of incarnation, self-disclosure, learning from Jesus and learning from great storytellers of the past.
• The Hidden Pillars of Islam: What the history books (and Muslim evangelists) won't tell you. The massacre of the Banu Quraiysh and the religion of Muhammad.
• Cult, Anyone? Recognizing the tactics of what look like super committed Christian groups (Watch your wallet!). How they prey on your vulnerabilities and insecurities. How they mis-use Scripture and Christian tradition. How their worldview is unbiblical in the truest sense. Know cultish practices when you first encounter them and get out before it's too late!
• Inherit the Spin: What actually happened in the Scopes "Monkey" trial. What actually happened is far different from the portrayal in the play "Inherit the Wind." A study of a brilliant piece of propaganda.
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Evolution, But Were Afraid to Ask. The pros and cons of several positions on creation and evolution. How not to paint yourself into a corner.
• Violence in Monotheism: Holy war, just war & jihad. What is the biblical teaching on war? Is it different from Islam? How are we to reconcile the wars of conquest in Deuteronomy and Joshua with Jesus' teaching to turn the other cheek? What are the most important moral considerations in helping us think this issue through?
• The Bible and Homosexuality: Understanding the basic arguments. Examining homosexual activists' approach to the Bible looking at the ramifications for biblical authority.
• Hmmmm on Absolutes: What's absolute and what's not. Even though the Bible is God's Word, not everything in the Bible is absolute. How to separate the temporary from the enduring, the cultural from the universal -- using the Bible to interpret itself.
  
• Freedom, Democracy & the Bible: The untold story of how the biblical worldview is the only sufficient undergirding for human dignity and human rights.
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord: Colonialism, Imperialism and World Missions. One of the biggest objections to the gospel is Christian nations' attachment to ethnocentrism and imperialism. How to disentangle.
• Time, Times & Half a Time: Conflicting versions of The End. Various conceptions of time (including geologic time and astronomic distances) compared to biblical prophecy, Israel & God's kingdom. The agendas behind these interpretations.
• Slicing and Dicing: The game of categorizing worldviews. Examining different approaches to worldview categorization schemes and and how one's own worldview is always an issue.
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? The special case of the Jewish people. What do the Bible and history teach us Christians about the Jewish people, the People of God and Jewish-Christian relations today?
• Freud, Lloyd & Boyd: Psychology and Worldviews. The major psychological schools and which worldviews they "camp" in.
• The Soul of the American University: The inner workings of the knowledge club. How professors make it into the academy; academic freedom; tenure; reputation & making a name for one's self.
• Bigfoot, UFOs and the Mother of All Conspiracies: why Christians fall for conspiracy theories and what to do about it.
• Utopian Dreams: how Christians fall for romantic ideas, whether of the Left or Right, to "end human suffering," to "end poverty" and to "end war." A realistic response based upon the biblical worldview and the best of the church's social teaching.
• Sneak Worldviews: How filmmakers insinuate their worldviews into their movies.
• Vincent Van Worldview: art, artists and their worldviews.
• Worldviews in Music. Identifying common humanity, messages and worldviews in various types of music.
• Worldviews and Genre Studies. The intersection of worldview with literature genre studies.
• Of Faery Tales: Tolkien v. Lewis. Fantasy, allegory and the biblical worldview.
• Texts, Subtexts & Pretexts: The great struggle over interpretation (this one is an expansion of the discussion on Postmodernism).
• Gender Politics. How patriarchy and heteronormativity are considered very bad things according to radical feminism and transgender studies.
• Identity Politics. The ideology and worldview behind the class-warfare, method and political agenda of identity politics.
• Disney Religion. Worldviews expressed in Disney entertainment.
• Green Religion. The worldview roots of Radical Environmentalism.
• The Knowledge Wheel. How all the branches of knowledge reflect worldview perceptions.
• America's First New-Ager: Ralph Waldo Emerson and his Transcendentalism.
• America's First Nature Mystic: Henry David Thoreau, the Pond at Walden, and Environmentalism.
• Saints in the Hands of a Loving God: A completely different side of Jonathan Edwards.
• Love & Extravagance in Early America: Another side to the Puritans.
• Overcoming Professorial Intimidation: Wising up to professors' power plays and rhetorical tricks.
• Sifting Through Media Bias. The difference between "news" and "opinion." Identifying the political biases of new sources and sifting through media bias.
• One Biblical Worldview, or Many? Examining Bruce MacLaren's idea that there is not one biblical worldview, but many. Questions about the everything-is-ambiguous approach.
• Grades: How to Study When You Don't Have Enough Time. Getting the big perspective; how to maximize study time; how to cram for finals. Prayer and trusting God.
• Writing and Thinking: Good writing demonstrates good thinking. Bad writing demonstrates bad thinking. How to write a great paper (and incorporate worldview perspectives).
• Getting Your Money's Worth Out of College. Being a consumer while choosing a college. Aiming high. Evaluating an academic culture. Christian vs. Secular.
• Choosing Major & Other Big Decisions. How to make the big decisions in life.
• Being a Lifelong Public Christian. How to promote authentic Christian values in the marketplace of ideas. How not to surrender the public sphere to secularism or neo-paganism.
• Sex and Singleness. What's a Jesus Freak to do?
• The Fraternity & Sorority System. What's a Jesus Freak to do?