Sent: 2006-11-16 14:31:36 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Tips on using the Worldview Questionnaire

"Before you dive, get the big picture!"




Fellow Buzzards,

Here are some tips on how to use the Worldview Questionnaire resource that was posted just a few days ago:

* Before you go out, spend some time with God. Ask him to fill you, by faith, with the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to lead you to the right people. Anticipate that God is going to work through you.

* Remind yourself that this whole thing should be done with no pressure at all on you or on the people you're talking to. You're not there to try to paint people into a corner, to demonstrate your superior intellect or command of some area of knowledge, to win an argument, to catch them in contradictions, to prove that Christianity is "right" or to "prove" the truth of the gospel. The basic theological idea you're working with is that the Holy Spirit is the convincer, not you (John 16:9-11). You're just there to help people see the difference between their basic worldviews and the biblical. You don't have to say, "You're wrong" anymore. That's not your job. That's the Holy Spirit's job.

* Start by saying, "Hi -- we're talking to people about their worldviews. Can we ask you a few questions?" or something like that.

* You don't have to use the questionnaire. If it feels too awkward or burdensome, chuck the program. Just get into a conversation with somebody and look for an opportunity to ask, "That's interesting. Say, how would you describe your worldview?"

* Don't feel like you have to ask every question on the questionnaire. Just relax and be with people, with no big agenda to "get through" something.

* As you go through the questions and listen to the conversation, try to make your best guess as to which worldview the person is coming from. When you come to #7, draw out one of the six diagrams in the book, the one that most closely resembles what they've been talking about. Describe what the various symbols mean: the stick figures (people like you and me trying to figure things out), the box (our experience of the physical world) and whether the lines are solid, or have gaps (spiritual "portals"), or are dotted (indicating pantheism), the arrows coming into the box from outside the box (the activities of supernatural beings), and so on. Ask, "Does this pretty much describe your worldview?" and wait for the person to answer. Give them time to think, even if it seems like a really long time.

* Try not to use the "Designer Religion" diagram, since it's kind of a catch-all category anyway.

* At #8, let the person draw his or her own diagram. It doesn't matter if it "matches" what you find in the book. Just let the person tell you what he or she believes, whatever it is. Don't freak out if it's really wierd or full of anti-Christian or non-Christian stuff. Ask gentle questions to make sure you understand. Pay close attention to stories. Then say, "Can I show you another way of looking at worldviews?" Or, "Can I show you my worldview?" At this point you draw out the biblical worldview and talk about how biblical worldview says the physical world (inside the box's borders) is real, but so is the spiritual world (outside the box); the stick figures represent people like you and me -- who are created, as the Bible says, "in the image of God," with innate dignity, value and worth. Or, to put it another way, we're created with an ache in our soul for a relationship with the God who created us. Talk briefly about the conflict between the devil and God and that God will eventually win.

* Then say, "When the biblical worldview says, 'God loves you' -- how does that make you feel?" Don't be shy of this emotional question. We're made up of mind, emotions and will and one of the chief ways God gets our attention is through the emotions. Then put a cross inside the box, and say, "This is how God proved his love for us: according to the Bible, God once became a man in Jesus Christ in order to bring us back to God. His love is really amazing."

* Don't feel like you have to get all the way through that last point. Let the conversation go where it goes. Don't try to control it or manipulate it.

* In leave-taking, be sure to thank people for their time. They've been generous to spend any time with you, and you need to acknowledge that.

Sent: 2006-11-13 23:13:02 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Another Brown Lesson

"Before you dive, get the big picture."



Fellow Buzzards,

Here's another lesson from Brown. Those first nights we did the Ancient Near East Cosmology Skit. The players did a fantastic, creative job. They ad-libbed and made it really, really fun.

Later, Ryan got some feedback from one of the students. He told me this person asked, "The skit was entertaining and all, but what was the point?"

As I thought about it, I realized here again we're bumping up against the problem of trying to do too much. I think I did a fairly good job of setting up the skit. I asked the group to imagine themselves in some Mesopotamian village 3.500 years ago. The campfire is burning low, and a troupe from the local temple has come to present the story of creation. A hush comes over the crowd as the sounds of drums and flutes start dancing in the air. . .

It's possible that the ad-libbing detracted from the message. The narrator said that the chief rival of the Chaos monster "got really good at Sodoku" (instead of "attained magical powers") and from then on was the "Sadoku God," rather than the "hero" god. Other ad-libs were funny and made the skit contemporary, but if you didn't have any background in Ancient Near Eastern creation myths, the humor would have been detracting from the message.

The other problem is that we didn't have time to develop the crucial themes that should be drawn out of the exercise. The "point" that had been lost on that questioning student was to contrast the message of Genesis, line by line, with the spiriutal assumptions that went with the polytheistic worldview. Instead of hitting these points strongly and letting them sink in, or letting the students discover them for themselves in Bible study, I rushed over them, pointing out only one or two. This diminished the really powerful impact of comparing the skit with the Bible's own creation story.

The only way you can do this comparison exercise well is to spend a whole session on it, with at least 20 minutes for work in Genesis chapter 1 after the skit has been performed. (By the way, this whole discussion will make a whole lot more sense if you have read chapter 10 of Blah, Blah, Blah.)

So this is a word to the wise and to myself, if I care to remember it.

Sent: 2006-11-13 22:07:10 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Worldview Questionnaire

"Before you dive, get the big picture."


Fellow Buzzards,

In the previous email, I mentioned to you a tool that Ryan Bouton, a college worker at Brown University, created to assist students in engaging in worldview conversations with all kinds of different people.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you. . .The College Hill for Christ Worldview Questionnaire (applause, please).

*****

WORLDVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What do the words "spirituality" and "religion" mean to you? Would you say that you are spiritual, religious, both, or neither? Why?


2. How would you describe your spiritual search? Is truth "out there" or "inside yourself"?


3. Do you believe in God? Why or why not?


4. How would you describe God?


5. What do you think it means to be tolerant of other people's religious beliefs? Is it appropriate to critique the beliefs of others? Why or why not?


6. What attracts you to your beliefs? Why do you believe as you do?


7. We're learning some tools to help us understand the beliefs of others and have good dialogue about belief systems. Would this [diagram] accurately represent your view?


8. How would you change it?


Sponsored by College Hill for Christ, Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

Tips on how to use this resource:

• Before you go out, spend some time with God. Ask him to fill you, by faith, with the Holy Spirit. Pray for God to lead you to the right people. Anticipate that God is going to work through you.
• Remind yourself that this whole thing should be done with no pressure at all on you or on the people you're talking to. You're not there to try to paint people into a corner, to demonstrate your superior intellect or command of some area of knowledge, to win an argument, to catch them in contradictions, to prove that Christianity is "right" or to "prove" the truth of the gospel. The basic theological idea you're working with is that the Holy Spirit is the convincer, not you (John 16:9-11). You're just there to help people see the difference between their basic worldviews and the biblical. You don't have to say, "You're wrong" anymore. That's not your job. That's the Hol Spirit's job.
  
• Start by saying, "Hi -- we're talking to people about their worldviews. Can we ask you a few questions?" or something like that.
• You don't have to use the questionnaire. If it feels too awkward or burdensome, chuck the program. Just get into a conversation with somebody and look for an opportunity to ask, "That's interesting. Say, how would you describe your worldview?"
• Don't feel like you have to ask every question on the questionnaire. Just relax and be with people, with no big agenda to "get through" something.
  
• As you go through the questions and listen to the conversation, try to make your best guess as to which worldview the person is coming from. When you come to #7, draw out one of the six diagrams in the book, the one that most closely resembles what they've been talking about. Describe what the various symbols mean: the stick figures (people like you and me trying to figure things out), the box (our experience of the physical world) and whether the lines are solid, or have gaps (spiritual "portals"), or are dotted (indicating pantheism), the arrows coming into the box from outside the box (the activities of supernatural beings), and so on. Ask, "Does this pretty much describe your worldview?" and wait for the person to answer. Give them time to think, even if it seems like a really long time.
  
• Try not to use the "Designer Religion" diagram, since it's kind of a catch-all category anyway.
• At #8, let the person draw his or her own diagram. It doesn't matter if it "matches" what you find in the book. Just let the person tell you what he or she believes, whatever it is. Don't freak out if it's really wierd or full of anti-Christian or non-Christian stuff. Ask gentle questions to make sure you understand. Pay close attention to stories. Then say, "Can I show you another way of looking at worldviews?" Or, "Can I show you my worldview?" At this point you draw out the biblical worldview and talk about how biblical worldview says the physical world (inside the box's borders) is real, but so is the spiritual world (outside the box); the stick figures represent people like you and me -- who are created, as the Bible says, "in the image of God," with innate dignity, value and worth. Or, to put it another way, we're created with an ache in our soul for a relationship with the God who created us. Talk briefly about the conflict between the devil and God and that God will eventually win.
• Then say, "When the biblical worldview says, 'God loves you' -- how does that make you feel?" Don't be shy of this emotional question. We're made up of mind, emotions and will and one of the chief ways God gets our attention is through the emotions. Then put a cross inside the box, and say, "This is how God proved his love for us: according to the Bible, God once became a man in Jesus Christ in order to bring us back to God. His love is really amazing."
• Don't feel like you have to get all the way through that last point. Let the conversation go where it goes. Don't try to control it or manipulate it.
• In leave-taking, be sure to thank people for their time. They've been generous to spend any time with you, and you need to acknowledge that.
  

Sent: 2006-11-13 20:42:38 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Lessons from Brown

"Get the big picture before you dive!"


Fellow Buzzards,

THANK YOU for signing up other worldview teachers for this newsletter! As of the last post we doubled our readership! This is great, and I appreciate your efforts.

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

1. Title: "What if you've only got one shot?" -- one-shot 20- to 40-minute presentations.
2. Title: "Lessons from Brown" -- weekend seminar outlines (3-5 session).
3. Title: "Seven Magnificent Sessions" -- a basic 7-week worldview orientation of phase 1 topics.
4. Title: "Phase 2 topics" -- an intermediate 7-week worldview orientation of phase 2 topics.
5. Title: "A College & Seminary syllabus" -- 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, entitled "Lessons from Brown," we'll be creating a resource for #2 above, and the test case will be the College Hill for Christ group at Brown University.

BACKGROUND: Oct 26-28, 2006 I spoke in a series of meetings at Brown University at the invitation of the College Hill for Christ campus ministry (a chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ). Ryan Bouton, a graduate of Dartmouth and a staff memeber there, was my chaperon. I was there for the kick-off weekend of a five week series on worldview and worldviews. The aim: to solidify Christian convictions and train people to be comfortable talking to anybody about Jesus. The staff promoted the book Blah, Blah, Blah and urged everybody to read it.

WHAT I DECIDED TO DO: I had a one-shot deal with the Athletes in Action group on Thursday night, and a kick-off a series of worldview sessions opportunity on Friday night. I broke my "rules" about how to teach this stuff (slowly, bite sized chunks that are easy to digest, have students learn a little and use a lot) in favor of trying to set forth a Big Picture set of ideas in one presentation. I ended up introducing the concept of worldview, going over the five things that all worldviews have in common, staging the Ancient Near East Creation Myth Skit that I wrote up and that the students performed, contrasting the ANE cosmology with Genesis 1, briefly discussing the other 4 major worldviews, AND hitting a couple of highlights on why the biblical worldview speaks best to our heart needs. The meetings went very well. But I learned some valuable lessons.

WHAT I LEARNED:
1. I should have stuck to my rules. Even for really smart Brown students, this is too much for one night. I'm wondering whether it would have been stronger for me to have presented (a) the concept of worldview & how worldviews work, then left (b) the ANE/polytheistic worldview in contrast to Genesis and (c) an overview of the six worldviews to the Brown staff.
2. Less is more. Even if you've got great material, if you try to do too much you're not as effective.
3. The people are Brown (and many other campuses) need to really understand the worldview dragon on their campus, acting like an intolerant, established religion -- namely, the ideology of tolerance and diversity.

HOW RYAN AND THE TEAM HAVE DECIDED TO ORGANIZE THE FIVE WEEKS (SO FAR):
Week 1: My presentation -- worldview overview & the six worldviews (this was the given that Ryan and his team had to work with once I had made my presentation).
Week 2: "I know that trick" -- the worldview of naturalism.
Week 3: "Magical Mytery Tour" -- the worldview of pantheism.
Week 4: "The Core v. the Heresies" -- what's the Core of Christian faith and how to discern between various legitimate interpretations of Christian faith and heresy.
Week 5: To be determined. Perhaps it will be on the Trinity. Perhaps it will be on the pamphlet "How to Talk to Absolutely Anybody" (a resource I created for our high school group but seems to work with older audiences).

WHAT RYAN DID IN WEEK 2:
Ryan did a quick PowerPoint review of the concept of worldview and quickly went over the six worldviews. Then he did a short talk on naturalism and its empirical rules that exclude supernaturalism.

WHAT RYAN LEARNED FROM WEEK 2:
On the second Friday Ryan did some review with the group but began to get some resistance from one attender who was objecting to the idea of worldview (he wanted to believe in the myth of objectivity). Ryan told me "it went good and bad." I thought about that and it occured to me that even the "bad" is good, since people are processing this worldview stuff and some of them -- since they've grown up in it all their lives -- don't yet get how the "rules" of the naturalist worldview work. They're like the fish in the bowl who don't realize they're swimming around in water and because of that they're wet.

WHAT RYAN BRILLIANTLY DID IN WEEK 3:
On the third Friday, it went better. Ryan spent about 7 minutes reviewing the previous two weeks (review is very important in teaching worldviews). Then he broke the large group into groups of 4-5 and had them spend ten minutes drawing out the worldview diagrams. The people in each group helped each other remember (brilliant! a social approach to learning, people talking to each other, using visuals and getting their bodies involved). Then he took about 20 minutes to explain pantheism. At the end, he passed out a Worldview Questionaire he created to help students engage others in worldview conversations. About a third of the students went out to do that. About two-thirds, several of them non-Christians, requested to stay there in the meeting room and continue the conversation about worldviews. So they did!

WHAT RYAN LEARNED IN WEEK 3:
In Ryan's short talk on pantheism, he touched on karma and reincarnation. He was trying to make what from a Christian viewpoint is a very profound point, saying, "Karma ends at the cross." Can you anticipate what the problem was? Someone in the audience asked: "What's 'the cross'?" All of a sudden Ryan realized he had broken one of his own rules, which is to avoid "Christianeze" in speaking to non-Christians. The person who asked the question didn't have enough background to know what "the cross" means to Christians and to the Christian and biblical worldview. Think: How would you quickly get back on track if somebody caught you up short with a question like that?

TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS:
We're learning through trial and error how to teach this stuff. Making mistakes or trying stuff that doesn't work perfectly goes with the territory. But it's definitely worth the effort. Students are becoming more excited about Jesus, and they're more confident in having normal, everyday conversations about worldviews, which in turn opens doors to friendships and more sharing.

Here's Ryan's statement on his experience with Blah and bringing a worldview approach to Brown: "To bring the Gospel to campus in the Northeast is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks one could undertake. It is always and everywhere in impossible human endeavor, and there are particularly daunting obstacles on the campuses and in similar environments. The issue of worldview is at the very beginning of that task, and I have been trying to address
worldview issues and their connection to the Gospel since I began to work on the Brown University campus. "Blah, Blah, Blah" has given us tools to address the worldview concerns in a way that I trust will engage our students in what could otherwise be merely an academic
exercise. Whether we continue to use the book as a basis for our training for the rest of the year or not, in our work of proclaiming Christ on the campus we must work out and apply Taylor's principles in all that we do."

Sent: 2006-11-13 06:36:50 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: An Eventful Fall

"Get the big picture before you dive."

Fellow Buzzards,

It's been a month and a half since the last newsletter. Sorry to keep you waiting. There's so much going on I'm not sure where to begin.

I think I'll share some recent Blah wins:

1. I've been asked to write an article on worldviews for Focus on the Family Magazine!

2. Rick Warren's website pastors.com is featuring four of my articles on worldviews over a period of several weeks. You may remember Rick Warren as the pastor of Saddleback Church and the author of The Purpose-Driven Life. His pastors.com newsletter goes out to over 100,000 pastors. (See the "Articles" link on my website blahblahbook.com.)

3. Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine, a periodical on world events written from a biblical worldview perspective, (circulation 335,000), has endorsed my book and wrote about it in the magazine (Nov. 6 or thereabouts). He said, "Bayard Taylor's Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World's Spiritual Chatter (Bethany House, 2006) is deliberately lightweight, an easy-to-read apologetic that might break through to high-school and college students resistant to theological terminology. I hope a lot of kids read it."

4. Tash Hope, the director of International Students, Incorporated for New England states has asked that copies of Blah be distributed to all ISI staff in her district! This is incredibly exciting because it shows that Blah is potentially useful not just for dissecting American culture and religions, but also for dissecting world cultures and religions and that Blah is potentially useful for people in cross-cultural ministry.

5. Oct 26-29 I spoke in a series of meetings at Brown University at the invitation of the College Hill for Christ campus ministry (a Campus Crusade for Christ group). I was there for the kick-off weekend of a five week series on worldview and worldviews! The aim: to solidify Christian convictions and train people for conversational evangelism. The book they're using is Blah, Blah, Blah!

Ryan Bouton, a staff member there, says, "To bring the Gospel to campus in the Northeast is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks one could undertake. It is always and everywhere in impossible human endeavor, and there are particularly daunting obstacles on the campuses and in similar environments. The issue of worldview is at the very beginning of that task, and I have been trying to address worldview issues and their connection to the Gospel since I began to work on the Brown University campus. "Blah, Blah, Blah" has given us tools to address the worldview concerns in a way that I trust will engage our students in what could otherwise be merely an academic exercise. Whether we continue to use the book as a basis for our training for the rest of the year or not, in our work of proclaiming Christ on the campus we must work out and apply Taylor's principles in all that we do."

6. Philosophy professor David Horner, a PhD from Oxford University who now teaches at Biola University (and, incidentally, at CCC's Institute for Biblical Studies) will be using Blah as a textbook in the curriculum core course Foundations For Christian Thought.

7. Catherine Savard (11/8/2006), a Campus Crusade staff member in Quebec, Canada and director CCC's website for Canada is excited about the book and helping promote it at CCC-Canada Christmas conferences.

8. Tim Challies of timchallies.com and discerningreader.com, the latter of which is an e-newsletter going out to 100,000 people, wrote up a great review of Blah and it's importance for our time. (See Reviews link on the blahblahbook.com webpage.)

9. I spoke three times at the Gold Coast Chidren's & Youth Ministries Conference (Sept 27, Oxnard).

10. I'll be speaking at the California Christian World Expo (Nov. 18), Seaside Park, Ventura.

11. At least three high schools that I know of are using Blah as curriculum:
(a) Ventura County Christian HS is using Blah as a textbook
(b) Morgan Creek Christian Academy is using Blah as a textbook
(c) A Christian HS in Illinois (I don't yet have the name of it)

12. Even the secular press is getting into the act, promoting Blah indirectly. A NYTimes article recently appeared on Christians concerned about losing their kids to secularism and unbelief, with Ron Luce quotes.

13. Ivy Jungle, in their September newsletter sent to 7,000-8,000 collegiate ministers & workers, had a Blah review by Evan Hunter calling it a very important book.

14. Elmer Towns, Vice President of Liberty University and Dean of the School of Religion, says, "There are three things I'd like to say about Blah, Blah, Blah. It's particularly good for parents and grandparents to read and then give to their teen- and college-age children and grandchildren. It's far simpler -- and more fun -- than all the other apologetics books out there. It'll get you more excited about Jesus and more confident in being able to talk to anybody about the gospel."

15. Dan Panetti, worldview director at Prestwood Christian Academy (Texas), a school of 1500 (Larry Taylor, president of the school) has included Blah in their recommended reading list for their high school class (the other two books on the list are University of Destruction and ISI's Guide to the Core Curriculum).

16. Mark DeVries of Youth Ministry Architects, a youth ministry consulting firm, is high on Blah and has arranged with Bethany House to sell Blah on his website.

17. David Ely, recent graduate of Auburn University and assistant to Mike Jordahl, collegiate ministry director for the Navigators -- has endorsed the book.

18. Curtis Cook, an Assemblies of God pastor in Bloomington, Illinois, read the book and is talking it up among his AOG network.

19. Greg Johnson of Standing Together, a former Mormon who now has a ministry to help Mormons and evangelicals understand each other better, has endorsed the book.

20. I personally gave my book to Mike Pilavachi and Tim Hughes of Soul Survivor (U.K.) and Trinity Brompton Church, London (11/10/2006). They're looking for simple ways to develop people in the biblical worldview and the Trinity, exactly what Blah is about.

20. Robert Seelye, a world-famous evangelist (and former insurance salesman) has asked for a copy of the book to review.


WHAT THIS MEANS
As you can see, the responses from everywhere have been very positive. We're starting to see some word-of-mouth wildfires!

Some ideas on how you can help start some more of these fires:
(a) Since I'm a no-name author, it will take some time to build momentum. From here on out it's a matter of starting word-of-mouth wildfires on the basis of suitability of Blah to meeting perceived worldview education needs.
(b) Therefore: if you can think of strategic, influencial people who recognize the need for worldview education but are dissatisfied with what's out there (too academic, too over-the-head of most people, too boring, not fun or entertaining) -- then:
(c) Maybe you'd like to be an official Blah Co-Conspirator. That would mean letting key people in your network know about Blah, maybe even buying copies for them.
(d) You could also think of two to five people you could refer to me personally. I'd send them a copy with their agre ement ahead of time to have a phone/feedback conversation after two or three weeks. Then -- if they have had a good Blah experience -- I ask them if they want
to be part of the Blah Conspiracy.