Various Worldview Models

The Perfect Worldview Model, Part 2

Throughout our training with AFM, there has been a heavy emphasis on understanding what worldview is.  Various books and teachers have shared several models and illustrations with us, each model having a slightly different angle on the subject.  Understanding worldview is central in the work of effective church planting, therefore we have been presented with several models.  Here I would like to give a short overview of the various models we have been exposed to.  Later several of them will be further expanded.

Before mentioning the various models and illustrations, however, I want to try to give a simple definition of what worldview is. 

Worldview is our view of the world in which we live.  It is our underlying paradigm, the window through which we view our environs.  Worldview is formed by life experiences.  It begins to be formed from birth, and is our way of interpreting reality.  Worldview is that which tells us what is real.  Worldview tells us how to interpret the input that we receive through our senses.  All people have a worldview, although few are aware of it.  Our worldview determines how we act in any given situation.  Worldview can be changed, but it is a long and difficult process to do so, since worldview is formed from day one of our lives.

The Iceberg Model.  This is the simplest model, and can hardly even be considered a worldview model, since it does not really address the subject of worldview at all.  The concept is that just as most of an iceberg is hidden below the surface of the water, most of the elements that compose a culture are hidden below the visible surface.  Actions, behavior, clothes, products, and tools of a culture are visible, while behind them are beliefs, desires, values, and ideals, which are not easily seen.  The visible aspects of a culture are easy to see and identify, while the invisible elements of a culture are not obvious at first to an outsider, and cannot be discerned without careful and deep study of a culture.

This model is useful for helping us to understand that visible elements of a culture are a small part of a culture, and to help us realize that the bulk of a culture lies below the surface, hidden to outside eyes. 

The Onion Model.  This model is a series of concentric circles that represent various aspects of a culture.  The outer layer represents the behavior, tools, products, and institutions of a culture.  The next one or two layers towards the center represent the beliefs, desires, values, attitudes, and ideals of a culture.  They are hidden, but are known to the members of the culture.  The center of the onion represents the worldview of a culture.  It is assumed, unconscious, and not easily discerned, either by the members of the culture, or by outsiders. 

This model is truly a worldview model.  It shows how worldview lies at the center of a culture, supporting all the elements that make up a culture, but well-hidden from sight.  This model is a good way of understanding worldview as a concept, but is not very useful in helping to understanding what a particular worldview is, or in discovering a worldview of others, or of ourselves.  It is good for a classroom, but not very useful in the field.

The Tree Model.  This is simply another way of looking at the Onion Model.  The leaves of a tree represent the visible elements of a culture, like behavior, tools, institutions, etc.  The trunk represents the beliefs, desires, values, etc., which is known but not as obvious as the leaves.  The root of the tree represents the worldview itself, the source of all the rest of the tree, but hidden from sight and hard to expose.

Just as with the Onion Model, this model is good for helping us understand how the various parts of a worldview are interrelated, but not for helping us actually analyze a worldview and culture. 

The Three Levels of Memory.  This is more of a fact of how the brain works than a worldview model.  The first level of memory is Learned Memory.  The things we have been taught or have read are on this level, and are most-easily forgotten.  The second level is Patterned Memory.  These are memories based on what we have seen modeled by others, or on things we have personally done repeatedly.  These memories sit very deep and long, and the brain is physically changed at this level of memory, as neural pathways are formed between brain cells.  Habits are on this level.  The deepest level of memory is Episodic Memory, which is central to forming our understanding of reality, or in other words, our worldview.  Episodes, especially those involving powerful emotions of joy, fear, or pain, actually change the chemistry of the brain, and affect how we view life for the rest of our lives. 

The Excluded Middle Model, or The 2x3 Table Model.  This model is depicted by a table of two columns and three rows.  The left column represents things that are organic or personal, and the right column things that are mechanistic or impersonal.  The top row represents supernatural individuals or forces that are otherworldly.  The middle row represents supernatural individuals or forces that are of this world, and the bottom row represents natural individuals and forces.

This model proved to be far more successful to help me to begin to understand my own worldview.  I personally find this model to be very useful in explaining how we view reality, and have seen that others have also had their eyes opened by understanding this model.  I will later give much more time to explaining this model, which I think shows us the holes in our cultural description of reality, and helps us to see what needs to be filled in order for us to reach a holistic Christian understanding of life.

In Western culture, life is interpreted in terms of the bottom row of the table.  Science and philosophy seeks to interpret all of life in natural, observable, and understandable terms.  As Christians, we add the top layer to our belief system, but often we do not live lives of interaction with supernatural forces.  Our culture has sought to remove the supernatural, and unless we have powerful experiences that counteract the cultural upbringing we have been formed in, the middle part of the chart will remain blank for us.  We will give verbal assent to believing in the supernatural, but our lives do not demonstrate that we have any real contact with more than natural power.

The Soccer Game Model.  This is another model that is more about culture than worldview, but was very useful for me to give me a deeper understanding of what life is focused on, and what God wants our lives to be focused on.  Dale Goodson is the source of this model.  If life was a soccer game, who would the players be?  Who would be the enemy?  What would the ball be?  How do we score a goal, and how do we prevent the enemy from scoring a goal?

If the early church, as depicted in the Book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, was a soccer game, what was the ball?  Who was the team owner, and who was the enemy?  Who were the players, and how did they score a goal? 

Comparing the list of players and soccer game elements from our culture to those of the early Christian Church, what is different?  In what ways is our focus today different from what it was for the apostles and church 2000 years ago, and in what ways is the church mixing things that should not be mixed? 

The Dale Goodson Model.  Dale might object to having this model called after him.  I will have to ask him about that.  I don’t know what else to call this model, however, so will leave it like this for now.  Dale, one of the main trainers at AFM, is an expert on worldview.  He has developed a model for understanding what worldview is composed of, and how to study and define the worldview of a culture. 

This model is comprehensive and detailed.  It is graphically displayed as a house built on a foundation.  The house is a particular culture.  The foundation is the worldview of that culture.  The foundation itself is based on a broader foundation, which is life experience.  Life experience is in turn based on other background information.

Worldview is split up into several elements, including Players, Core Values, Tools, System, Theme, and a Worldview Goal.  These are all inter-related and connected to each other, and are dimly understood by me!  Dale is probably the foremost expert in the Adventist church on the subject of worldview, and his classes took us deeper into these subjects than I will be able to do in these posts.  I will try to pick out the elements that I have begun to understand, and to illustrate them with some of Dale’s stories, and some of my own, as well as Bible stories. 

This model is the most practical of all the models we have been taught.  By understanding this model and the elements that it is composed of, we can learn how to break down a worldview into various elements, and to then grasp how people think and why they think that way.  We can then work to actively form their worldview into something that will help them interpret reality in a more holistic way.  By understanding the worldview of ourselves and of the people we are seeking to serve, we can better understand God and help them to do the same. 

Our goal as church-planters is not just to understand worldview.  Our goal is to help people to be reconciled to God.  That means that our goal is to help people develop spiritual maturity, correctly interpreting reality, correctly applying the Bible principles to their lives, and continually growing into the likeness of Jesus.  In this process, we want to avoid syncretism, which is becoming Christians but continuing to relate with God out of a non-Christian worldview.  By understanding where people are coming from, by understanding their worldview, we can best help them to be reconciled to God, to actively engage in the Great Controversy, while avoiding syncretism.  The Dale Goodson Model is designed to help us do exactly that.

The You Model.  Whether you know it or not, you are a worldview model.  As you live your life, however you happen to live it, you are modeling your understanding of reality.  For those who are watching you, you are a model of your own worldview.  The closer your worldview is to the Biblical worldview, the more effective you will be in helping others to understand God’s will for them and for the world. 

The God Model.  God has a worldview.  God has an understanding of reality.  As a Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventist Christian, I call this worldview the true worldview.  I call it the Way we all should live, the Truth about life, and actually Life itself.  Jesus said that about Himself, in John 14:6.  “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Jesus is God’s Worldview Model.  Jesus came to earth, the Word of God made flesh, God’s thought made audible, to help us to understand how to interpret reality.  He came to model the true interpretation of reality, because we learn best when we see something modeled.  He came to give us powerful life experiences, to help us to re-write our dysfunctional worldview, so that our understanding of reality around us would be complete. 

Jesus modeled the way God views reality for us.  He is the perfect worldview model.  His life is the perfect revelation of what is real, and how to interact with what is real.  As we behold the life of Jesus, our worldview is changed.  As we read and meditate on the life of Jesus, as given in the Bible, we are changed.  As we interact with the living Jesus in our lives today, we are transformed.  All other theoretical models pale in comparison to the worldview-altering Person who created us and can re-create us.  Only as we have first been transformed by Jesus can we become effective worldview models for others.