Communicating to MicroWorldviews©

Search, Rescue and Recovery is the fulfillment of the Great Commission:

“Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 – 20 ISV

“As you go” is the first step, what we call “Search.” This is the first step of what we do when we bring our faith to someone who has never heard or has questions. To do that we have to be able to communicate, and effective communication is what HeartReachers is dedicated to.

When we offer the Good News of our Messiah Jesus to anyone, that is the start of “Rescue,” the style of communication aimed at freeing someone from captivity as summarized by Paul:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26 ESV

“Recovery” is the ongoing process of discipleship, and discipleship is the process of moving someone from their worldview to the worldview of Yeshua, Jesus and his apostles. Search, Rescue and Recovery is transcultural communication – bringing the culture of the Bible to any culture and any person in that culture.

Worldview simply is a way of looking at the world, how we view life’s experiences.

We all have a primary worldview, the glasses through which we look at and interpret thoughts, actions and events. A worldview is a comprehensive way of looking at life that connects the parts into a whole.

Everyone has a worldview regardless of their awareness of its existence. Everyone has a way of patterning their worldview and many organizations exist that attempt to make sense out of worldview thinking.

Most worldview systems center on various comprehensive systems of thinking that have developed
through the efforts of mankind. Then typically, they are compared to a biblically-based worldview.

Within this structure of comparing worldviews, conclusions are drawn regarding how they differ from biblical revelation. For example, Summit Ministries (www.summit.org)produces a worldview system based upon the categories of biblical Christianity, Islam, secular humanism, Marxism-Leninism, cosmic humanism, and postmodernism. As a discipline-based system of worldview thinking, Summit Ministries is highly effective in its approach and thorough in its research. They are recommended as a resource for this type of comparison. It was while studying Understanding the Times (their primary text) early in my doctoral program that I began to research and structure MicroWorldviews©

Answers in Exodus, the home of HeartReachers and Search/Rescue/Recovery, takes a different approach towards worldview thinking.

Our methodology, developed through nearly two decades of research, presents worldview thinking based upon the capacities of humans according to the design of our Creator.

These worldview centers, which we define as MicroWorldviews©, take into account our capacity to think (mind), to feel (emotion), and to obey (will).

By using this pattern rather than an alternative philosophical or religious basis, all systems of thinking and believing can be assessed at an individual level regarding what basis someone claims and how they structure their view of life. These MicroWorldviews© apply to the individual regardless of what macro worldview (big picture) they hold, and define how they personally function within their big picture.

Torah and Will

Torah (תורה) is a Hebrew word that means teaching and instruction and within that teaching, it may contain the concept of law as something that must be done, but it does not mean law. It contains laws but is not equal with law. For an overview of the differing parts of Torah, read Psalm 119 and consider all of the different descriptions given in this Psalm that are a part of Torah (including dabar, edah, mishpatim, mitsvah, choq, piqqudim, and imrah).

From the beginning, God has given us His teaching and instruction ( torah ) regarding life, and we recognize that from the beginning this instruction has been morally based, effecting the will of His creatures. In the garden, He commanded His creation, Adam, regarding his connection to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17 )

The expectation from God was obedience to the command “you shall not eat.” In the balance was whether Adam and also Eve, would follow this command or react based on an interpretation of the command in some other way.

In the temptation of Eve, we can understand for the first time the conflict between a will-based
worldview and those based upon the mind (how she thought) or emotion (how she felt). The description of her response to the temptation is found in the next chapter of Genesis.

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” (Genesis 3:6-7a)

The challenge of the Tempter came through an appeal to her emotions, her experiential center. She “saw that the tree was good for food” and “that it was a delight to the eyes” and both appealed to her desire for the experience of the tree.

In addition, it was “desirable to make one wise,” an appeal to her mind, to having knowledge she did not presently possess. The one worldview center the Tempter left off was the will, the center of obedience.

In this area, what could he have said? “I want you to obey me (another creature) rather than the one who created us both,” would only have highlighted his request to shift her worldview center from her will (“you shall not eat”) to another center. The Apostle John refers to these worldview centers in his first epistle, acknowledging the same pattern.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s. The world is passing away with its lusts, but he
who does God’s will remains forever.” (John 2:16-17)

The world own presentation as a system of understanding makes its appeal through knowledge and
emotion as the primary means of creating a worldview system. God’s “worldview system”- His revealed will – is based upon the obedience of His creatures. “The world is passing away with its lusts,” is a dead-end system of living, however, the one “who does God’s will abides forever.” (1 John 2:17)

Worldviews In Conflict

These are the worldview battles as defined from the beginning and the resources of Answers in Exodus and HeartReachers are here to help you understand the importance of living from a will-based worldview and through that interpreting the other areas.

Starting with that basis, we provide materials to help understand how to interpret and communicate across worldview centers including communication skills training (HeartReachers), and
MicroWorldview© content to help understand how to communicate across worldview centers.

The following is HeartReachers’ basic MicroWorldview© Grid that shows how topics differ whether the content is based on the will, mind, or emotions. These differences are the basis of HeartReachers’ “Straight To the Heart” communication skills workshops. Telling your own story of what Jesus, Yeshua has done for you and telling it well will make a world of difference in your experience of telling the Good News of Messiah!

For more information on HeartReachers please visit the new HeartReachers website Tell My Story located at www.tellmystory.life