Meeting Plans

Use of this Course

The ‘Worldview' Series is suitable for use with 11-14 and 15+ age groups. It can be used in a range of settings including regular group work but also school assemblies, school Christian Unions etc. A unique feature of this material is its non-threatening methodology. Un-churched young people will enjoy discussing the lives of each character while the biblical themes are subtly threaded throughout.

This series overview should be used in conjunction with each of the separate ‘Worldview Series' sessions e.g. Caribou, George Cadbury, Hetty Green etc. Historical figures are often used as their enthralling lives can be fearlessly explored and discussed. The lives of contemporary people may change in the future and render the material less effective. It is, however, very helpful if the young people can introduce contemporary celebrities and their worldviews into the discussion. This will aid their understanding of the material.

As with all our Energize materials, feedback about the course from groups is welcomed. We are also keen for you to tell us your stories. This can only add to the richness and diversity of the series.

Summary of Aims and Objectives of the Course

This series aims to provide captivating stories about colourful and fascinating people which will provoke young people to think about God and the world. It will introduce young people to the important topic of worldviews and present biblical thinking and living.

The course also seeks to help young people to be discerning about the way in which non-biblical worldviews (e.g. consumerism and paganism) can subvert and nullify biblical obedience. Young people need to understand how the Christian worldview can challenge and subvert other worldviews.

Additionally, it demonstrates that God longs to redeem every area of life. Farms, governments, chocolate factories, banks, marriages, families and even prisons can be manifestations or ‘signposts' of the kingdom of God.

What are Worldviews?

Worldviews are best understood as the dreams, longings and ambitions that get people out of bed in the morning. For some people it is profit. For others it's Islamic revolution. Still others crave status and celebrity. Some Buddhists are desperate to avoid reincarnation. Worldviews are the ‘spectacles behind our eyes' – we look at the world through them, not at them.

Consider the ten million pound challenge. How would you live your life if you suddenly got a massive wad? Would you spend the rest of your life buying mansions, helicopters and sports cars? Or would you dedicate your considerable resources to ending the slave trade? Your answer to this question tells us what you really believe. Could you even imagine William Wilberforce dedicating his life to luxury cruises and endless games of golf?

Every worldview tells a story. These stories function as maps that guide the way we live. Worldviews are communal and they are grounded in faith. What is faith? It is the way we answer five basic questions facing everyone:

(1) Where am I? Or, what is the nature of the world and universe I live in?

(2) Who am I? Or, what is the nature, task and purpose of human beings.

(3) What's wrong? Or, what is the basic obstacle that keeps me from finding fulfilment? In other words, how do I understand evil?

(4) What's the solution? Or, how is it possible to overcome this hindrance to my fulfilment? In other words, how do I find salvation?

(5) What happens to me after death? Or, will I rot in the ground or will I be waiting for the resurrection of my body?

It is very powerful to get young people to understand these five big questions. Each of these questions will be examined from the point of view of our heroes and villains during each of the course sessions.

Using Storytelling to explain Worldviews

Children and young people love stories that are wacky, mad and eccentric. They love the story about the American millionairess, Hetty Green, who had appalling bad breath and body odour because she was too mean to buy soap and toothpaste. There is a hook in the story that appeals to our sense of smell. We can almost whiff her stench. It is easily remembered. It can even be acted out.

This story gives us a new methodology. We can teach the Bible without mentioning the Bible. We tell a well-chosen story and then we ask questions about the story. Ask the group – What god did this woman worship? Instinctively most children know the answer. Hetty had made a god of Money. Without anyone mentioning the Bible we are opening up biblical teaching that we find in Exodus 20:3 and Matthew 6:24. Furtively and like a stealth bomber we are opening the hearts and minds of young people to biblical truth. Without embarrassment and without it feeling like the ‘God bit'. Of course with some groups we can point to biblical teaching and this is entirely appropriate. Our course is, however, flexible. Stories can be told with or without the biblical teaching.

The story of George Cadbury is a wonderful contrast to the life of Hetty Green. This cricket-mad, chocolate loving Quaker lived at almost the same time as Hetty (who incidentally was also a Quaker) but his life was joyful and celebratory. He loved inviting his employees to swim in his swimming pool. He savoured closing the factory early in order to play a cracking game of cricket. He loved life. He wasn't obsessed with profit at any cost. Neither did he reduce Christian teaching to ‘social action' or ‘evangelism'. He simply honoured biblical teaching in everything he did. He incarnated God's Word for business by hearing and doing the biblical story. His story is suffused with shalom (justice plus peace plus fun). Young people can sense something of this shalom in just the same way that we can almost smell Hetty Green. In our imaginations we catch glimpses of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. This is ultimately the significance of the stories. We catch glimpses (through all the senses) of the kingdom of God and the destructive rule of idolatry. And in learning this we learn the ways of wisdom and obedience to God.

This course is not intended to replace biblical teaching. We are appealing to a pre-cognitive awareness that all human beings possess. At a deep level we all know that God's law impinges upon our lives (Romans 1:18-22).

When we speak about God's law there are many possible misunderstandings. Too often people can understand God's law in a narrow moralistic sense which denies that there is a rainbow-richness to God's commandments. In the beginning God called humans to steward the earth, to have children, to have fun, to explore, to build cities and sandcastles. God calls us to make merry, to make music and to write poetry (Genesis 2:23). And all of this rich tapestry of human life can be done in ways that honour God. This and much more is part of what we mean by ‘God's law'. Cristiano Ronaldo is brilliant at subduing and mastering the spatial possibilities of football. He can bend the ball with consummate ease. The spatial aspect of the world is as much part of God's law/order as is the commandment to love our enemies.

Consider again the Cadbury story. By fully marinading in this agreeable yarn we can discover that God's law includes the aesthetic aspect. The richness and sheer pleasure of his garden villages brings delight to human-beings. And in savouring this aspect of the story we can learn to love and honour God. Our stories are designed to challenge the rampant reductionisms that plague both the ‘world' and the ‘church'. People are never ‘things'. They should never be reduced to commodities. The gospel is not only about evangelism and/or social action. It includes art, science, confectionary, bee-keeping and cultural formation. God's kingdom rule is multi-dimensional in its scope and concern.

The deepest aim of this course is to show the fullness of life theme (John 10:10) that pulsates its way through the biblical story. Young people who understand the stories will inevitably begin to read and study the Bible for themselves.

We should also mention that each story requires a ‘bag of tricks'. We tell the story imaginatively. We act it out. We bring it alive. We pause. We wait for murmurs of approval, titters, deep groans and furrowed brows. We ask questions. We probe. We become excited. We shoot off on unexpected tangents. Sometimes we allow the young people to shape the way we tell the story. Consider Green and her habit of buying financial newspapers, studying them and then ordering her son Ned to resell the newspaper on the street corner in order to save money. We might explore how parental meanness can ruin children's lives. This might be appropriate for some groups but not for others. Best of all are the moments when young people tell you their stories. Encourage this. Nurture this. Real learning is going on when we both hear and tell stories.

Probing Questions

This course has been designed to allow for a flexible use of the stories. Sometimes it will only be possible to spend five minutes telling the yarn. Perhaps the young people are noisy, mischievous and easily distracted. No worries. On other occasions the story can be told at greater length and probing questions can be unleashed.

A few comments about probing questions are important. It is important to help young people to understand the significance of a person's life. We ask questions in order to initiate transformation and spiritual growth. Let's briefly analyse a young person's ‘knowledge' of a story:

Immature, threadbare ‘knowledge'

Tina (14 year old girl from Kent) has some sense that Hetty was a rich woman who stank. Perhaps she is dimly aware that Hetty was American and skilfully bought and sold stocks and shares. After this almost nothing in the ‘locker'.

Mature, Multi-Layered ‘knowledge'

Tina (16 year old girl from Kent) is able to tell Hetty's story with considerable detail and appropriate relish at her crazy antics. In addition to this Tina now grasps the deeper religious significance of the story. Hetty was addicted to a way of life that prevented her from enjoying God, her neighbour and the planet. Her idolatrous worldview closed her down to ‘abundant life'. Her life shows us the spiritual bondage that all idolatry brings forth. Tina is now able to appreciate that fellow Quaker George Cadbury enjoyed a sense of freedom and happiness that was conspicuously absent in Hetty's lonely, barren life. Tina is now ready to reflect upon the simple truth that Cadbury is a spiritual descendent of Abraham. In the fullness of time Tina is marinading in God's Word on a daily basis and metabolising its liberating narrative.

We must also consider the important theme of ‘subversion'. Both George and Hetty claimed to be Christians. And yet their lives were chalk and cheese. Towards the end of his life Cadbury donated sixty thousand pounds of his own money to his employees' pension funds. It is not difficult to imagine Hetty's likely response to this generosity. Bemusement and even anger spring to mind. Hetty ‘saw' things very differently from George. And this is the kernel of ‘worldviews'. We can look at the world in very different ways. George viewed everything through a pair of spectacles that delighted in generosity, mercy and love. Hetty, on the other hand, viewed everything through a pair of ugly, grubby spectacles that allows very little to penetrate to the eye. She saw only profit and numbers. Her spectacles did not allow her to find delight and joy in God and neighbour. This is the religious depth dimension of worldviews.

Notice that worldviews can subvert other worldviews. Hetty claimed to be a Christian and yet her lifestyle was very secular. We need to help young people to understand this complexity. Some people profess faith in Christ but live out of a consumerist worldview. When a cheesy evangelist promises us wealth and health, we must employ our worldview antenna. In this scenario consumerism (or the western way of life) has subverted the biblical worldview.

We can find the same kind of subversion in the life of Simeon Stylites. This man was born in the year 409 AD and he became infamous for his fanatical self-denial. He lived on a sixty foot pillar uninterruptedly for thirty seven years, exposed to rain and sun and cold. A ladder enabled disciples to take him food and drink and remove his waste. However shocking we might find this story we must notice that Simeon believed passionately that he was obeying the gospel of Christ. Tragically a pagan Greek worldview had subverted his discipleship. For Simeon humans must escape from the sordid, material world and its corrupting evils This is a Gnostic distortion of the Christian faith.

It is vital to stress again that this series of stories avoids the embarrassment of ‘religion'. Many people today are ‘secular'. They live as if there is no God. They are threatened by God-talk. They squirm when invited to pray. There is an art to telling stories which is sensitive to the parables of Jesus. Often it is right to leave the story hanging. Do not feel pressured to deliver a cheesy conclusion that sums up your message about God and the Christian faith. Have the courage to be enigmatic and cryptic. Let the young people draw their own conclusions from the story. Often the power of a great story is dissipated by over-egging the pudding with religious syrup and cheese.

Leaders must select the stories that seem most appropriate for their groups. The stories about Hetty Green, Gordon Bennett, Imelda Marcos, Beau Brummell and John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood are perfect if the group is embarrassed by ‘religion'.

Conclusion

This series of stories and worldviews will really do what it says on the tin. It will inspire young people. It will open their eyes to the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. It will teach them about the biblical story and the secular/pagan stories that threaten to extinguish the Christian faith. It will also give them confidence and assurance that God is at work redeeming, healing and restoring His fallen creation. The future is already breaking into the present.

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