Introduction:

With so many competing worldviews in society today, it is helpful to have a tool or a method to identify and clarify where one is coming from. Fred Smith has identified four questions to assist in determining one’s worldview. This post demonstrates how Smith’s Four Worldview Questions Rubric can help reveal a worldview and be utilized in a pastor’s preaching and teaching in his church. The four worldview questions Smith poses are: “Who Are We?  Where Are We?, What Is Wrong?, And What Is the Answer?^[1]

Worldview is how an individual sees life.  It is the lens through which they interpret life.  Smith comments, “We all have a worldview, and that worldview is shaped by our culture, our experiences, and our personal backgrounds, including what we have read and heard.  Worldviews are not systematic, nor even always conscious.”^[2]  With this definition in mind, this post will examine how the four worldview questions can be utilized in the pulpit, and these questions will be illustrated with the life of Moses.

Who Are We?

When a pastor is studying a passage of Scripture, he may seek to find the context of the passage he is using.  This question, “Who are we?” can help him identify the main characters in the passage’s story and understand their story.  Attempting to uncover who this biblical person really is and what he believes, he may ask, “Who are we?”

The answer to this question creates a great place to begin message preparation. Take Moses, for example.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward (Hebrews 11:23-26).

Moses was an adopted son of Pharaoh with royal status in Egypt.  His denying an abundant life of luxury in the palace and choosing to live as one of the Hebrew slaves reveals much of his character, priorities, and identity as a man. Identifying “Who are We?” is a terrific starter question for a pastor preaching about Moses or any other biblical character.  Many answers to this question can be given: We are sinners who have fallen away from God. We are followers of Jesus. We are imperfect people. We have room to grow in our spiritual formation.

 Articulating this answer to the congregation begins the journey of identifying one’s worldview. The pastor may demonstrate, Who am I, Moses? “I am a sinful man who is learning to live by faith and to rely on God as I encounter an unjust and cruel society.”

Where Are We?

The Bible character being examined is living somewhere. As the pastor unpacks the life of the characters, he relates the setting to where his congregation is today. While addressing this location in the pulpit, the people ask and answer the question similarly with direct application to their life and how their worldview has been developed and impacted by location up to this point in their lives.

With Moses, the pastor, will discover that while living in Egypt, Moses sees injustice and decides to do something about it. After killing an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses is on the run from Pharaoh and lives in the wilderness. His life can be divided into three forty-year parts that the pastor may find helpful in sharing his story: Forty years in Egypt (worldly setting), forty years in the wilderness (isolated setting), and forty years in leading the Children of Israel (godly setting) out of Egypt (back in the desert).  Knowing these time frames will help a congregation with their specific life stages and the stages of spiritual development they are in. These ideas meet people where they are at. The pulpit ministry is enhanced when challenging and encouraging the congregation with these extra location considerations. 

As the pastor conveys to the congregation the life of Moses, he may ask, “What was living in Egypt like for Moses?” The tension in his soul must have been unbearable when witnessing the Hebrews in slavery and his living in comfort. Moses lived in a corrupt world full of injustice. As the pastor shares the answers to this question, he can gain the congregation’s attention, and they may respond to the plight and situation that Moses, or any other character may find themselves in. In a way, they put his sandals on for a bit and enter his world. Where am I, Moses?  “I am positioned in places by the Lord for specific service opportunities to help right the wrongs.”

What Is Wrong?

The congregation connects emotionally to the problems other people are facing.  They imagine themselves in a similar situation. All people of all time have had problems they have encountered. As the pastor offers encouragement and hope in his preaching, he shares some of the problems the biblical characters faced and how those problems were overcome.  

Since sin is a universal problem, the pastor may give several examples of how sin manifests itself. Sin is transgressing or rebelling against the Lord, as described in 1 John 3:4. It’s either one’s sin or another’s sin against them that is the problem they face. Our problems come from sin in one form or another, and this truth is something the pastor can elaborate on with various passage citations.

The pastor may pose questions to Moses and give his answers, as found through the scriptures. Examples include: What is wrong with my family? What is wrong with Pharoah? What is wrong with these civic laws? What is wrong with my community?  As the pastor identifies what is wrong, it gives a place for the people to relate their lives and problems to the biblical character. Answering this question is a potentially powerful way to find the underlying cause or reaction to one’s worldview. What is wrong, Moses? “My people are in bondage, and Pharoah won’t stop it.”

What Is the Answer?

Finding and delivering the answer to this question is the culmination of this rubric of worldview questions. The answer to the problem reveals the individual’s heart and worldview, whether evident or not, up until now. The pastor may find preaching the Gospel will come very naturally in response to this question. For Moses, the answer is Christ. The best Egyptian education, economic concerns in wealthy Egypt, the government (Pharoah’s) response, and the Egyptian polytheistic religion are not the answer to the problem Moses faced. “Let my people go!” did not work until God intervened.  Moses found temporary rejection and humiliation from the Egyptians (and even some of his own people) to be endurable because the riches in Christ were far greater than the best Egypt could offer. In Moses, we see a man who could have lived by Consumerism or Individualism but chose something greater.

While the pastor may be speaking to people engaged in Consumerism or Individualism, the example of Moses finding his satisfaction in walking away from wealth, splendor, and selfishness in search of God and God’s justice may resonate and cause them to re-think their worldview. What is the answer, Moses? “Jesus is the answer.  He leads us to freedom.”

Conclusion

Using Moses as an example, this post has demonstrated how a pastor can encourage and challenge his congregation to begin thinking with a biblical worldview. This worldview can be developed over time to become more biblical. Answering the four rubric worldview questions can help the pastor share these truths and help the congregation identify their worldviews more efficiently to address where they can change to become more like Christ in their perspective of life. 

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^[1] C. Fred Smith, Developing a Biblical Worldview: Seeing Things God’s Way (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2015), vii.

^[2] Ibid., 2.