Fostering a Christian Worldview in your Children

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Fostering a Christian Worldview in your Children
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What happens if we don't do this?

• Contrast
• Judges 11 Now it came to about that after the
  death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired
  of the Lord
• Judges 2125 - In those days there was not King
  in Israel everyone did what was right in his own
  eyes.
• From generation to generationor NOT!
• Judges 27 The people served the Lord
  throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the
  elders who outlived him and who had seen all the
  great things the LORD had done for Israel.
• Judges 210 After that whole generation had
  been gathered to their fathers, another
  generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor
  what he had done for Israel.
• Judges 176 everyone did as he saw fit.

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But are we so different now?

• Barna reports
• 60 disaffiliate themselves from faith tradition
• 85 agreed that what is right for one person in
  given situation might not be right for another
  person who encounters the same situation.
• 62 agree nothing can be known for certain
  except what you experience in your life.
• Less than 10 of Christians have a biblical
  worldview.
• The lesson is obvious. No matter how we might
  have done church a generation ago, it matters
  little if we do not continually create the kind
  of compelling culture that allowed the early
  church to thrive in persecution and that will
  ensure the propagation of communities of faith in
  our time as well Daryl Tippens in Pilgrim
  Heart.

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That it may go well with you

• Eph 61-3Children, obey your parents in the
  Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and
  mother"-which is the first commandment with a
  promise 3 "that it may go well with you and that
  you may enjoy long life on the earth."
• Is the promise for the individual or community?
• Family determines the future of the faith
  community!
• God designed family as the place to raise
  faithful children so it would go well with the
  community of faith.

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What is Worldview?

• a grid through which one sees the world
  (Francis Schaeffer)
• a map of reality. And like any map it may fit
  what is really there or it may be grossly
  misleading. (James Sire)
• the sum total of our beliefs about the world,
  the big picture that directs our daily decisions
  and actions. (Colson Pearcy)
• our ground floor assumptionsones so basic that
  none more basic can be conceived. (James Sire)

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Core Beliefs vs. Peripheral Beliefs

• Like the Shrek quote beliefs have layers. ?
  (Thomas Kune, Imre Lakatos)
• Every intellectual framework has a central core
  and more expendable outer layers
• We will naturally defend the core (worldview)
  by jettisoning or adjusting (rationalizing?) less
  central beliefs. This is actually quite rational
  (to a point ?)
• It is vital we shape core beliefs (worldview)
  well the first time, because it is so difficult
  to change them once theyve been set, a person
  can only undergo the trauma of conversion once or
  maybe twice in life without significant
  mental/spiritual illness!

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What difference does it make?

• Those with a Biblical worldview are
• 31 times less likely to accept cohabitation
• 18 times less likely to endorse drunkenness
• 12 times less likely to accept profanity
• 11 times less likely to describe adultery as
  morally acceptable
• 46 times less likely to endorse abortion
• We would do better with getting our kids to
  behave by teaching them a biblical worldview than
  by just teaching them that certain behaviors are
  wrong.

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Basic Elements of Worldview
Atheism
Theism
Evolution
Special Creation
Man Determines Subjective
God Determines Objective
Scientific/ Materialism/ Naturalism
Scientific / General Specific Revelation
Cultural Relative Situational
Absolute
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Word of the Year -- 2006

• Truthiness ? the quality of stating concepts or
  facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather
  than the concepts or facts known to be true.
• It means truthy, not facty.
• Truthiness vs. Truth
• 85 of Christian young people do not believe in
  absolute, objective truth.
• Its true for me, but it may not be for you.
• Subjective, relative truth does not work

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Ethics for the 21st Century

• Daniel provides a model
• Culture bombarded him
• Babylonian education to change worldview
• Name change from God is Judge to May Bel
  protect his life
• Did he go along with culture?
• Daniel resolved not to defile himself. (Daniel
  18)
• What is the predominant view of today?
• WHATEVER
• Impact on the church
• The virtual disappearance of this cornerstone of
  the Christian faiththat is God has communicated
  a series of moral principles in the Bible that
  are meant to be the basis of our thoughts and
  actions, regardless of our preferences, feelings,
  or situationsis probably the best indicator of
  the waning strength of the Christian church in
  America today. (George Barna)

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Theistic Secularism is common
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Ten ways to foster a Biblical Worldview in
children in the midst of this secular world

• Consider what God said to another group that was
  about to enter a pagan land.
• Deuteronomy 61-9

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1. Serve God without rivals

• Deut 64 The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and
  with all your soul and with all your strength.
• Put God First
• Our research suggests that religious
  congregations are losing out to school and media
  for the time and attention of youth.faith
  communities typically get a very small seat at
  the end of the table for a limited period of
  time.Many parents clearly prioritize homework
  and sports over church. Christian Smith

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2. Live a consistent biblical worldview

• Deut 66 These commandments I give you today
  are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your
  children.
• We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we
  are!
• There is a flow to history and culture. This
  flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the
  thoughts of peopleMost people catch their
  worldview from their family and surrounding
  society the way a child catches measles. But
  people with more understanding realize that their
  presuppositions should be chosen after careful
  consideration of what world view is true
  Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live
• A biblical worldview is both taught and
  caughtthat is, it has to be explained and
  modeled. Clearly there are huge segments of the
  Christian body that are missing the benefit of
  such a comprehensive and consistent expression of
  biblical truth. George Barna

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3. Mark your home as God's territory

• Deut 69 Write them on the doorframes of your
  houses and on your gates.
• Dont compartmentalize religious life.
• Religion seems to become rather
  compartmentalized and backgrounded in the lives
  and experiences of most U.S. teenagers....This is
  not surprising. It simply reflects the fact that
  there is very little built-in religious content
  or connection in the structure of most
  adolescents daily schedules and routines.
• Especially when religion is structurally
  isolated from the primary schedules and networks
  that comprise teenagers lives are teens
  religious and spiritual lives most weak. It is
  by contrast when teens family, school, friends,
  and sports lives and religious congregations
  somehow connect, intersect, and overlap, that
  teens exhibit the most committed and integral
  religious and spiritual lives. Christian Smith
  in Soul Searching

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4. Realize it won't happen "at church"

• It doesnt happen in church programs
• Unfortunately, less than one out of every ten
  churched teenagers has a biblical worldview. In
  other words, the result of involvement at church
  is that they can recite some religious facts,
  they made some friends, and they had fun. Thats
  wonderful, but we also find that most of them
  have notaltered the basis on which they make
  their moral and ethical decisions in life.their
  faith is not integrated into who they are and how
  they live.
• Yet, some churches seem to say to parents, We
  are trained professionals, dont try this at
  home!
• God designed it to happen at home.
• Talk about them when you sit at home and when
  you walk along the road, when you lie down, and
  when you get up. Deut 67

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5. Teach Biblical Worldview Topics

• Establish firm foundation of biblical worldview
• God as God
• Bible as primary authority
• Special creation
• Complete obedience to word of God
• Understanding the sweep of biblical history, not
  just Bible stories.
• Go beyond Bible stories
• Home study group get families together

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6. Read the Bible

• Reading the Word is all it takes to have family
  devotional or worship time.
• Fewer than one out of every ten born-again
  families read the Bible together each week at
  home. George Barna in Revolutionary Parenting.
• Many religious teens in the U.S. appear to
  engage in few religious practiceseven basic
  practices like Bible reading and personal prayer
  seem clearly associated with stronger and deeper
  faith commitment among youth. We suspect that
  youth educators and ministers will not get far
  with youthunless regular and intentional
  religious practices become an important part of
  their larger faith formation. Christian Smith
  in Soul Searching

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7. Limit exposure to counterfeit worldviews until
at least the age of ____!

• They must know Biblical reality before they can
  recognize the counterfeit.
• Think on these things Phil 48
• Which is the Biblical view?
• Well, they have to learn about the world
  sometime
• Guard your heart above all else, for it
  determines the course of your life. Prov 423
• When are they ready to deal with counterfeit
  worldviews?
• When the Bible is established as final authority.
• When they have a biblical worldview established.
• When they have a robust Christian faith. Dr.
  Schaeffer

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8. Teach Obedience to Authority

• Goad children know that obedience is to do what
  you are told, when you are told in a happy way.
• Col 320 Children, be obedient to your parents
  in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the
  Lord.
• Set rules within a biblical framework
• We want them to learn the principles not the
  specific rules.
• We desire biblical thinking, not extra-biblical
  standards.

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9. Develop a family catechism

• Catechism brief summary of important principles
  in a question-and-answer format.
• Q. What is the chief end of man?
• A. To glorify God and enjoy him forever!
• Luther Therefore it is the duty of every
  father of a family to question and examine his
  children at least once a week and to ascertain
  what they know of it, or are learning and, if
  they do not know it, to keep them faithfully at
  it.
• Family catechism brief summary of the important
  principles for your familynot just doctrinal.
• Q. What part of our life do Goads give to God?
• A. Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do
  it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Col 317

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10. Evaluate your educational choice

• Christian school? Home school? Public school?
• Students spend 14,000 hours in schoolwhat
  worldview is foundational for that time?
• Non-Christian education puts a child in a
  vacuum. The result is that child dies.
  Christian education alone really nurtures
  personality, because it alone gives the child air
  and food. Modern education philosophy gruesomely
  insults our God and our Christ. How, then, do
  you expect to build anything positively Christian
  or theistic upon a foundation which is the
  negation of Christianity and Theism? No teaching
  of any sort is possible except in Christian
  schools. Cornelius Van Til

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Who educates your children?

• The myth of neutrality..
• Education is thus a most powerful ally of
  humanism, and every public school is a school of
  humanism. What can the theistic Sunday school,
  meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only
  a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide
  of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?
  Charles Potter, signer of Humanist Manifesto

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Closing Thoughts

• You will send them out as a letter of Christ to
  the culture.
• 2 Cor 32-3 You yourselves are our letter,
  written on our hearts, known and read by
  everybody. You show that you are a letter from
  Christ, the result of our ministry, written not
  with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,
  not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human
  hearts.
• Christians should prepare to take the lead in
  giving direction to cultural change. And if it
  goes poorly, as well it might in the
  post-Christian world, then we should be
  consciously preparing the next generation for the
  new battles it will face. Francis Schaeffer
  (1982)

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Get this presentation and our other resources at

• http//www.ckcoc.org/index.php?page_id332
• (go to www.ckcoc.org, look on the main page for
  Raising Faithful Children Class Resources link
  to downloads and other resources.

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Selected References

• Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna
• Answers in Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org)
• Soul Searching The National Study of Youth and
  Religion by Christian Smith and his research team
  at North Carolina published in 2005.
• Faith Begins at Home by Mark Holmen 
• So Whats the Difference? Examining Christianity
  and other World Religions by Fritz Ridenour