simple musings

Developing a Worldview

mdmattes — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:16:50 +0000

This is an excerpt of my notes from a class taught by one of my all time favorite professors, Dr. Terry Thomas. I have pages of notes on the topic of “worldview” but thought I would keep the post to a short little blurb:

Q: What is a worldview?

A: A comprehensive framework of ones basic beliefs about things

A Worldview begins by answering these four questions:

Who am I? (OR What makes human beings – human beings
Where am I? (OR What is the basic reality in which we live?)
What’s wrong with the world? (OR What is the thing that creates all the other chaos?)
How do I make it right? (OR What is our role in the midst of it all?)

Formation of Core Values

mdmattes — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:58:48 +0000

This is taken from “Catalyst: Challenge the Process” and is a section of an article written by Howard Hendricks (who said that these five things determine everything that he does…):

Objective: What do I want the result to be at the end of my life?
Priorities: What price am I willing to pay? (Many of us get lost here.)
Schedule: Your schedule is a practical way of maintaining your priorities so that ou can accomplish your objective.
Discipline: Is there any area of your life that you know you are not under the control of the Spirit?
Component Evaluation: What is the outcome? What are my stregnths and weaknesses? What needs to change? (No matter how good you are, you can be better.)

Becoming the Authentic Church

mdmattes — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:40:25 +0000

It has been the desire of my own heart, and the heart of many others to develop a true & authentic Christian community. I even know that many small pockets of people have begun to accomplish this within their own way in our city. And so what I am proposing is nothing new – and not even “radical”. I have been extemely motivated by this simply read, “Becoming the Authentic Church“,which was recently written for people wrestling with what it means and looks like to create an authentic church & community within a city. A few of us have been burdened with the desire to see this level of authentic community and church translated into reality within our city of Columbus, Ohio.