Forming a Christian Heart 1

I’m doing a series of messages at my church based off the book Hidden Worldviews by Wilkens and Sanford. The purpose of this book is to persuade and equip Christians to adopt a Christian worldview! (put another way, to keep forming and guard their Christian worldview).

The authors’ premise is that the everyday influences of our culture – not the formal philosophies of academics – are the greatest challenge to faithful Christian living because they are hidden in plain sight. Their affect is stealthy and corrupting. As Wilkens and Sanford put it; “their power over us is increased since we are often unaware of how they shape our life and ideas” (p. 13).

Romans 12:1-2 provides the theme for the book. Here’s the passage from The Message: “Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

A worldview is defined as a way of looking at the world and assessing my place in it; it is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart. I describe a worldview as the knowledge worth knowing; the values worth holding; the actions worth taking. It is the foundation on which we live and move and have our being (cf. Acts 17:28)

The biblical concept of the heart involves emotions, wisdom, desire, will, spirituality, and intellect. The heart is what defines us! It is what God is most interested in when it comes to forming Christ in us (cf. Gal. 4:19). Wilkens and Sanford explain that we don’t think our way into holding a worldview – the shaping of our heart – we experience it. It comes to us not like a textbook but rather a story; a story we buy in to – sometimes without even realizing it.

The topics I will cover are part of the cultural water in which we swim, soak, and splash. This past summer I took a Discover Scuba class at our local outdoor pool. We swim in this pool regularly and never think much about what’s in the water – after all, with the naked eye we can only observe it from above. But with scuba goggles on I saw our pool from a whole new troubling perspective! There was an incredible amount of debris in the water I was swimming in – it was hidden in plain sight.

 

The goal of this series is to become more aware of the cultural water we are swimming in. Following the book’s content, I will address topics like individualism, consumerism, naturalism, scientism, etc. By examining these worldviews we can learn their heart orientation, their effect on our lives, and as a result equip ourselves to test for God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.

References:

Wilkens, S. & Sanford, M. (2009). Hidden worldviews: Eight cultural stories that shape our lives. Downers Grove, ILL: InterVarsity Press.