In some cases, the truth of the Gospel may end up rocking a persons worldview. It might be that someone has built their faith upon sand, ie a theology of glory, or in non Lutheran terminology, a subtle or not so subtle form of works based theology.

Sadly, it seems that far too often, we run into Christians who held such beliefs, whose worldview is already crashing, or worse, it has already hit bottom and they’ve thrown out the baby with the bath water. Usually, this is due to them hitting a wall, where in their works fail them. In other cases, its due to their worldview being challenged, and they don’t have a support network. For purposes of this blog entry, I’m only looking at the later, ie the world view has yet to come crashing down. Its good that such cases are reasonably easy to recognize. Its also pretty clear a gentle approach is needed, and that follow up care is a must.

As such, when we step up, and challenge a worldview, there are two typical responses: A, to get out the cannons, and fire at random, as the worldview must be protected at all costs. B, sooner or later, to realize they were upholding a theology of glory, and in some cases, followed by heading rapidly towards despair, Ie they see their foundation slipping away very fast, and they have yet to see the rock, ie the theology of the cross.

Its pretty hard to be gentle, when it comes to A, as we hear the cannon firing, and we want to speak over it… Far too often, if we try to yell, all the person hears is a muddled clanging gong noise. Perhaps its one of those things thats just going to take time, and maybe its just a you know where i stand, and if you ever have questions, lets talk.

As part of that, a beer or a coffee is a ton easier to communicate over, than out in the field with the guns ablazing. In the mean time, building further understanding and friendship can be a cool thing. One must also consider that upending the worldview is not the primary goal. Ie, such changes are in Gods time, not ours, and it may not be God’s will that we are his agent for this specific person. Our primary focus must be sharing the love of Christ, understanding one another, and concurrently the love for one another in Christ.

By the same token, once a worldview is shaken, a support infrastructure should be in the staging area. This is not unlike our protestant brethren who practice revivals, mass evangelism, or even street minisry to those who do not know Christ. They know very well, that when a seed is planted, it is irresponsible to not have a game plan for it to be nutured, although granted, some seeds will sprout even without such. Ultimately, to say lets talk sometime, and then drop the ball, or to make ones friendship conditional in some way is not cool at all.

Now, some might say, whoa, whats up with a staging area??? They may already have a church, are you advocating sheep stealing? And no way no how is my answer. What I am saying, is that in far too many cases where a worldview up ending occurs, folks end up going it alone. They dont want to share it with another brother or sister in Christ in their church our of fear or embarrassment. Or perhaps maybe they dont even have anyone they are close enough to in order to feel comfortable to do so. Or maybe you happened to reinforce what their pastor already preaches, but it never made sense to them before. Either way, to upend their worldview, and leave is far beyond not cool. Thats preaching the truth and forgetting the love, sort of the gong thing all over again.