YPT Podcast Episode 43: What is a Christian Worldview? (Rhyne Putman)
Youth workers want to disciple teenagers into Christian maturity. Over time, we hope they move on from spiritual milk, towards spiritual meat. This is the vision of worldview formation - but what’s that really look like and how do we disciple accordingly?
Discussion Includes:
What do you mean by worldview, and what are some pillars of a distinctively Christian worldview?
As the Director of Worldview Formation as WBU, what are some challenges you’ve encountered with college students?
What counsel do you have for youth ministers to help their students begin forming a Christian Worldview while in middle school and high school?
If you could choose two or three areas to really focus on as we disciple teenagers, what would you emphasize?
I don’t think you’ll need to persuade our listeners too much, but if you were talking with a parent who doesn’t think their teenager needs doctrine or theology, how would you respond?
As we wrap up, is there a final word of encouragement or admonition you’d like to say to the youth workers listening?
Excerpt From the Conversation
YPT: In the seminary and your work in the college setting, what are some just observations you've made over the worldview of students and how has that changed over the last few years? Just what sorts of, yeah, what sorts of challenges are you encountering? In your work with college students and even with seminary students frankly. Yeah.
Rhyne: Great question. Well, of course, I started my academic ministry teaching full-time in a conservative evangelical seminary. And when I started teaching, I wasn't that much older than my students, maybe just a few years older. And in fact, a lot of my students were older than me. That's why my life began in this.
And I think my experience there probably spoiled me a little bit. Because in a seminary setting, or at least it felt this way 15 years ago, the people that I had in my classroom were anxious to learn. They were excited. They felt call of God. So we could just go deep and have great, profound theological conversations on the doctrine of Trinity and God's relationship to time and the nature of the world. I mean, it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun doing that.
But the transition from working with PhD students all the time to undergraduate students, I sort of felt like I was back in student ministry. I mean, it's like this is because it's a big change. But I also think that there are some just some significant generational differences with Gen Z students.
I think my friend Kyle Brashear has described it well: “apatheism.” I mean, there's a lot of apathy, you know, towards God. And so, you know, my desire when I'm teaching these gen ed classes on Christian worldview is just to get, just to make a compelling case, hey, we all have worldviews. Let's make this fun. Let's engage. Let's talk about this and why it should be meaningful to you.
What I see my role now is, whereas I was on the comfortable end of disciple-making in a seminary setting, and I still do that, you know, with seminary students and leading them, here it is the front lines of evangelism. We have a lot of students who are churched, but then we have an even larger number who aren't and it's very, very exciting to have gospel conversations with students.
In fact, I had a student reach out to me just last Friday who said, something that you said in chapel resonated with me, I'm an agnostic, can I come and talk to you about it? It was great because here was a student who had been in my worldview class, and she didn't have difficulties with the intellectual side of the Christian faith as much as there were some things that she was trying to understand about inconsistent Christian practice and living.
I'm more convinced now than ever that student ministers are the first frontline, and children's ministers as well, people who are working with kids at a very young age. You are doing worldview discipleship. You are combating significantly anti-Christian worldviews that are a big part of Gen Z culture.
More About this Episode
Dr. Rhyne Putman is associate a Professor of Theology and Culture at NOBTS vice president of academic affairs and director of worldview formation at Williams Baptist University and associate professor of theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of When Doctrine Divides the People of God and The Method of Christian Theology: A Basic Introduction, In Defense of Doctrine.
Resources
Recommended books from the conversation:
10 Questions Every Teenager Should Ask (and answer), by Rebecca McLaughlin
The True Story of the Whole World, by Michael Goheen
Rhyne’s books:
Follow Rhyne on Twitter: @rhyneputman
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