I Think Pastors Need To Have This View by Gloria Toti

Me:  If a biblical worldview is a filter how we see the world, doesn’t a pastor need to have this?

God:  YES

In his recently released book Think Like Jesus, researcher George Barna made waves by citing statistics showing just 9% of all born again adults and just 7% of Protestants possess a biblical worldview.

He states, “There are a several troubling patterns.”

First, although most Americans consider themselves to be Christian and say they know the content of the Bible, less than one out of ten Americans demonstrate such knowledge through their actions.

Second, the generational pattern suggests that parents are not focused on guiding their children to have a biblical worldview. One of the challenges for parents, though, is that you cannot give what you do not have, and most parents do not possess such a perspective on life.

The information also showed a national survey on Protestant pastors do not have a Biblical world view.

Based on interviews with 601 Senior Pastors nationwide, representing a random cross-section of Protestant churches, Barna reports that only half of the country’s Protestant pastors

(51%) have a biblical worldview embracing these six core beliefs:

the accuracy of biblical teaching

the sinless nature of Jesus

the literal existence of Satan

the omnipotence and omniscience of God

salvation by grace alone

and the personal responsibility to evangelize

The low percentage of Christians who have a biblical worldview is a direct reflection of the fact that half of our primary religious teachers and leaders do not have one.

The research also points out that even in churches where the pastor has a biblical worldview, most of the congregants do not.

More than six out of every seven congregants in the typical church do not share the biblical worldview of their pastor even when he or she has one.

  • BARNA stated that seven out of ten adults say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules today. That includes the 93% of born-again adults who hold that conviction. Great.
  • And that half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born-again adults (79%) who concur.

BUT HERE IS WHERE IT CHANGES:

  • Only slightly less than half of the born-again adults believe in absolute moral truth.
  • And just one-quarter of adults are convinced that Satan is a real force.
  • Nearly half of all born again Christians strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds – but what about the rest?

The research data also showed that one pattern emerged loud and clear: young adults rarely possess a biblical worldview

The current study found that less than one-half of one percent of adults aged 18 to 23 have a biblical worldview, compared to about one out of every nine older adults.

By helping to clarify what a person believes to be important, true and desirable, a worldview has a dramatic influence on a person’s choices in any given situation.

 

Barna’s research has discovered that there are unusually large differences in behavior related to matters such as media use, profanity, gambling, alcohol use, honesty, civility, and sexual choices.

 

A worldview serves as a person’s decision-making filter, enabling them to make sense of the complex and huge amount of information, experiences, relationships and opportunities they face in life.

 

The firm’s studies have also pointed out that a person’s worldview is primarily shaped and is firmly in place by the time someone reaches the age of 13; it is refined through experience during the teen and early adult years; and then it is passed on to others during their adult life.

 

Such studies underscore the necessity of parents and other influencers being intentional in how they help develop the worldview of children and all citizens in our world.

 

But no matter our age friends, the central element of being a Christian is to embrace basic biblical principles and incorporate them into our worldview and our actions.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Diane Qubty

    Amen! i can’t agree more, but would like to add something that has troubled me this last couple of years – the sad use of the word evangelicals as if this is a terrible people. With the world having their poor view of Christians, we have Christian leaders (too caught up in politics) that continue to speak poorly or against evangelicals. usually the people who jump on their bandwagon use horrible language and are not believers. We are tearing ourselves apart. I do not understand how or when it became evil to spread the Good News. OK, I’m done. Thank you, precious Gloria. We live in a fallen and confused world.

  2. Gloria Toti

    I agree with you Diane. It’s a jungle out there, and it stems from everyone thinking we can have our own world view. Unity can’t just be a word in our dictionary – we are a family and we need each other. God help us get back to the basics as your children…may they know us by our love and our willingness to share truth without being argumentative.

  3. Rebecca Cooper

    Very good Gloria and Amen. You see very few people standing on the Word of God and what He says. If you listen to what the world is telling us we become down and doubtful. God did not tell us to watch CNN or FOX but to watch and “know” Him…… watch and pray!
    Thank you for sharing this!

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