Rock the Worldview!

“I believe that man is a parasite on the earth and is here destroying it.”   

How do you think the earth came about? “There are gods and goddesses that made the earth. It was just a lump of rock without anything on it, then the gods and goddesses made plants and animals. The animals were like, experiments before they made man.”

Why did the gods make man? “They were lonely and wanted companionship.” 

So what is man’s purpose in life? “I guess to be companions to the gods. But they are just ruining the earth instead.” 

So what happens after you die? “Well, you go to paradise for a short time, then you are reborn as something else, depending on whether you made right or wrong choices in your life.”

Can I be the ocean when I die? “Well, the ocean is another god, so not really. The gods are in all sorts of things. And we can kind of become gods too.”

How do you know what is right and wrong? “When you do what the gods want, that’s what is right.”

How do you know what the gods want? “They communicate what they want through dreams and feelings. Not all dreams are the gods communicating, but if you have a very real, vivid dream, then that’s when they are trying to tell you something. You can just sort of tell by what you feel. They don’t really communicate through bad dreams. That’s just what I believe. If you don’t believe it, then that’s OK. Actually, all the religions of the world are basically the same. They are just different forms of worshiping the same gods. Except Satanism.” 

How do you communicate to these gods and how do you please them? “You can just pray. Just like every other religion in the world. You can please them by praying, or doing good things, or by making some sort of sacrifice to them. Not really by sacrificing something alive, although that is done sometimes, but more like giving up something in your life...I don’t really know why I believe it, but it’s OK if I am wrong, that’s just what I believe.”

This conversation sounds like something you might have with a tribal person in Papua New Guinea, but it might surprise you that a friend and I asked a 15-year-old girl right here in the Bible Belt what her beliefs were. How do you even begin to share the Gospel with someone when they have no concept of Who God is, and what our relationship to Him is? 

So many times, we think a simple 15 minute Gospel presentation will somehow completely shake a person's core beliefs and they will "see the light" and get saved. I have been learning that evangelism involves so much more than just a door-to-door or drive-through approach. In order to share the truth with someone in a way they will understand it, you must know what the person's worldview is. Do they believe in Creation or Evolution? Do they believe in God? If so, who do they believe God is? What do they believe about their relationship to this God? Is He a personal God, or does He even give a rip about what goes on in our lives? What is our purpose in life? 

Not only should we know what the person believes, but we must give them a reason to listen to us. Why should they care what we have to say? "People won't care what we know unless they know that we care." Trust and credibility must be earned before people will listen to us. Do you know what your hearers believe? Have you given them a reason to listen to you?

Tour of Roach

 When I tell people I go to school in Roach, Missouri, a lot of unpleasant images come to mind. But let me assure you that they are mostly false. Roach is a tiny town outside of Camdenton near Ha Ha Tonka state park. Although you may immediately equate the name with large, ugly beetles that crunch disgustingly under your shoe, Roach is actually a picturesque little town. There is a small post office with a friendly postmaster

and a church. There are many rumors regarding the nature of this church, the most interesting of which, is that they do snake handling in an imitation of the Apostle Paul.

There are several interesting houses in Roach that range from rustic to picturesque,

and one gas station.

Apparently, Roach did not receive its name because of its abundance of cockroaches. In fact, I haven't seen a single roach since being here, but, if I were to name it for an unpleasant bug, I would name it "Spider" or "Recluse." Roach was actually named after a prominent family that settled by a river in the 1800's. Apparently, Jack Roach was orphaned at age 3 shortly after the family moved to the area. Jack rose in prominence, becoming a steam boat pilot, joining the Union in the Civil War, becoming a probate judge, sheriff, and then prosecuting attorney of Camden County. His son also became the prosecuting attorney in his rise to prominence, and was eventually elected to the US House of Representatives for Missouri. So, you see, now that I know the distinguished history of Roach, I can unashamedly say that I live in a town which shares its name with one of God's ugliest creatures.



Cute, frisky goats at a small farm in Roach



I'm not sure what the significance of this sign post is.