2008 Woodie Awards
Conference helps students gain holistic view of Christian life
Issue date: 3/22/06 Section: News
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Features Editor
The theme "We were created in God's image, redeemed by His grace, gifted and empowered by the Spirit to join Him in advancing His kingdom," kicked off this year's Christian Worldview Week at North Greenville University.
"Christian Worldview Week is very important because people need to know how to be in the world and not of the world," said Jamie Southerlin, junior youth ministry. "The Christian Worldview Center does a fabulous job of bringing major political figures in the Christian Worldview world to campus to help NGU students understand the importance of a Christian Worldview."
"A worldview is the most important thing that we have. It colors everything else we believe and do," said Dr. Norman Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary. "It is that through which we think not that about which we think."
Students were challenged with questions such as "what is the meaning of life and what is life's purpose" by Dr. Ken Hemphill, Executive Director of Empowering Kingdom Growth.
"I will advance His kingdom by His power and for His glory" was Dr. Hemphill's answer to these questions. "All things in this life will be shaken so that only those things which can not be shaken will remain."
"Christianity is more than a lifestyle and more than a decision about Christ. It is never less than a decision either," said Lisa Van Riper, NGU director of honors program and special projects. "It offers us a complete way to see our world through some basic fundamental questions of 'where did we come from, what went wrong and how do we fix it?' Understanding these basic concepts helps us to discern and live out Gods order for our life."
"There is a growing awareness among Christians that there is somewhat of a dualistic approach in the way they live out their Christian life in their church and the way they are living out or not living out their Christian life in their work place, in their education and in their families," said Van Riper. "We are often almost taught that it is okay to be a Christian in your church on Sunday but we can not bring it in our workplace and schools. That religion is just wishful thinking and it is a personal opinion of whether God does or doesn't exist."
"It is a basic fact that either God does exist or He does not exist. One is true, one is false. And so we have been driven into a dualistic way of thinking, this is my Christian life and this is my bible study and then the rest of life is the real world," said Van Riper.
"The emerging church today is accepting post modern thinking. Some in the emerging church are embracing Universalism, the belief that all thoughts lead to God," said Dr. Tony Beam, director of Christian Worldview Center. "It is important for students to understand Christian Worldview in order to combat false doctrines and beliefs."
"This conference will help students to really get deeper philosophically into what Christian Worldview really is. A lot of Christians have this vague notion of worldview," said Dr. Greg Bruce, chair of the interdisciplinary program in the humanities department. "If we are going to be in the business of Christian Worldview, we need to go back to Germanic philosophical tradition where the term Weltanschauung is first developed and that is always done in conjunction with the term Lebenswelt, which is life world."
"Now Christians understand this instinctively that Weltanschauung is head and Lebenswelt is life world and we have to pull those two things together," said Dr. Bruce. "So an immediate concern comes out of this and all seven of the questions from the dialogue between Dr. Beam and me, Wednesday night, will come out of this distinction between life world and worldview."
"The main challenges to the Christian Worldview today are relativism, pluralism and anti-supernaturalism," said Dr. Geisler.
"First thing Satan does to man is cause him to doubt the word of God and to question the goodness of God. Then man begins blaming circumstances on God," said Dr. Hemphill.
"Creation points to the existence and sovereignty of God. Man is accountable to his creator," said Dr. Hemphill. "Many evolutionists have said the reason they believe in evolution is because they do not want to be held accountable to God. Whether or not God exists becomes the basis of moral values. When God exists, human dignity is affirmed, there is value and meaning in human life."
The new question according to Dr. Hemphill is "does your character and your lifestyle reflect Holy God?"
"We need to think about how we communicate with a particular audience. Who is our audience, how do we talk to them and how do we present ourselves so we can be received," said Van Riper.
"The first question is can worldview be a mere indoctrination. I can put on these glasses and say 'Oh, I have a Christian Worldview, I see everything correctly now' and still not have a heart for Jesus Christ. So the danger in going through worldview is that someone could come through a Christian college thinking they are saved and they may just have a construct of Jesus that is born our of their worldview experience and not have a relationship with Christ," said Dr. Bruce.
"I think NGU is on the cutting edge. We are ahead of the curb even among Christian schools to begin to realize that we need to help present a holistic view of life to our students," said Riper. "I think this is very unique and it is very necessary and I think it is something Christians are beginning to realize they need."
Commandment 11 opened for the praise and worship portion of the service. They stated, "One of the most important ingredients to the Christian life is self evaluation. We have a great example of this through King David who wrote the words 'I will praise you with my whole heart.'"
"I enjoyed Commandment 11, I thought they were good," said Maria Harter, sophomore biology.
"I enjoyed their singing," said Meredith Bridges, senior mass communications. "It was really good and it was different than normal."