Worldview Survey... it doesn't get any better than this
08 August 2007
I've most busy the last couple of weeks running this down at the University.
You can check out an online version here. basically it's multiple choice survey that gives the participant (based on their answers) one of six different worldviews. The survey is analysed by a computer program which also test the participant for consistency of their answers. The views are Theist, Deiest, Naturalist, Nihilist, Existentialist and Monist. (check em out on Wikipedia if you don't know)
Where so many evangelistic tools and techniques can be clunky and awkward the worldview survey neatly overcomes these problems. Discussions about matters of religion, spirituality and faith, flow in a particualrly natural way as you explain the implications of particular worldviews. As and example I spent 3 hours in constant and evangelistic conversation in one day alone*.
While it does have some draw backs I'd still argue that if you are involved in evangelistic ministry this is by far the best tool I've found. If you'd like to know more email me.
*Now I don't say this to boast rather to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool.
tags christian, focus, ministry, ministry tips, update
Posts
That's really encouraging. It's nice to hear good evangelistic experiences - there are so many bad ones out there!!
It's amazing how much people don't mind (even occasionally wanting) to do the survey. I think one of the reasons is that surveys are rather non-threatening, and yeah, it gets people into the right frame of mind to actually want to talk about their world view.
Imagine asking random people off the street "Hi, do you want to have a chat about your world view?" You'd get far less responses to that approach.
Last day tomorrow for this, hope it all goes well :-)
yeah, I suppose its particularly good to do at a university, the place where people think. It may not be the best tool to use in other places..
Is it my imagination or was that survey really limited? There were only six questions and for each one I could see the obvious 'Christian' response.
Maybe there's a deeper version of the survey out there somewhere...
That was my impression from doing it online - it felt contrived and a bit unsubtle. I answered 'none of the above' for about 3/4 of the questions.
As I said to a number of other people with the same complaint, I'm not in the business of defending the survey questions. Could it be better worded? Yes absolutely.
I'm more concerned with the business of discussing with people their (and my) worldviews and their weaknesses, merits and inconsistencies. I am/was/did argue with participants if they thought that they'd been unfairly/fairly categorized.
This however has very little bearing on the perceived merits of the worldview survey itself. I maintain it's the most effective evangelistic tool that I've ever used.
very cool mike! looking forward to being a part of focus at uni next year!
shellyanne
Ahh good. A comment space!!!
Indeed. One that hasn't been closed down lol.
I loved doing the World View Survey. Someone (Mikey? Benny?) said that the good thing about it is that it provides a way to have a serious, meaningful, deep conversation with a stranger - the sort of conversation you would normally only have with a close friend, and then rarely.
That was certainly my experience. People started thinking about their beliefs; sometimes I got to give the Christian perspective; and a couple times it was appropriate to encourage people to read a gospel for themselves or get along to FOCUS.
Most people were Existentials by the way.
Existentials?
hmm
Existentialists perhaps?
Yeah the most common worldviews seemed to be existentialist and naturalist. However, a lot of people didn't actually give their worldview a second thought, or didn't care so much as to fill in a survey, and gave us a look as if to say "why the heck would I want to do that, you crazy people? Why should I consider the meaning of my existence? It's hardly relevant." ;) Ok so that's slight exaggeration, but there are so many agnostics (I think that's what they're called). It doesn't occur to them to care. And when they're confronted with that label (should they bother to do the survey) I think it's quite thought-provoking. At least then they question, "why exactly don't I care?" The worldview survey is awesome for this and plenty of other reasons.