05 - Thinking Like a Christian
Core truth: Everyone already has a worldview, picked up by accident. Following Jesus reshapes how you answer life's biggest questions, on purpose.
Anchor texts: Genesis 1:1, 1:27; Colossians 1:16-17
This week's step: Pick the one big question that hits you hardest and journal where you used to land versus where you land now.
This is the abstract one, so it's the session where you lean hardest on discovery and least on lecture. The trap is turning it into a philosophy class. Instead of teaching them six categories, ask them what they already assume about each, then hold it up against what Scripture says. Keep the fancy words to a minimum.
Connect
Celebrate the solo reading.
- How did reading a Gospel on their own go? Compare notes on the three questions.
They're reading the Bible by themselves now. That's a big deal, so make sure they know it.
Read
Read these together.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Dig
Run these as a conversation. Get their answer before you give the Christian one.
- Where did everything come from? (Origins.)
- How do we know what's true? Can we even know? (Knowledge.)
- What are we made of? Are we just bodies, or is there more, a soul? (What's real.)
- Is there real right and wrong, or is it just opinion? (Morality.)
- Is there a reason you exist? Are you here on purpose? (Meaning.)
- Where is the whole world heading? (The future.)
Frame
Everyone has answers to those six questions, even people who've never thought about them. We often soak up ours from family, friends, the internet, before we were old enough to choose. Becoming a Christian means you go back and answer them on purpose, with God in the picture.
Here's where the Christian lands:
- Where everything came from: God made it, through Jesus and for Jesus. It's not an accident.
- How we know truth: God is real, truth is real, and because he made us in his image we can actually know it. He's also told us about himself, supremely in Scripture.
- What we're made of: more than bodies. You have a soul, and what you do to it matters.
- Right and wrong: real, fixed, grounded in God's character, and given to us for our good (not to spoil our fun).
- Meaning: you exist on purpose and you have real worth, because God made you for himself.
- The future: the world is going somewhere good, by design, back to a restored world under Christ.
Notice how different that is from the alternative. If it all came from nothing for no reason, you'll struggle to ground morality, meaning, or hope, no matter how nice a person you are. The Christian answers aren't just comforting, they're true, and living in line with what's true is how you actually flourish.
Land
- Which of those six did you most assume the non-Christian answer to?
- What changes in how you live if the Christian answer is true?
Push on the one that's live for them. Don't try to cover all six evenly.
Next Steps
- Pick the one question that hit hardest. Write where you used to land, where you land now, and what difference it makes.
- Keep reading your Gospel, a chapter a day.
Pray
Pray that God would reshape their thinking from the ground up.
- Thank him that the world isn't random, and that living with him is living how he intended it.
- Discovery is everything today. The worst version of this session is getting bogged down in philosophy. The best version is them discovering they already hold beliefs about all six and never examined any of them.
- Keep the vocabulary plain. Don't impress them with philosophical words.
- On origins: Don't make a new believer fight the battle of old/young earth. The main claim is that God created, on purpose, through Christ. Leave the rest open.
- If this session feels too heavy for a particular person, it's the one you can shorten or come back to later. The practical sessions matter more in week one of someone's faith.
Next: 06 - The Church