A skateboarder’s worldview
I grew up fully in love with skateboarding culture. While I never excelled beyond a pop shove-it and ollieing a few stairs, the allure of the freedom and independence baked into skate culture has always intrigued and filled me with excitement.
I used to spend hours watching old Bones Brigade skate videos or productions by companies like Birdhouse and Transworld Skateboarding that showed all the crazy stunts, bad falls, and sweet tricks the latest pros were performing. It always inspired and emboldened me to try something new and just go for it.
I got into skateboarding for the innocent love of riding on four wheels down a ramp or neighborhood street, wind in my hair, blasting tunes on my portable CD player. It gave me purpose and meaning. I loved the sense of freedom and adventure that came with that simple venture on a laminated deck, two steel trucks, and four hard rubber wheels.
Inherited perspectives
Over the years, my closeness to the culture and actually jumping on my cheap deck (with the only pair of trucks I’ve ever owned) has dwindled. But that perspective on life, the carefreeness, the independence still holds a special place in my heart, and still shapes how I see the world.
Skateboarding culture isn’t the only thing that has shaped how I see the world: love of epic fantasy like Lord of the Rings, my teenage love for classic rock and heavy metal—Judas Priest, Rush, Black Sabbath and newer acts like Veil of Maya, Buckethead, and Animals as Leaders. All of these things shaped and formed me into a certain type of person with a certain value system that’s still with me today.
If I could summarize the worldview I grew up within, it might go something like:
God exists and He’s cool, but we’re here to do whatever we feel like doing
I’m here to enjoy life, do what I feel like, and I guess, since I was born again as a kid, I’ll just go to heaven when I die cuz God loves me. Cool!
I’m not really sure I can know what’s true so I guess I’ll just go back to skating, writing songs, and having a good time.
There’s definitely boundaries to how I should live, but as long as I’m not hurting anyone, it’s cool.
These views were reinforced constantly by my surrounding culture of friends, relatives, and pop culture. And though I grew up in a home that proclaimed allegiance to Jesus, the culture I actually lived day to day was very far from the Bible. Truly, I inherited more of an American worldview than a biblical one.
The American dream vs. the Biblical call
At an early age, I encountered and knew there was a God, but I wasn’t taught how to live out what it meant for God to exist. I was raised in the general, American individualist milieu where individual preferences, perspectives, and destiny were the primary lenses through which I viewed things.
I know I’m not alone in this, either. Western culture in general has moved so far away from a biblical worldview, and we’re witnessing the effects in people’s lives. Addiction, violence, and emotional distress in all forms are running rampant. This is why it’s so important that we, as reborn people of the one true God, seek to reclaim and reinforce a biblical view of our world.
As Paul begged and pleaded with the church in Rome: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (12:1-2)
God wants us to be transformed in how we view and operate within this age. He wants us to be formed into His own image so we can fulfill His great purpose to “make all things new”—the great Edenic purpose established from the creation of humanity (Gen. 1:26-28, Rom. 8:28-29, Rev. 21:5).
To fulfill this purpose, our worldview must align with God’s.
What is a worldview?
According to several sources in Thomas and Sosin’s book Therapeutic Expedition: Equipping the Christian Counselor for the Journey (2011), worldview can be defined as:
“A set of beliefs about the most important issues in life … a conceptual scheme by which we consciously or unconsciously place or fit everything we believe and by which we interpret and judge reality.” (Nash, 1992)
Or “a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions … that we hold … about the basic condition of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.” Sire (1999)
Or “a life map, a means of organizing all of life". It is described as an internal map that consciously or unconsciously provides direction to life, containing "assumptions, beliefs, and principles on which we build our lives.”
The English word "worldview" is derived from the German word Weltanschauung, and it refers to "the essence of living".
The four components of worldview
Worldview has four components. As Christians, those reborn of water and Spirit, we have committed ourselves to a single worldview: that of the Bible. (1 Pet. 3:21) Let’s look at definitions for each component and then the biblical, true version of each (all summarized from Thomas and Sosin’s book noted above):
Cosmology: “Where did I come from?” and “Is there a God?”
This component focuses on the totality of reality, encompassing both physical and nonphysical reality, addressing fundamental questions about the origin and nature of the universe, life, mankind, and the existence of God.
Biblical Cosmology: The biblical worldview affirms the existence of God as the Creator of everything. It posits that God is transcendent (outside and above all) and ever-present (immanent, active in creation). (Gen. 1-2, John 1:1-18)
Teleology: "Why am I here?" and "Where am I going?"
This component deals with the purpose and meaning of existence for us as individuals. The term is derived from the Greek word telos which can be defined as “consummation (the end-goal, purpose), such as closure with all its results” (BibleHub) and is frequently translated as “the end” as in Matthew 10:22.
Biblical Worldview: The biblical worldview asserts that mankind was created in God's image with inherent value and a divine plan, finding true meaning and purpose through a relationship with God. Humanity has an eternal destiny that impacts present life choices and motivations. (Gen. 1-2, Psalm 8:9)
Epistemology: "What can I know for sure?" and "How can I know it?"
This component is concerned with knowledge and truth, examining their nature, sources, and limitations.
Biblical Worldview: The biblical worldview maintains the existence of absolute truth, with the Bible (Scripture) as the ultimate and immutable source of that truth, revealed by God. This truth provides foundational principles for understanding and living. (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Heb. 4:12, 6:19)
Axiology: "Why do I do what I do?" and "How should I live?"
This component focuses on morality and values, including issues of right and wrong, ethics, and how one should live.
Biblical Worldview: The biblical worldview provides objective moral standards based on God's character and commands found in the Bible, guiding how individuals should live. It recognizes that mankind is fallen and sinful, needing redemption, and emphasizes confession, repentance, and living according to God's will. (Gen. 1-2, Luke 1:37, Rom. 3:24)
In summary, a biblical worldview is a belief system grounded in the absolute truth of the Bible which serves as the ultimate map for understanding life's terrain, purpose, and meaning. It asserts that God is the Creator and His Word provides the foundational principles for how individuals should live.
My Story: From False Teleology to True Purpose
Our worldview is inherited and developed over the course of our lives. It’s both the norms we learn from our parents and caretakers and the perspective we learn and develop as a reaction to life.
Despite having a biblical cosmology generally, I wasn’t taught biblical teleology—I wasn’t accurately shown where it’s all headed and how to get there. Likewise, while I was shown that the Bible is the foundational source of Truth (epistemology), I wasn’t given clear direction on a moral and ethical path through life founded in the Bible (axiology).
In a broken, sin-stained world, we develop many perspectives that are true and those that are false. For example, my mom’s death when I was 15 and the subsequent (completely illogical) guilt I felt taught me that my purpose in life (teleology) was to prove my worth through achievement. Through healing and repentance, God has reconfigured my teleological perspective so that I know my purpose is to know God, become like Him, and do as He does.
What joy and freedom I live in now compared to where I used to be! Halleluyah!
Spiritual formation and renewal of the mind
Our worldview can bind us or free us. If we’re bound to a worldview outside God’s, we will struggle to fulfill why we’re here. We won’t be fruitful, multiply, subdue, or rule in God’s Kingdom, because we still live within the boundaries of another.
This is why the process of spiritual formation is so vital. In this process we come to know and become like the One we are called to behold—Jesus, the “express image” of God (Heb. 1:3 KJV). It is His worldview, through His Word and a living relationship with Him, that transforms our minds and hearts so we continually become the ambassadors He has called us to be.
Over the course of the next few articles, we’ll work through each one of the four worldview components to become the kind of people that bring God’s Kingdom rule to our world.
Skaters transformed
To end, I want to highlight the power of God’s transforming work through the lives of people whose worldviews were dramatically shifted.
Three people: two professional skateboarders and one wicked awesome amateur skater, have become incredible witnesses for Jesus to the skateboarding community, around the globe, and in my life.
Christian Hosoi, a professional skater in the 80s and 90s, had a radical conversion to Christianity mid-career that shifted his entire life. Once addicted to drugs and in deep anguish, he now works in ministry spreading the message of Jesus to skaters.
Brian Sumner, another pro skater, was deep in sin and severely lost until he converted to Christianity and left his whole professional career behind to become a pastor. He now travels extensively as a minister bringing the life and hope of Jesus to skaters all around the globe.
And lastly, Tim Mackie, co-founder of BibleProject, was brought to faith in Jesus at a ministry that held services in a skatepark between skate sessions. Tim Mackie’s down-to-earth approach to scholarship has helped millions of people, including me, encounter the Bible in new and profound ways.
A renewed mind, a renewed life
These three men stand as examples of what the “renewal of the mind” through the work of God’s Holy Spirit and His Word can do to fundamentally shift our purpose. Yet, God leaves trace amounts of who we have been so that we can help others become who they’re supposed to be.
When we allow God to shift our perspectives through His Word and Presence, we can become beacons of light to those we once lived among as the fellow lost. Allowing God to shift our worldview is key to becoming all God has us to be in this world.
Soo well written, and soo relevant to our western view of Living. Thank you for writing this and I pray it finds its way into more of our youth in the not-so-common to reach communities.