The Web and my Worldview

The most fascinating class we’ve been taking so far here at New Tribe’s MTC is called “Worldview Analysis.” I learned about worldview at Grace College, and I remember appreciating what I learned there, but we went even deeper here. I thought we would just learn about how to decipher the worldview of a tribal person… and while we did do that, that part of the class wasn’t what fascinated me most. What shocked me was learning about my own worldview. God has really opened my eyes to just how deeply the world around me affects my worldview.

One of the big things we talked about is how technology has affected our worldview. Of course, there are good things about technology, but there are many ways that the internet and other social media negatively influences me without me even realizing it. It’s hard for me to realize it’s full impact when I’m stuck inside my own worldview.

I SO wish that I could fill your minds and hearts with all we’ve been learning, but since we’ve had many hours of this class already, that would be impossible. I will suffice it to leave you a favorite quote from the class.

“To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple” Neil S.

The practical application of this class is that all 45 students in our class along with our class mentors will be taking the next month (Sept 9-Oct 4) away from all social media. We call it a Webfast. This means no texting, facebook, blogging, pinterest, google, television, Netflix…. You know, the things that we don’t even know how to live without anymore. Please pray that we will use this time away from so many things that usually distract us to draw closer to the Lord and build deeper relationships with people. Our teacher reminded us that we are so used to facebook relationships but in a tribe we will be forced to build face-to-face relationships and this will be good practice for us. The level of deepness that facebook requires of us won’t cut it when we’re dealing with the reality of tribal life- poverty, death, and suffering like we’ve never seen before. 

(If you do need us during this time, you can still CALL us or you can email us at ben_miller@ntm.org or alisha_miller@ntm.org.)