A reflection to start: John 4:5-26

"So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. “”Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.“”I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.“”Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Worldview as a living internal system

We actively move and see the world through our internal system. It is how we determine what to do, say, and pay attention to every second of the day.

Worldview is a Dialogue, not Debate

When winning is in the equation, it becomes a debate. What if we approached conversation like a roundtable? What if we were on a shared quest in our conversation with someone else instead of being in separate camps that were trying to defend our own land? 

At the heart, we want our dialogue to be a pursuit of solidarity and shared human experience.

Questions to consider: 

• How do we define where our solidartiy begins and ends? 
• Where does our power come from?
• How are we tryign to manage control in our lives? 
• What happens when we remain curious? 

Mechanics of a Dialogue

1. Create comfort at the beginning of an dialogue: be transparent about what a worldview dialogue is, affirm no right or wrong answer, give them freedom to just share what comes up.

2. Why starting with someone's aim is a helpful place to start: Get to the heart and open them up

3. Note taking / paying attention to details: Helpful tool to track what intrigues you or creates interest

4. The gift of listening: Taking someone in and just witnessing their experience in life

5. OARS  - Guide by questioning

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OARS

Four core skills for drawing people out rather than pushing them inward. Below are just helpful notes about how to hold these.

Open Questions

• Invite deeper reflection and storytelling rather than yes/no answers.
• Help the person explore their thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
• Be curious about where they take the conversation.

Affirmations (and Apologies)

• Recognize strengths, efforts, or values you hear in what the person says.
• Builds rapport and encourages self-efficacy.
• Look for how the good ways in which God created them.

Reflective Listening

• Paraphrase or mirror what they’ve said to show understanding and invite deeper insight.
• Reflect back to make sure you do understand clearly - pursue shared understanding
• This also helps people hear their own thoughts in a clearer way.

Summaries

• You can notice together themes or key points from the conversation if that comes up naturally for you.
• Reinforces what’s been said and provides clarity or transition.