Imagine you need to repair your vehicle. You and your friends or family have some basic understanding of how a vehicle works, but none of you is an expert on how to repair it. What do you do?

You would visit a mechanic for help or take lessons from a professional so you can do it yourself, right? That makes sense.

So, how come when it comes to faith and building a worldview, we refuse to listen to others? We entrench ourselves in our beliefs and demonize anything that exists outside of them. This is a problem, not only for the church’s ability to reach people, but frankly, for ourselves too.

Christianity needs to learn from other faiths

We understand that the idea of listening to other faiths can be scary. After all, you don’t want to risk compromising your faith in Jesus or turning against Him. However, it’s not likely that opening yourself up to learning from others will do this. That is just the fear talking. Instead, opening yourself up to lessons you can learn from other faiths and worldviews can help you grow in your own faith and relationship with Jesus.

For example:

• Islam — We can learn from Muslims their example of dedicated daily prayer and devotion to God.

• Judaism — We can learn to delight in exploring the complexity of ancient holy texts and expanding our interpretations.

• Buddhism — We can learn to see the connection of all life and the one earth we have to live on. We can learn to adapt a non-dualistic worldview and contemplate our experiences.

• Hinduism — We can learn to see the complexity of the human experience in mystical stories.

• Humanism — We can learn to value the welfare of humanity in this fragile world. We can learn to value the use of science to make life better for ourselves and future generations.

A good place to start expanding your worldview would be this podcast: “A Christian Reads the Tao te Ching.” While the Tao was not written to be a faith or religious system, it does represent a significant worldview that is different from Western Christianity, yet more common than we might think. It offers a unique perspective that we can learn from, agree or disagree with, and use to grow to become better versions of ourselves. 

Centerpoint Church is ready to walk with you on your faith journey

At Centerpoint, our community believes in purpose and passion, and we would love to walk with you on your journey in finding yours. We are currently going through a new sermon series titled “Crazy Like Us.” It’s all about what we imagine Jesus would want to undo in today’s church to rebuild it to better fit His image and His teachings. 

Do you feel like the church has lost its way and could use some restructuring? You’re not alone. We encourage you to listen to our series online and welcome you to come to one of our Sunday morning services in Valrico, Florida.