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Community & Worldview Fieldbook

Community & Worldview Fieldbook is a Level 2 Field Practitioner course for active workers and small teams who need practical tools for mapping local meaning, avoiding syncretism, and discipling within community context.

Level 2 Field Practitioner

This course is designed for field practitioners, local partners, and small teams. It includes practical worksheets and should be reviewed by experienced leaders before use.

Course purpose

This course teaches field workers how to identify local worldview assumptions, distinguish cultural conformity from true discipleship, and use community insights responsibly in gospel communication.

Intended audience

  • Active field workers in sensitive cross-cultural settings
  • Small teams learning to engage local communities faithfully
  • Mentors and sending partners supporting field practitioners

Prerequisites

Recommended: Missionary Readiness 101, Culture & Worldview Fieldbook, or Cross-Cultural Service.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, learners should be able to:

  • Identify when local people are being pressured to conform to foreign cultural norms instead of following Christ
  • Sort local practices into required, prohibited, and neutral cultural buckets
  • Evaluate teaching stories for local clarity and Gospel relevance
  • Map local spiritual authorities and the community’s core priorities
  • Harvest proverbs and idioms as windows into cultural logic and consequence

Estimated time

90-110 minutes.

Practical output

A fieldbook starter set of notes, worksheet entries, and story filters for one local community.

Lessons

  1. Conformity vs. True Discipleship (The Local Snakes)
  2. The Three Buckets of Legalism
  3. The Illustration Filter (Communicating in Context)
  4. Mapping the Players and Core Foci
  5. Harvesting Proverbs and Idioms

Field tools

Required reading/viewing

  • Read this course overview.
  • Complete all five lessons.
  • Use the field tools with at least one local story, proverb, or practice.

Reflection questions

  1. When has a new believer been asked to adopt foreign religious behavior instead of following Christ?
  2. Which local authority figures shape community decisions in the area you are studying?
  3. What proverb or idiom has already taught you something important about local priorities?

Practical assignment

Choose one local story, proverb, or spiritual authority figure and work through the course tools to map meaning, risk, and gospel relevance.

Completion criteria

  • Review the overview and all five lessons.
  • Use at least one field tool in a real or observed community situation.
  • Answer the reflection questions.
  • Discuss your findings with a mentor or local partner.

Facilitator notes

  • Encourage learners to validate observations with local insiders.
  • Emphasize that cultural mapping is a practice, not a one-time judgement.
  • Avoid turning local stories into simple Western categories without consulting community knowledge.

Revision History

Date Version Notes
June 7, 2026 0.1 Created Community & Worldview Fieldbook course overview and lesson structure.
Back to Course Catalog Start Lesson 1