I'm becoming more convinced of the power of narrative in preaching and teaching...
It's initially strange to think that I'm learning these lessons teaching 5th and 6th graders.
However, we've been experimenting with our teachings. Many times we like to talk about the story. That is, we mention a passage of Scripture, and then we explain it's application to our daily lives.
But what if we just told the story period? Instead of becoming good preachers and teachers, what if we became good storytellers?
Here's an example, in our latest series, we told the story of Moses and the burning bush. How many times have we heard that story? But what is it about the story that makes it so compelling? What seems to be the point?
Well, in the case of Exodus 1-3, we decided that God always hears the cry of the oppressed (surprise, surprise).
So, with that in mind, we asked ourselves, How do we capture that one idea and crafted a good story out of it? How can we let the story speak for itself with that one point in mind?"
Well, we decided to tell the story, but omit all of the characters.
We talked about slaves, and how they were slaves for a long time, about how an evil slave master killed off all of the boys. Consistently throughout the story, we had everyone yell, HELP!! We also had the slaves ask the same questions:
"God, can you hear us? Do you even care?"
These two questions were littered throughout the entire story.
We inserted a son, who was miraculously saved from the evil master, and eventually seeing these slaves being beaten. They continued to cry help and ask those two questions. The son thought it would be great to beat the slave master himself, to feel like one of the slaves. The slaves didn't react to well to this. The son ran away. He saw something strange...something like a flame. It spoke. And it said...
"Moses, I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard their cry and felt their suffering, and I'm coming to HELP."
Now...there were some details I left out for the sake of brevity, but can you get a glimpse of the power of narrative? All throughout the story, the vibe was, "Does God really care about us? When we're in a lowest moments, does God hear us when we cry out?" The end of the story says YES. But we didn't have to tell them about that point. We just let the story say it for us.
I remember stories much more than I remember teachings about the story. I guarantee your students (and any age you teach) will as well. We always remember good stories over great teachings.
We need more great storytellers.
"Okay, I just watched the clips of Rob at the Seeds of Compassion event. As a follower of Jesus and a member of Mars Hill I must say I am very proud of how Rob spoke beautiful truths in response to those questions. I am blessed to have the privilege to be engaged in those truths each and every time I hear him teach. I am blessed that he has spoken such truth into my life personally and directly. To say that he did not share Christ is absurd! As Christians, aren't we supposed to share Christ with our lives? If all truth is God's truth, then when we speak truth are we not sharing Christ?
As for not sharing the power of the cross, I am in complete disagreement. I have no idea whether he gave a "gospel presentation" off camera, but the words he spoke were indeed the power of the cross! Redemption and forgiveness and resurrection were the issues he spoke on - if that's not the power of the cross, I don't know what is! He did not need to use the specific phrases we are so used to hearing in our churches to share the power of the cross. There are those people who somehow seem to think that the depth of our faith can only be felt and heard with those certain words. How that shortchanges the ability of God to penetrate into the hearts and minds of all people! Rob may have gained more respect from his honest, thoughtful, and poignant responses than if he had done nothing but preach a mini-sermon. He may have lost respect. What if his answers encourage people who wouldn't normally take interest in what Christians had to say to listen to him and be curious about his writings and teachings? From my own personal experience, people who are dis-interested in or turned off by Christians are more than likely to take an interest in Christ from the Christ they see demonstrated in my life, not the the "Christian" words I speak to them."
Some think that because some of these words were not mentioned, the message of the gospel (which could be one of the issues, as that word in itself needs defined) has been "watered-down." If I speak on the power of forgiveness, of death, and resurrection, do you think it would have any possibility of speaking of Christ, and especially the cross?!
I think people come to listen to Rob, or Doug Pagitt, or whoever else you want to label as a heretic, evil, or bad (or you fill in the blank), already come with an agenda to nitpick anything they can find (and will take things out of context quickly) without considering that they can speak some truth. I am always trying to be aware when I take that posture with those whose views I don't totally adhere to (a certain seminary prof comes to mind), but at the same time, I am asking God for the humility to be open to truths that emerge.
If your mind is too shallow to not even consider the person speaking truth, then you are shutting off the Holy Spirit. What are you so afraid of?
I think people like Rob are showing those who don't profess in Jesus that there are Christians who do want to make the world a better place, who in my mind actually put love on display. What powerful words Rob spoke in those few minutes regarding violence in our world. It was a tough question, and he handled it beautifully and spoke with such hope.
So please, for the love of Christ and His Kingdom, please consider this plea to be humble; to acknowledge that God can teach us from anybody, anything, or any circumstance, no matter what our feelings toward them are. We will become more like Christ because of it.