miletwo::network

So, for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been involved in building a Christian thingamajig called The Gathering aimed at the unchurched, 20 something, postmodern, blah, blah, blah… well.. “them” if you will.  You know, that kid with the bone through his nose and leopard print tats serving your coffee?  Anyway, as the leaders grapple with the hows, whats, and why’s of all of this, I recently got some feedback from a friend suggesting that maybe there ought to be more “story” involved in our teaching.  At first I was like “well, duh!” and then gradually have come to realize that while, yes, I am in fact using elements of story in my teaching, but gee wizz… story REALLY is an effective tool to use when conveying a point.

Now, to clarify… I really don’t feel that just telling a story is  so much what’s needed… but rather telling “your story” is what’s empowering.  This generation… call them what you will (mosaics, post-moderns, freaks, geeks, whatever), is on a quest for TRUTH and authenticity.  When you JUST share a story with them, you’re no different than the Sunday morning preacher man… telling them how to live, while quite possibly living another way.  I came across this article by my friends over at Church Marketing Sucks who share with us an example of how Compassion International uses story to get people involved in supporting needs.  You see, it’s not so much “here’s how you should do it” it’s more about “hey, here’s what we’re doing… why don’t you help us out?”

Well… that’s my two cents.  So tonight, I’m off to help out at the Oregon Food Bank.  Maybe there’s a story there for next time… we’ll see.

jeremy Churchianity