Tell Your Story

I was reflecting on my blog post yesterday and was thinking about how in my post I referenced two different stories.  I referenced the Mel Gibson movie, Braveheart and a story Michael Hyatt told about the power of drift.  I mention this because several weeks ago I started an experiment at FBC Bowling Green with storying.  I am preaching through Acts chapter thirteen and I am teaching the chapter through the use of storying.  I tell the story and then I retold the story and then I had the individuals practice telling the story.  I changed it up a little this past Sunday, but basically kept that same concept.

I have now been doing this storying experiment for a month (four Sundays) and am evaluating the power of stories.  I have some church members who have come to me and said, “Who likes this storying stuff anyway?”  I have had others come up to me and say, “I love this, do you think you could teach a class on how to tell stories.”  The point is I am receiving mixed reviews about the use of storying in our Sunday services, and as a result, I am needing to be the final reflector of the technique.

I have made a personal commitment of conducting this experiment for six months.  I have chosen this length of time because I think it will take this long for the congregation of FBC Bowling Green to truly get used to it and to start assimilating the concept and value the use of storying.  At the end of that six months, I will again reevaluate the process of storying in our worship services.  If I think it is of value, I will continue.  If I feel it is not truly being a tool useful to the congregants, then I will switch back to full “preaching.”

After a month, here are a few of my thoughts: We as a people, love stories.  We may not love the process of learning a story, but we love stories.  In other words, if all I did was tell the story and not have a time in which I am having the congregants learning the story, I think everyone would love it.  We tell stories about our lives and the lives of others.  We tell stories about the movies we see or the books we read.  We are natural storytellers.  Stories have a natural way of helping the audience to join the adventure and it is also an easy way for us to remember the key points of a subject.

I further think the Lord loves to tell stories.  I think this is one of the reasons He gave to us His Word, the Bible.  It is one giant meta-narrative of His grace and provision in the midst of our struggle and battle with sin.  Let me challenge you to become a great storyteller, and specifically a great storyteller of your life.  If you are able to mesmerize your audience with your story, you will earn the right to weave into your story the real story of significance, which is Jesus.  Use your storying platform to challenge people to live a life in service to for Him.