Stumble it!
This afternoon I was in a workshop with Don Miller (the author of runaway bestseller “Blue Like Jazz” that put my old stomping grounds Imago Dei and the emergent church on everybody’s map)…he gave his standard schpeel…”Story”….I was very moved.
So everything’s about story right? And God doesn’t talk in propositions, instead he inspires people to tell and to write and to live stories. For example David and Goliath doesn’t end with some great point: “…and the moral of this story is…” or as Don said: “and the five stones represent: faith, hope, love, tithe, and tie”…instead it invites us into a climactic narrative where our lives are inspired and challenged. He doesn’t have to come out and say what the point is because wherever we are…that’s what the story ends up being about…how amazing is that?
Anyhow…it was beautiful and it inspired me to remember this fact: there is an epic story being told, the central character, the protagonist, isn’t you or me…it’s God…He’s the character who everyone revolves around and relates to and engages with. His Story. And all the pain that he endures…the changes…the exhaustion…the promises and the breaking of them…all of them impact him…yet here he is…he is telling his story…but it’s an open source tale too. In other words the parts we have to play haven’t already been written for us…we write them ourselves. We write our own parts and all building up to the climactic conclusion in our own little sagas (hopefully and desirably) of “well done thou good and faithful servant”…how will we arrive there? Will we tell tales of new and shiny trinkets where we as character’s spend our energies and resources on securing, as Don said, “new Volvo’s and new gadgets and get to the end of the movie when the credits role and say…”wow…how unmoving!”…or will we live out our parts making decisions that matter…matter because they’re interwoven with the central character’s own journey…the central character, God.
Because it’s all about Story.
Filed under: Wholeness | Tagged: bible as narrative, bible as story, blue like jazz, don miller, emergent church, emerging village, narrative theology, telling god's story with our lives, theooze.com
Yep! Perhaps Don mentioned it, but Jesus *primarily* taught using stories… although he did sometimes end up saying “…and the moral of this story is…” It always strikes me funny when someone objects to creative ways of relating the word of God, because God has always made great use of imagination- both his and ours- the express to us what is truly important.
Thanks for posting the link to your blog on Facebook!
Glad to be sharing God’s story together. I guess the real question is what chapter are we on. Or maybe the last years have been a long introduction and the chapters are yet to be written. Either way, looking forward to what is going to be written in the future.
Don was in Memphis not too long ago and gave this talk. The group of friends who went with me had some good discussion following. I found myself internally wishing that he would have just come right out and said to folks, “This is all about the gospel. The gospel is not a system of belief, it is the story of a new reality into which we are invited.” But he didn’t and many of my new bible-belt friends friends failed to make the connection. Incidentally, the community I am a part of, Living Hope, just concluded a series called “Epic,” around this these, so good choice of words.
Side note – how much arm twisting would I have to do to get you to put your entire posts in your feed instead of snippets?
[...] Posted on May 14, 2008 by Brittian Bullock Following along in the vein of “Story” I’ve had a further [...]