Story and The Gospel

Volume 5, Issue 8

Story and The Gospel

Stories have been woven throughout history.   Remember back in grade school having to read make-believe- fairy tale, fiction in reading class…Then in high school/ college, text books…As adults we read magazines, newspapers and occasional novels; oh and yes websites and blogs.  Story is found in movies.  Stories can have heart, emotion, conflict, complication, ambition, climatic points….  Bottom line, stories engage readers and listeners emotionally.  Stories help people remember.

Have you ever thought of the Bible as one big story instead of separate books within one book?  Similarly God uses humans lives and within each person lies a story(ies) to be told.

Just this past weekend a team of Keynote staff returned from Hungary where they taught Keynote’s communication training and story-telling classes.  17 students from the leadership of student ministries in Hungary—ages 17 – 29 went through our training.
Here are  some snapshots of the impact:
▪ A student having a very hard time with facial expressions and gestures asked Kristin to spend extra time after the communication drills. As they talked he realized his feelings had been so suppressed over the years he had no idea how to express them. We're seeing significant effort and changes each day.
▪ The students have expressed how glad they are to learn how to share the story God is writing in their lives NOW, not just the story of how they came into relationship with Jesus.
The youngest student:"I want to be the best communicator I can be, but didn't know how. Then I came to the Keynote training. I never thought I needed eye contact; I never thought I needed to be aware of where I walk on stage. I was nervous. But as I've been learning these skills, the nervousness has been going away.

One of the women on the team we sent to Hungary conducted video interviews with several of the students at the end of the week.   Read this snippet she shared:
Lydia(17) told me that after the first day of classes she went to Keynote.org to learn more about our ministry. She saw these words: "We are people who are deeply in love with Jesus." ...As she read those words she thought, "That used to be true of my life, but it isn't anymore. I want that to be the way I live my life."  She was especially touched by the spiritual content of the classes, and through those, plus her own seeking after the heart of God, she saw her love relationship with the Lord grow throughout the week.
She later added: It's been fun seeing the "ah-ha" moments in the faces and lives of the students. It's always so amazing to watch the growth and transition in just one week of training.  Even the students are excited about how they're improving as communicators.

Like the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 we want to proclaim God’s message to those who need to hear.  In order to communicate with our audience, we need to speak a common language.
Here are some principles from the Story classes:
Ps. 139:13-14, 16
God has given you a unique personality, passion, and past. He has a purpose in all of that.  He wants you to tell it as your story.
When you allow God to show you the Story He has given you, your life will reveal something to the world that is unique about the character of God.
Through telling of our story we help others see Jesus and create in them a thirst that compels them to seek out the meaning of their story-in beginning a relationship with the Author of life.

 “What is your story? “   We would love to hear from you!

Prayer Requests:
As we have just celebrated our 4th anniversary (see photo to right as we ate at the same place we had our first date), that we would continue to keep Christ the focus of our marriage.
Pray for a continued attitude of praise in all that we do.

You are a story.  You are not merely the possessor and teller of a number of stories; you are a well-written, intentional story that is authored by the greatest Writer of all time, and even before time and after time.
–Dan Allendar, To Be Told