– Excerpt from the book Searching for God Knows What:

“It strikes me, even as I type this, how distant and far our formulaic methodology is from the artful, narrative sort of methodology used to explain God in Scripture. It makes you wonder whether we can even get to the truth of our theology unless it is presented in the sort of methodology Scripture uses.

It makes you wonder if all our time spent making lists would be better spent painting or writing or singing or learning to speak stories. Sometimes I feel as though the church has a kind of pity for Scripture, always having to come behind it and explain everything, put everything into actionable steps, acronyms and hidden secrets, as though the original writers, and for that matter the Holy Spirit who worked in the lives of the original writers, were a bunch of illiterate hillbillies. I don’t think they were illiterate hillbillies, and I think the methodology God used to explain His truth is quite superior.

What I mean by this is I feel my life is a story, more than a list; I feel this blood slipping through my veins and these chemicals in my brain telling me I am hungry or lonely, sad or angry, in love or despondent. And I don’t feel that a list could ever explain the complexity of all this beauty, all this sun and moon, this smell of coming rain, the beautiful mysteries of women, or the truck-like complexity of men.

It seems nearly heresy to explain the gospel of Jesus, this message an infinitely complex God has delivered to an infinitely complex humanity, in bullet points. How amazing it is that Christ would explain that to be His followers we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and that He is the Bridegroom and we are the bride, and that we will be unified with Him in His death, and that we will live forever with Him in glory.”

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Here is a segment of a talk by Donald on Narrative Expression:

Caesar sent me a link to a handy website that has all kinds of plans for reading through the Bible in a year. I obviously prefer the chronological plans. I really like the New Living Translation as I think it is an accurate translation that reads very well.

URL: http://eword.gospelcom.net/year/

Some Bibles/versions you should also check out:

The Story by Zondervan (TNIV)

Narrated Bible in Chronological Order: New International Version (NIV)

The Story of Stories by Karen Lee-Thorpe

1. I am finishing a book that will be released in September through Zondervan / Youth Specialties called “Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way.” The book details my journey in using the storying method, instructions on how to begin storying in your group, and an interact training DVD. Even though the book has a youth ministry emphasis, it will still apply to other ministry settings. I will keep you posted!

2. I will be updating the narratives this spring, with plans to expand by adding a few stories around the Judges, Kings and Prophets. I will also be improving all of the discussion questions and adding tips on how to lead through the storying process. I will post on this blog when I post the new files for download.

3. I hope to pull together some funds to update the Echo website by summer. I would like to make it more user friendly with more free content, a dynamic ideas section, frequent updates, and a wiki-bible story section for us to contribute to stories together. Any ideas or help with this would be great!

The greatest lie that I have ever had to contend with is this, ‘that life is a story about me’.
– Donald Miller, from Blue Like Jazz

Painting is The Tree of Life, by Gustav Klimt

I just read this post by my friend Steve Argue from Intersect and I thought it was fitting for this blog as well. Thanks for letting me cob this Steve!

Pictures are worth a thousands words… and words are worth a thousand pictures.Last Sunday at Mars Hill, Rob Bell interviewed Alan Close about his latest project– “Dust.” This is a graphic novel series that seeks to visually capture and communicate biblical episodes.

Dust’s first issue is called “Fire From Heaven” and tells the story of King Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah’s encounter with the priests of Baal.

Alan’s art is amazing and thoughtfully brings color, expression, and imagery together in an attempt to capture the multiple dimensions of the story. His work is supported by his own study and interaction with the text. He seems very concerned to bring the story to life while still remaining true to the episode.

Click here to order a copy.
Hear the interview.
Read an article on his project from the Grand Rapids Press.

Whether we use graphic art or graphic words in our communication, Alan offers an encouraging challenge for all of us to consider how we interact with the biblical narrative. If it’s dull, predictable, or redundant, I wonder if we have failed allow the message to resonate with our true selves thus missing the point of the story.

Maybe the Christian story is boring to adolescents, not because their hearts are hard, but because their hearts are full of life and are starving for something beyond the one-dimensional.

What do you think…

Do you think youth ministries (and churches!) are too creative with the biblical narrative or not creative enough?