Volume 18, Number 4.
Here Pastor Tom Westra explains how telling stories can enhance our telling of The Story.
What’s Your Story?
In the retelling of The Story, you are swept into it, and in that story you meet Christ.
Jesus was dying. I could do nothing to save him—not even to ease him. I could only watch and suffer the sorrow too. I was a child. Yet I saw every detail of his passion exactly as the Bible set it down. . . . On Wednesday evenings, late in winter, for a full six weeks preceding Easter . . . when my father took the Bible . . . and began to read the sorrows of Jesus, from the Last Supper to his last cry on the cross—I was there.
Tell Me a Story
As I proclaim his story—Jesus’ story—I will use other stories from everyday life and stories from the Bible to help my listeners understand what the Gospel means for their lives and to guide them in their thankful response.
When we proclaim the Gospel we are telling a story—a true story. God acted in time, in real places, touching real people (John 1:14). We do not stand in the pulpit to bring a series of “how-tos”, telling people how to handle their finances or how to have a better marriage . . . . No, we proclaim The Story.