Advantages of storying in Australian church planting
A report from a pastor involved in church planting in Queensland.
For me story telling has been a central theme in my journey of discovery and change: from the excellent fellowship that results during the story telling workshops to the guiding principles of storytelling that have now entrenched themselves in my psyche. The similarities between missional church planting principles and storytelling are uncanny. Allow me to share some with you.
#1: Make Disciples.
A simple enough command from our Lord, but how often we lose this focus in our multi-generational church circles. Church planting is centered on making disciples; on going out to find people rather than expecting them to come to us. Moreover, church planting is about ‘walking the miles’ with people, helping them to find truth through the Word of God and facilitating this discovery and awe of God so that they want to do the same with others. Simple Bible studies and storytelling are valuable tools in facilitating this spiritual growth and discovery of God.
Similarly, the story telling movement is discipleship in its function: beyond discovering truth together, growing in faith, developing spiritual gifts and developing passion for the world, there is the expectation that you will pass on what you have learned, participating in the leadership of future workshops. This is the core of discipleship. the story telling movement is discipleship in its function: beyond discovering truth together, growing in faith, developing spiritual gifts and developing passion for the world, there is the expectation that you will pass on what you have learned, participating in the leadership of future workshops. This is the core of discipleship.
#2: Raise the Bar.
A common criticism of the modern church is that we have become minimalists in our expectation of the word disciple. In our western culture making Christianity ‘fit’ my lifestyle has stolen a lot of the servant heart of Christ from our day to day lives. My inaugural weekend in story telling training was a lesson in raising the bar. There was an expectation that I would tell stories, and that I would be good at it. The hours were long, the workload difficult, but the ends justified the means. In an uncompromising way our leaders of the weekend led us to public demonstration of our new found skills.
To be a disciple of Jesus is not something we can take lightly, and should have expectations of change, growth and responsibility. Certainly it is not something we ‘do’ on Sunday. Becoming a
Missional church raises the bar on being an ‘all in’ disciple of Jesus. Through our Christ centred lifestyle God lives and breathes His life through his church to the world seven days a week – changing, moulding, leading, and challenging. The resultant fellowship is a transparent, expectant, loving, praying community modeled on Acts 2.
#3: Live in God’s Worldview:
The beating heart of both storytelling and church planting is ‘go and tell’. As faith grows we get an understanding of the love of God for the whole world. Jesus’ message plain and clear was ‘the kingdom of God is near’ and this kingdom welcomes you: no exceptions. Jesus was committed to this message from the streets of Jerusalem to the woman at the well in Samaria and the demon possessed man in the land of the Garasenes.
Therefore a godly motivation for us is simply that ‘none would perish but all come to eternal life’. We need to be ready to approach people we contact every day with this understanding from the heart of God: that God loves this person and longs to reveal himself to him.
Jesus instructed us to sow seed, regardless of the soil. Some will be hard; but others will reap a great harvest. That is His work; it is up to us to continue to sow.
#4: Partner with the Holy Spirit.
It is easy to mistakenly slip into a ministry mindset of ‘battling on for God’. But in fact ministry is a faith driven partnership with the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that brings life, depth and direction to our ministry.
Storytelling and church planting embrace the concept of ‘God on the street’. That in His great grace: God is active in the lives of people all around us. Therefore, instead of approaching people for ministry out of a sense of duty or guilt, we do so as partners with the Holy Spirit, believing that He desires to bring about change in the heart of people, as we speak in faith.
This doesn’t mean that every ministry opportunity goes smoothly. In fact, there is often indifference or even worse – conflict. But as we sow in faith, we can leave it in the capable hands of the Holy Spirit to bring the challenge in His own time.
Conclusion:
There are many more similarities I could mention between missional church planting principles and Bible storytelling principles. But enough said to make the observation that as these two worlds collide they multiply great depth and opportunity for each other.
In my own experience, Bible storytelling has proved to be a great tool for sharing the gospel in the Australian context. For many people it brings the Bible to life in a non-threatening way, often leading to further discussion. People in our modern world are hungry for something real. Bible storytelling is a great tool to bridge the gap between indifference and truth, lethargy and challenge. Storytelling sows kingdom seeds in hearts for a kingdom harvest, which is the driver of missional church planting.
Italics and bold added.
