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STORY

In "Encouraging the Heart", Kouzes and Posner write, "The renowned trial attorney Gerry Spence-who, by the way, has never lost a criminal trial-says that 'the strongest structure for any argument is story.'"

—"Encouraging the Heart", p 101. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Romans 4:2 (MSG) "If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story."

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STORY

In "The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives", Brian McLaren writes, "Rather than seeing the gospel as propositions, mechanisms, abstractions, or universal concepts, I came to see the gospel as narrative, a story." He sums up his statement by saying, "We cannot truly tell the gospel without telling a story. Our message is at heart a story."

—"The Church in Emerging Culture", p. 198-9. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Matthew 13:34 (MSG) "All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon."
 

STORY

In his book, An Unstoppable Force, Erwin McManus writes, “The church was born out of stories. The first-century church was driven by the narrative. There was no New Testament; there were no Gospels to transmit the story of Jesus. His story was entrusted to storytellers. The Christian faith grew through story—not text. Only later did the stories become Scripture. While the scripture must be held in the highest regard, we must not neglect to power of story.”

— An Unstoppable Force, p. 117-8 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Sometimes we are so busy to get to our point, that we summarize a story and neglect to tell it. There is power in the story, and we should always be ready to tell the biblical narrative to anyone who will listen.

Acts 4:19-20 (NASB)

But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; [20] for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard."

For More information on An Unstoppable Force, go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764423061/fm082-20

Poet Muriel Rukeyser says, “The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.” --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Matthew 13:13 (ESV) This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.