Contributing Editors

David J. HesselgraveProfl!5501 Etnt'I"ifUS. khool 01World MIssion ..nd Ev"t>Ft>hsmTrinity EvangeJocal l),..;/ll ty School

Paul G Hiebert/'roks5Q( 01M,sSf(lll'l ,,00 IInrhropology. School oI l\'o(ld Mt$SIOn and fvangeJ,sm

Trinf{yt .....nt"ic..1O""",'y School

Stephen T. HoleVicE-~ of Stilff~l ..nd Tw oine- Chvrdt Rnourt:.. A1l1llS!nM

M lur>ct PmkHot. School01World M issiofl ,m d IM lIM .. ci Chu~h CtOWlhfullPf ~i(;.. 1~'Y

I. Herbert KaneProkuot fmt"f'l lUl . S,hooIoI l'\k.lrldM iu lO(l ,md Ev~/,sm

Trinity f ..."ngphca' Divinity School

Lloyd E. KwastChairman, [)(>pdrtlTtrol of Mission s

Talbot Thl'01ogical 5f>min..,y

Donald A. McGa v.anDean Emeritus, 5chooJof World MJssionilnd Imrirureof Church C, CMt hfull er Thf.o!ogical Sl'm'n..,y

Kenneth B_Mulho ll.m dDN n ..rid Proks_ of M,ssIOnS

Columbii Bib/in l~ry ..rid5c.hooI01MISsions

PERSPECTIVESON TH E W ORL D C H RIS T IAN M O VE ME NT

A Reader

Fourth Ed ition

Editor s:

Ralph D. Win l(-.

founderU.S Ceore for Vlbrld M'Hion

Stl'ven C. HawthorneCurriculum Developm f"nI

Imillule of Inle-mol/kJf!d l SWdlE'5

Assoc iate Editors:

DOIrTl!'1l R. DoerO. BrlKE'Gr......m

Brucr A.KodJ

WILLIA M C AREY

t ees Elizabeth SI

1'..5..1"""",C,J;Iifornia 9 1 10~

Eu'0l'.·..n Disl,;bulorP.>l........l<·. p,..,.,

c..Ii,I .., Un;u·d Kingdom

9. Let tile Nations Be Glad !. b4John Piper

10 . Beyon d Du ty 70Tim Df'Jlrborn

J8

- ... •~

"

10

. .....34

_ 27

...... .. . ...... .21

. 3

...............• • ii i

11. On Mission Wilh God . . . ...........74Hi'nry T. BI..,bby ...nd Avery T. Willis, Jr.

12. Witn ess to th e Wo rld . ..... .7 8David J. Bosch

Two forces . 80Jona rhan Lewis

13. The Go spe l of th e Kingdom . . . .83George Eldon Lldd

0 . 001)' befor e V· E Day . '0Ken Blue

". Building for t he Kingd om . %IV.T. Wr ight

S. Mission a nd God's Earth .Chrisropher J. H. Wright

6 . Blessing a s Transformoition ..5.lritd D. Gallagher ...nd Slevt>n C. Hawthorne

The SIOry of Blessing Prr"oliling Over CurseRichard B~IKIdIJl'"

7. The Biblin l fo undolt ion for the Wo rld w ide Mission s Moindat r . 42Joh..nflf's Vf'flruyl

8 . The Story of His Glor)' .....49Sri'ven C. H~wrhorne

ForewordsLeighton Ford Jlnd S Dougl..., B'rdull

Introd uc tion _.

Ralp h D. Win rfOr

The Biblical Perspective

1. The Livin g God is a Mission ary God .John R. W. s rott

2, Isra el's Missionary Ca ll ..Walte r C. Kaiser, Jr.

3. Everyone's Q ues t ion: Wh at is God Tryin g to DolSranley A. Ellisen

4. The Bible in World hangeli za tionJohn R. W. Srotr

Contents

f'l'rspedr.es on the WOI'kI Ctv OSl ian 1IlOYt'fI\oE'fl : ..~ I ~'IOI'S; Ralph 0Winler . SWwn C. H.... ·t1'C)r_ ; OISSOCialteeditors: D.arrell Ii:. Dorr, D. BruceGraham. Bruct' ''' . Koch. _ 4th ed

p. em.Includes bibhog.aphical relf."l'O:"f'OCes and indt-.ISBN 978.{l·878Q8. 3':lO-9

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441

Major Literar y Styles or the Bible

] , Stories Connect ", ith Our lma gina.t iona nd Emo t ioosEffective communication touches not only themin d, it also ", aches thewat of emotions­the heart . Unlike principles.-precepts andPl'Of'OSitions,. stories takeuson an~~

joumey that touches thewho le person\\-'hil e sto ries pro vid e da tes, limes, plan'S ,

nam es and chronolog ies , they simu ltaneouslyprovoke tears, chee rs, fear, anger, confi dence,conviction, sarcasm, d es pair and hope. Storiesd raw listeners in to the lives of the ch aracters.Listeners (participan ts) not only hear whathappened to such cha racters: through theimagi na tion they vicariously enter the ex pen­ence. Herbert Schneid au eloquently ca pturesthis po int when he sta les: "Stories have a wa yof tapping those K't'lings that we habituallyanesthetize...•

People epprectete stories beca use theymirror their own lives, weav ing toge therfact and feelin g . Stories unleash theim.l gina tion, making learning an exciting.life-cha nging experience.

4. Ap pro ximat ely 75 % of the Bible is Stor yThree bas ic styles of literatu re dominate thelandscape of the Scriprures-e-story, poetr)' andthou ght-organiz ed format-bllt story is Pre­dominant (see figu re ebovel,

Over the centu ries, the writers of theBibledocument ed a host of maracters : from kin gsto slev es, from those who followed God to

newspaper businesses continue to d win d lewhile video production companies prolifera te.If Christian w orkers rely too heavily 00

abstra ct. lik'!'ary foundations for evangelismand teaching. tw o-thi rds of the wo rld maytu m its attention elwwhere.)

TO M A. STE FFEN

2. Mo,. Than Hi lf of the World's Popul.ttonPrefer lhe Concrete Mode of l ea rninzDliterate and semi-bterete peo ple in the wor ldprobably ou tn umber people who can l't"ad .1

Prople with such backg rounds tend to ex prt'S-Stht-m.<,.d vt'!> mo re lhrou gh concre te forms(story and sy mbol) tha n abs tract co nce pts(propos itio nal thi nk ing an d philosoph y].

A gro win g nu mber of Am ericans preferthl' concrete mode of co mmu nication . Thi s isdue, at least in part, to a m ajor sh ift in com­

rnunication pre ference. One of the reaso nsbehind this shi ft (and the d ropping lite racyrate) is the televi sion. With the ave rage TVSOund bite now arou nd 13 f>t'cond s, and theaverage ima ge leng th less than th ree second s(oilen without linear logi c), it is no wonderthat those under its dai ly influence have littletime or desire for reading. Consequently,

I . Storytelling is a Universal Formof Co mmunicalio nNo ma tte r where you travel in this world, youwill find th at peop le love to tell an d IistE'n tostories . Young d\ild ren, teena gers and seni orsall love to ent er the life experiences of othersthrough stor ies.

Wh atever the top ic discussed , storiesbecome an integr al part of the dialogue. Storiesare used to ilrgue a point, int erject humor,illustrat e a key insight,com fort a dl~pon<knt

friend, challenge the champion or simply pabb

thetime of day. No mett er w hat its use, astory has a uni que way of find ing its wayinto a conve rsation,

Stories are heard an ywhere. 11wy areappropriate irl ch urches and prison. in theCOUf'il"house and around a campfire.

Not only do all people tell s tories, they havei need to do so. nus lead s us to the secondreason foestorytellin g.

objective, pro positi ona l thinking: (4) dwracterderivesfrom dogmas, ceeds and thooIogy;(5)story tt' lling is a waste of time in that it fails.

1O gl"tto themo re meaty issues . A<; a result01~ and other rela~ myths, many Chris­tian wo rkers have set asi de storytelling. Tohelp reconnect God 's story to evangehsm­di-<oCipleship, J wiUhighlight seven reesons,,'hy stor}'tt' liing should become a skill prac·lieN by aU who rommunic.ate the gospel.

Back 10 the Power or StoryAfter the IfugitOreintroduced me to the power of story, I beganto research the topi c.11soon discovered that man y di...aplines.including management, ment al and physkal ht>alth, apolo­gcti cs, theology and anthropology rely heavi ly on telling storie>.

Sad ly, though, story telling has beco me a los t art for manyChnstten wor kers in rela tion to evangelis m. Few present thegospel using Old Test am ent stories to lay a so lid fou nd ationfor understand ing the life of Christ, or conn ect these storiesof hope to the tilrgt"laudience's story of hopeless ness. Rather,man y p refer to o utline fou r o r five sp iritual idws and provethe validity of each th rou gh finely hon ed arguments.

A nu mber 01 hollow myths biilbthis prefell.'Jlreagainststorytelling in evangelism: (I) sto ries are for c:hildn'Tl;(2) stories are for entertainment; (3) adults pwM sophisticated.

Cholpter 7 1

! thuushl that I had hf\o1Uy Ieaml'd enough of the Uu~lan guage and cu lture (Phil ippines) to allow me 10 dosome pu blic t'\·angeJi"m. I developed some Bibk- k'SM'InS

that followed the topi cal outline we received ill pre-f eldtraining: the Bible, God. Satan. humani ty, sin, judgmf'JItandJesus Clrisl. I bega n by introducing my ucgeo Iislefll'rs tothe authori ty-ba se (the Bible). Then I quickly moved on tothe second part of the outline (God). and so forth. cul mina tingwi th Jes us Ch rist. I presented the lE'S5Of\S in a topi cal. sys tem­at ic form at. My goa l was not only to communicate the gospelbut to communicate it in such a wa y tha t the lfugan couldeffectively articulate it to othe rs

But as I tau ght , I soon rea lized thai the lfugao found itdifficult to follow the top ical presen ta tions and fou nd it evenharder to ex plain the co ntent to others. I was pl'rplexoo .

Something needed to change, so I added a number ofstories from the O ld Testa ment to illustrate the abs tract(theoretical) coecepes in the lessons through pictori al(concrete) characters and objects. I told stories aboutcreation. the Fall Cain and Abel the flood, the escapefrom Egypt, the givirlg of the Ten Commandmenb, theTabernacle, Elijah and Baal. all of wruch would providefoundation for Jesus' s tory. Their response was~menel. Not onl y did the evangelistic -..'>ionscorne alive ,the recipients became ins tan t evangelists. telling thestories to frif'nd s t"Ilthusiastically and effectively_Fromthen on I intt>gratt"d stories irl all my evangelistic efforts .

440

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UniV\'rlily. t. M"ada, California

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Why Communicate theGospel through Stories?Tom A. Steffell

D.Bruce G,ah~m isan"'lsocialeGe"",,~1 Director cethefronlier M's~jon F-ellow~hip, and ha~ WOfkedallhe USCenlel"for Wmld Mission for 16yea'~. He aneoded "nd later gave .leadt:,~hip to theea.liestPe<spectives c1a~st'S inWhe~ [OO, Il~nd Pa~~dena, CA. He~nd h.~ ...·lIe, eh".!)', worked ,nInd,a fOf 12yea"" eqUlpptng Ind,an. fo,crolH:ulturalmm OltfY·

Transforming Worldviews through the Biblical Story D. bruceGrahamTheBible reveals a story. Its earliest andevaluate it accOfdingly. In the received and believed bya people,chapterstrace the historyof the beginningof the movie T1le Gods it mustfind placeandccnnectonpeopleof Israel; it was written to MustBeCrazy, a glassCoke bottle within theirworldview. lf it isper-helpthem understandtheir unique isdropped out ofa small airplane cebeo as a story that hasanswefSidentityand purposeas a people. flying overthe Kala!lari Desert. It fortheir people, as a storythat fulfillsTheir identity was rooted backin lands amongtheSIlo oesetpeople the longings and hopes01 theirthe firsthumanfamilyand the God and awakens intense curiosity. people, it becomes good news toofCreation whowas fulfilling a Wonderingwhythe gods!lavesent them.They cansee themselves con-purposeonearth thrOlJgh them. But this strangetool, theyspendSE'veIal rected ina newway10an anc~t

Israel is not uniquein thissense. daysevaluating its usefulness. finally andholy God who bas great «ecenEvery nationneeds10cnoe- theeldersconclude that this new forthem. He has revealed Himselfto

stand its history andOfigins. PeopIl' thingisnotgoodforthem,.meI they themin His Sonwhofulfillsancientten andre-tell theirstories, which set outto dispose of it. plomisesandhopes fOf everj nation.shapetheil woridviewandidentity Thebiblical storyis processed in fQl10wing Himrestorestheiridentityas a people. Buta people's storythat a similarwirjbypeople whohear and purpose onearth,They beccrreisdlscennectedfrom God's storywill it for the first time.They askthem- partofGod's story.remain hopeless and without encur- selses, "Isthisgoodforus? Does it This kind ofworIdview trans-ingpurpose. People need to findtheir give lIS a betterwayofcoping with formation requires story-tellers whoplaceand purpose onearthinlight ourworld. ofmaking senseofit? graspthewhole biblical storyand ranofGod's storyamong the nations. Does thisstorymatchrealityas WI' meaningfully communicate it among

People filter new infoonation knowit? Does itgivehopetoour a people.This isfarfrom bringingathrough thegridof theirwmldview people?" For the biblkal storyto be peopIl' a new"religion:1t's far: more

443

drama, pkturesorsimply storytell·ing, an common loons ofexpressionamongIndians.Onestlldent drewpictures ofsuccessive storiesthroughthe Bible, onepageperstory, andhungthemon hisliving roomwall.Another invited friends to hishomefordiscussion weeklyand ever1tuallyhadreligious !eadel} goingthroughthe whole biblkalstory. Onewomanspentmonth5, evenyears,listening tothestories andCOflCemsof the Mus­limwomen sheWClfted among. Even­tually!tll'y beganto openup to her,andshehad biblicalstories to sberewiththemthat captured their interest.They wantedto hearmore

So,let's multiply story·tellerswhounderstand the whole story. Let's hl'Iptheminternalize it forthemselves in­doctively sothisstorybecomestheirstory. let's encourage themto takethe timeto kllOW melocal peopleandtheirstories,so theymeaningfutyconnect that peoples' storywithGod's story.This will transform apeoples' wcncvew

7. Jesus laughl Theolo gy Ihrou gh Stori es[esus never wrote a book on systematic theology,ye t he taught thoology wh t>!Vver he wenl. Asa holistic thinker, Jesus often used para bolicstories 10 tease audiences into ref1ecting onnew ways of thinking about life.

As Jesus' listeners wrest led with newconcepts introduced throu gh para bles, theywere cha llenged to examin e traditions, form

stories conneaeel?'Nhatwas at!tll'heartof!tll'wholestory? Thl'ir world­viewandperspectivebegantochange.They feltpertofwhatWI' called !Ill'"Seed-Man Mission- (thetermWf!.

usedto cescitethe teartofthe storyfrom Gen3:15).They wereenergizedandfeltpart ofsomething significant

Blit knO'Ning!tll' story d'dnotnecessarily make them gxd story_tellers. They hadto practice telling thestory.Andtheyhadto unders!<lnd thepeopletheywantedto rl'achinordertoeffectively communicate the bibli·cal story. Rather than reading booksaboutthepeople (usuallywritterlbyoutsiders), weencouraged the stu­dents to studythepeople indlKlively.They spenttimein teashopsandhomes, discovering theccecensandinterests ofthe localpeople. They tookpart intheircelebrationsand tradi­tions, alwaysasking Godforinsightandwisdom that wouldhelpthemtellthe biblical storymosteffectively.

This led10creativewaysofcom­municatingthestory: through song,

TOM A. STEFFEN

believers hear d the same stories with it

different empha sjs.Could one of the reasons for th is be

that stories provide an inoffensive, non­threatenin g way of challeng ing one'sbasic beliefs and behavior?

6. Storie s Crea te Instant Evangelist sPeople find it easy to repeat a good s to ry,Whether the story centers around juicygossip or the gospe l of Jesu s Chr ist,something within each of us want s 10 hearand tell such stories. Suppressing a goodstory is like resisting a jar full of yourfavorite cookies. Sooner or later, the urg('is 100 strong and the cookie ge ts eaten, thestory gel~ told . Told stories get retold.

Because my lfu gao friends cou ld relatewell to the life-expe riences of Bible charac­ters, they not only applied the stories totheir lives, they immediately retold themto family and friends, eve n before theyswitched faith allegiance 10 Jesus ChristStories create story tellers.

tlJana wayto "get pecoe sa~ed ."

Kdoes not extract a people into a for­eign community. Askitled biblicalstoIy-teHer engages aPl'OPIe inaprocess ofdiscovery that00es notdis­,.-d their own story, butrathergivesthem tIl'\N perspective andnewpur­jXISe inconnectiorl withGod's purpose.

Woo ing inIndia as a teacheroftrissiooary candidates,. Iobservedstudents learningthe Biblebymemo­rizing itsdetails--authors, dates.remes ofpeople andplaces. etc.Theyleamed factsaboutthe Biblean<lcouldtearn biblical truths.Whilepeople sometirTll'S resport@d, with­outfoundation inthe biblical story,1he1 easity turnedto anotherteach­ing oranother god if something moreInlefe'iti!"IQ camealongthat would~ thl'ir perceived need

But SOCIll'thingnewbegan tode--ielop among my students whl'nWI'

narted gamg through the whole bibli­<:aI story. We apprO<lChed it indlKlively,SEek'"!ltodiscover God's ml'SSagl'I'Iitt»n eachstory.Howwere the

5_ Every Major Religion Uses Stories toSocialize Its Young, Con vert PolentialFollowe rs and lndodrinat e MembersBuddhism,.lslam, Hinduism. jud aism Chris­tianity-all use sto ries to expand (and limit)membership and assure ongoing genera tionaladherence. They use stories to differentiatetrue members from false, acceptable beha viorfrom unacceptable. Stories create committedcomm unities.

Whether Paul was ev angel izing Jews orGentile s, the audience heard relevant sto­ries. Unbelie ving Jews heard about cultura lhe roes , su ch as Abraham, Moses and David(Acts 13:13-43). Unbelie ving Gen tiles heardabout the powerful God behind the creationstory (Acts 14:8-18; 17:16-34). Maturing

the tradit ion of the Greeks, myself includ ed,prefer to spend the majority of time in theScrip ture's smalles t htere ry style. Yet if God

communicated the majority of his messageto the wo rld th rough story, what does thissuggest to Christian workers?

THE GOS PEl THROUGH STORIES

The Bible was nol given to rewa! the livesof Abr aham Isaac and Jacob, but to "",vealthe handoj God in the lives of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob; not as a revelation ofMary and Martha and Lazarus, but asa revelation of 1M Stroior of Mary andMartha and Lazaru s.t

Poetry covers approximatel y 15%of theBible. Songs, lamentations and pro verbsprovide readers and listene rs with a varietyof avenues to express and expe rience deepemotions . These porti ons of Scripture demon­strate the feeling side of people, and illumi­nate the feelings of God as well.

The remaining 10% is composed in atho ught-organized forma t. The apostle Paul' sGreek-influenced writing s fall under th iscategory, where logical, linear thinking tendsto dominate. Man y Westerners schooled in

44 2 Chapter 71

those who lived for pe rsona l gain. Such storiesserve as mirrors to reflect our own perspectiveof life, and more importantly, God's. Char lesKoller astu tely points out:

EndnotesI . for.....,... in' Ol'rl'IloIoOnon m>rylO'lh"ll _Chopll"l' tt in my P.OlsitJg l/>(' B.ol"",· Chu<chP~nling T""II~

(I9'H l, ......ich Iool...II .....Owonologiul T.K:hing model,..-..:I Ret:onnf!CImB God'l SlOl)" PotM""",y; CfOllCuhuril

SIor}1~ oil H-.... ..nd ""brooid (t'l%I, boIh ...... ilable lhrough th. William C"ey l ibt ..,..,...8.... l"It, O..vid 8" """nnw l Sl.1li"ic ..t b b l. 0I'l Gktllo l Missoon: t997 : tnr.m..!JOIt~ 8uJkof,,, 01M," Oon4ty R~rd>,

1997,2WI:H·25.1. 1\1""" . H~V., Ot ..ICommlUli("..,iotl oilfoto xf'PIlJle: t""Ii'hll f rom M ,,, ..,, o...I""tt IPil....doomCA.: w illl.....~

l ibr"' y). 1982Schn " d.l IJ.~ N ., "Bibl ical Noilloili..., oiOO Mod.·... CoroSCiou l ness : Frank Mct:on<l<'l. ~ .. In n... 8,hk oindrhl"Na "oir"", r'oirl,!tOn(N......Yot'~ ' o.j",d Uni~ily P,,'ssl, 1';18 1>, p. H I>KoI ..... Chor""-w., f'J'O"rory P,.aching W,lhoul NOit'l IGrand Rapid., Ml, 8ake<Book Hou""l, 191>2. p, 12.Ilyk....,. te l.nd . "The B,bl. : Go,h Slu,..,..·h"t>k: Ch,;,rjaniry Today, 1979. BIB): 38

Study QuestionsI . If God conveyed the majorily of the biblical message to the world through story, what dOl:'S Ihis Sllggelt

to Chnstian won..l'lsl2. Why is storyte lling effe<:tivl' 10communicate crO'i~-culturally1

THE GOSPEL THROUG H STORIES

445Ch aptl"r 72

The Basic ConceplTht-term ~POW('l" encounte r"' comes. from m issionary anthro­pol ogist Alan Tippett . In hi s 1971 book, Propk Mot>r'>tInIts inSolllhtTn Polynts ill , 1ip~tt observed that in the South Pacificthe "arty scceptance of the gospe l usually occurred whenthere wa s an "eocccnter" demonstrating that the power 01God is greater than thdt 01 the local pagan deity. This wasusually ecromparucd by a desecratjun of the sy m bol (s) of thetraditional de ity by its pnest or priestess, w ho then declaredthat be or Nle n.-;ecte'<! the d eity's power, pledged allegianceto the true God dnd vowed to depend on God alone forprotection and sp iri tual power.

At such a moment, th e priest or p riestess would edt thetotem anima l (e.g.,a sacred turtle) and claim JE'SUS' protection.Seeing that the prie'Stor pri~less suffe red no ill effects, thepeople opened themselves to the gospe l.! These connonta­lions, along with those classic bibl ical power encountersIe.g., MOSt'S vs . Pharaoh, E~ 7·12, an d Elijah vs. the prophetsof Baal. I Ki 18) formed Tippett's view of power enco unt e r.

More I'l:"Ct'nt ly; the t..rm has been used mo re broa dl y toinclude hea hngs, deliverances or any other "visib le, practi­cal de monst ration th at Jes us Quist is more powerful th anthe spi rits, powers or Ialse god s worshiped or fea red by theme mbers of a given peop le gro up,'? The concept of "takingterrito ry " from the enemy for God's kin gd om is see n as basicto such enco un ters.

According 10 this view, jesus' entire mi nist ry was a m ass ivepower confro ntation betwee n God an d the ene my. The minis­try o t the apostles and the Q urch in succeeding ge nera tionsis seen as the con tinuing exercise of the "authority and powerover all de mons and all dise ases " given by jesus to his foUow­ers (luke 9:1). Con temporary stork'S about such encounterscome from China, Argentina, Europe, the Muslim wo rld andnearly t·vl"rywhl·l'('else where the O1un:h is growing rapidly.

We're ho-aring more about power encou nter theseda ys among non-cham..meu cs. We are more open

and Jessafr a id of spiri tu a l power than we usedto be . St-\'e ra l m is.sionary tra ining institutions now inc ludecourses on power encounter. But there are extremes we wantto avoid. My task in this uticll" is to offer an approach topower t'floounter that is bibtically ba lanced with two oth erencounte rs th a t evange bcals hav e always em phasized.

R~ from "Whatkind of

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a-Ies H. l(r~ll

,",....,-~'"""'­.nd lnt....-cult....oil

Communication_!tIP Full(o,. Sl"minary Sd>ool of

l~ultlJl. 1 Studiel sino:~ 1%9W.... hi!.wile, Mo'8uefi1e. he

~;os oJmi"ionary in Nigeria

.... te~ and "" iresinee oi"'''Sof .mhropology. WO<"ldview,CDnIel<tl.lalization. cross-cultural

«>mmuniut ion, ;nr>er healingilrod 'Pirilual warfare.

Charles H. Kraf t

Three Encounters inChristian Witness

what are they ? \'/hat is the difference inou r picture of God whe n we read storiesin wh ich God acts, as compared withtheological sta tements about th<.- nat ure ofGod ? What does the Bible comm unicatethrough ou r im agination th..t it doo.'S notcomm unicate through ou r reaso n? If theBible uses the imagination as one Wil Y

of com merce..ting tru th, should we notshow an iden tical ronfi della' in the powerof the imagination to con vey religioustruth? If so, would a good starting pointbe to n'!>pect the story quality of the Bibll"in ou r expostnon of it r'

Is it not time for loday's Ouistian workento revitalize one of tho.. world 's oldest mos turuversafand powerful art fo~Dr)"telling?I believe so. I also believe wt Chri..hanworkers, ...-ith training and prectice, caneffectively communicate the fj~ s to ryof Jesu s Ouist. and conned it to the targetaudience's unfinished~. ~ting anovenie'w oiOld and Ne ....Testament!>loriesthat unveils the history of redemption willhighlightfor the listeners the StorylineUt"SusQuist) 01 the sacred Storybook (Bible).Should this happen. the gospel will be mud.more e.a.<.ily understood. and mon'm-quentlycommunica ted to family and friends. Q

ConclusionThe Bible begins with thl" sto ry of creation andends with a visionol God's l'l"O\"ation. Peppem1generously betweena1~ and~ are a host01othl-rstories. w'hill' stories dominate Scrip"tun', theyrarely enk1" thl" 0uiMian worker '!>

strategies-leland Rykt-n rogl-ntl}'~:

444 Chapter 71

new images o f God , and transform their be­havior . Stories pushed the people to enco un­te r Go d and ch ange . It wasn't comfortable to

rise to the challenge of Jesus' stories: to s te pout of the boa t, tu m from fa mily members,extend mercy to others. search for h idd enobjectsand donate materia l goods andwealth to the poor- none of it wa s invitingBut the s tories had thrown o~n po!>sibilitiesthat made it di fficult to remain content wi thli fe as it had been. lA.'hiche\"f.'r d ill.'Clion thelisteners took, they found no mi ddle ground.They had me t God . Jes us ' stories, packedwith theology, caused reason, im aginationand emotions to colli de, dcmanding a changeof alJegiann'.

Wh)' does the 6ibll" wnwin so m.onysto ries? Is it possi bll"that stoJieos ft'Vl"alsome truths and expeneoces in a wa y thatno otIwr Iit('l"lory fonnd~ if so,