Narrative Evangelism - Ministry Exchange (MX)

Narrative Evangelism

“TRUE” Stories: Prodigal Son. Stories which contain Truth, not just
objectively true newspaper accounts of mundane activities.

Though the scriptures emphasize and rely on narrative to communicate truths about the gospel, much of the church today relies almost exclusively on the epistles of the New Testament. Here the gospel truth is most readily boiled down into its propositional form. So the gospels, Acts and much of the Old Testament are largely ignored. The narrative form is too unfamiliar and uncomfortable for us. This contributes to our inexperience in using stories to communicate truth about the gospel. We think the gospel is essentially propositional. We look to the propositional embodiments of the gospel as our primary sources for its proper communication. I want to propose that we begin to experiment with stories and to discover the place of narrative in evangelism. I want to outline first of all the different kinds of stories that we can tell, and secondly, how to use stories effectively. We have several different kinds of stories we can tell: 1) our own story, 2) stories from scripture. 1) Our own story. We must be able to tell our own story. The classic form of this is our own testimony. Every developing disciple of Jesus Christ is commonly expected to have a form of his or her testimony to share with anyone who may ask. This is a good beginning, but obviously our repertoire of tales to tell should be ever expanding. We will have tales of God’s work in our lives, of our tough struggles of faith or obedience, of our developing relationships and the values we developed through them, of prayer and God’s recent answers to our prayers. In other words, if we don’t have recent stories of God’s goodness to us, of struggles we have faced or of answers to prayer, it may be that our relationships with God are more in the past than in the present. Our own story in this sense is more than just a history; rather it is a “gospel”—it recounts God’s work in history. We tell our stories the way Jesus told his stories, “for those who have ears to hear”. When we speak of experiences we have had, friendships or relationships we have valued (or struggled with), or insights we have discovered, we invite people to join us, to learn with us as we have learned. 2. Stories from Scripture. We can also certainly tell the stories of scripture with which we are familiar. Jesus did this on more than one occasion (for example, Mark 3:25 or Mark 12:26). Especially in evangelistic conversations, or conversations with both younger Christians and non- Christians present (where you are trying both to do evangelism as well as to model it to younger Christians), telling a story about how Jesus communicated some gospel truth can often be much more effective than opening a Bible and reading or quoting at length. This can be especially true if some effort is made to contextualize the gospel in appropriate ways. Jesus told his fishermen-disciples “I will make you become fishers of men.” Are there ways we can appropriately recount the stories of the gospel or of the Old Testament in ways and terms that both appeal and communicate to people today?

How to Use Stories Effectively. Of course, a familiar strategy in public
speaking or preaching is to illustrate a point with a story or short
anecdote. This deductive approach—stating a principle and then
illustrating it with a specific example—is opposite to how Jesus used
stories. Jesus used stories inductively. He told a story and the principle
was derived from it. Sometimes Jesus then stated the principle, sometimes
the gospel writer did (e.g., Luke 18:1), sometimes the people he told the
story to did. Sometimes the principle is only implied. People were drawn
into his teaching through his use of stories, where the truth emerged over
the course of time. People had to listen well and work hard in order to
gain all that Jesus wanted them to. The following are two keys to effective
inductive story telling.

1. Jesus’ stories created confusion and fostered curiosity. Jesus’ stories
used familiar ideas and concepts but in unfamiliar ways. As people
listened, they were often shocked by the characters he described, or by the
plot itself. This shock led to confusion and increased curiosity in his
listeners’ minds. For example, the parable of the prodigal son takes a
shocking turn when the Jewish boy begins to feed pigs. Jesus’ listeners
were even more shocked, however, when Jesus described the father running
out to meet his wayward son. For a wealthy Jewish patriarch to show such
love and extravagance to the boy Jesus described would have been simply
scandalous! Likewise, for Jesus to use a Samaritan man as the hero for his
story in Luke 10 would have been just as shocking. In Luke 12:37, the story
of a master and servants takes a surprise turn when the master comes home
and finds faithful servants, and then girds himself and serves them! All of
these and dozens more of Jesus’ parables caught people a little off guard
when they heard them.

To be effective story tellers, we must recount incidents in a way that draws out people’s curiosity. People must be confused by our lives, our actions, our words—before they will be challenged or influenced by them. As we then explain ourselves to motivated listeners, their curiosity is satisfied.

2. Jesus’ stories revealed truth in stages. As we have noted above, Jesus
was willing to tell, in the form of a story, part of the truth. He did not
have to tell it all. He did not have to make sure everyone understood it
all. In fact, he taught in such a way that some never understood what he
was saying.

One of the biggest temptations I face is teaching in a way that spills the entire point to everyone, leaving nothing to chance. Perhaps I lack the faith that people will actually ask for more, or ask how it can be done, or will want to follow up. But if Jesus is to be our model, it means being willing to leave some things left unsaid until people are curious and ready to hear it. Are we willing to teach in a way that some of the punch of what we have to say can be explained later, to a smaller group or to the in group we are working with? There are ways to teach so that those who are most responsive can ask to hear more, without those who aren’t ready to hear getting burned over by hearing more than they can respond positively to. Jesus used parables and questions. We can tell stories in a way to communicate gospel content in an intriguing way. Evangelism Through Telling Stories

“TRUE” Stories
1. Stories from Scripture
2. Our testimony

How to use stories effectively
. deductive approach
. inductive approach

Jesus used the inductive approach:
1. Jesus’ stories created confusion and fostered curiosity.
2. Jesus’ stories revealed truth in stages.

One version of the gospel outline:
1. God’s nature: creator, righteous, abundant, unneedy
2. Our nature: sinful, entirely dependent: yet rejected God
3. God’s response: Jesus death for our sin
4. Our response: to believe in Jesus, follow him as Savior & Lord

Stories in which these elements can be seen:
Woman with the flow of blood, Mark 5:21-34
Jesus with the Samaritan woman, John 4:7-26,39-42
Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, John 7:53-8:11
Jesus and Lazarus, John 11:1-44
Jesus with Zaccheus, Luke 19:1-10
Jesus and the rich young man, Mark 10:17-31
Abraham told to sacrifice his son Isaac, Gen 22:1-19
Jesus with James and John, Mark 10:35-45

Stories Jesus told:
Parable of the prodigal son: Luke 15:11-32
Parable of the treasure and the pearl, Matt 13:44-46
Parable of the unmerciful servant, Matthew 18:21-35

As you tell your stories:
1) Make the points of the gospel implicit, not explicit. As further
questions are asked, then fill out the picture and make the points
explicit.

2) Don’t feel that you need to share the entire gospel in one story. Jesus
rarely did so.

3) Listen to the questioner for real issues he or she faces and address
your stories to those issues.

4) Tell your story so that the listener is eager for more, not wishing for
less.