Storytelling for the health of the church

Last updated on: May 2, 2013 at 8:52 am by Christopher Smith

Storytelling for the health of the church 2013-05-02T08:52:18-05:00 Christopher Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

[Adapted from a script I wrote for a video that IVP made for the Inhabit conference. My segment didn’t get used in the IVP video, but these thoughts are worth sharing here on the blog]

My friends at the Parish Collective often speak of the importance of parishes being rooted and linked. These two virtues show us two different ways that storytelling works in our local churches.

Storytelling is absolutely essential to the health and flourishing of local parishes. As we seek to be rooted, stories serve to shape our identity—they remind us who we are and how God is at work transforming us. As we seek to be linked, storytelling is a way of learning from what God is doing amidst churches in other places and other times. These kinds of stories from other local churches are particularly helpful for stretching our imaginations and energizing change in our local congregations.

Writing—along with the corresponding practice of reading—is a kind of storytelling. I’ve long been fascinated by the way the biblical writer of Hebrews uses storytelling in chapters 11—12. The writer tells all these amazing stories of Israelite faithfulness in chapter 11, and then chapter 12 turns the corner: “Therefore,” that is, in light of these stories, let us be challenged to grow deeper and more disciplined in our faith.

In this internet age with all the forms of telling and sharing stories that it offers – blogging, video-making, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – why write a book? For me, at least, writing a book was a medium that fit the stories of slow, attentive faithfulness that we wanted to share. Writing the book has required lots of focus, discipline, conversation and patience, all virtues that John Pattison and I maintain are essential to the Slow Church vision of healthy and sustainable congregations.

Just as the Slow Food movement has a preference for good food, one of the primary facets of “Slow Church” as John and I are defining it in our book is the challenge to focus less on the quantities in our congregations—as indicated by such things as attendance and offerings—and more on the quality of our faithfulness: growing deeper and more disciplined in our life together, as the writer of Hebrews suggests. Because it is in these stories of depth and discipline that our churches are inspired to be more mature embodiments of Christ in our neighborhoods, we do well to tell lots of stories as we pursue the renewal of our parishes and a slower, more faithful church.

Image: Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons

Books

Neighborhoods

What is Slow Church?

Previous Post

May 1, 2013

Many thanks to our friends who voted for Englewood's Garden Project...

Next Post

May 14, 2013 Bangladesh - Reviving the Call for Slow Fashion.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abundance Advent Books Community Conferences Conversations Ecology Economics Emergent Eucharist Family Food Gratitude Happenings Health history Hospitality Justice Lent Meditations Neighborhoods News Peace Place Poetry Politics Sabbath Scripture Stories Technology The Table Theology Uncategorized What is Slow Church? Youth

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 March 2016 June 2015 March 2015 February 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Lord, increase our faith!"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The disciples Paul John Peter