The Church Has a Story, Too

I have a memory of a seminary professor making a comment, after a long discussion about a book in the Bible, considering it’s context, literary style, form and structure he said, “well, in the end we have stories.”

We all have stories; I would also say that our lives are stories, stories that carry meaning. The lives of each of us tells a faith story, are a kind of “word of God.” And each time we are able to share some of our story the Holy Spirit is with us. I have often said that when a new person comes to our community we are blessed with a new story, and new “word of God.” An important part of being the church is sharing those stories. We create smaller groups for people to be able to share. Please think about joining Saints and Sinners, the Adult Sunday School class, the Wednesday study, the Men’s group, UMW, choir, even in committees we spend time sharing. We ask, “How is your heart today?” Each time we meet is an opportunity to share our stories.

The Church has a story too. In our Adult Sunday School class we will be using a book by Bradley Holt entitled, Thirsty for God: A Brief History of Christian Spirituality. It tells the story of Christianity – in brief, as the title implies. I have found that most people don’t know this story. To be frank, not that many people are interested in history – who wants their child to be a history major? But much of who we are is inherited – and I’m not talking about genetics. I believe that in a spiritual sense, stories are also inherited. Family stories – think of how much of whom we are comes from our families! I think faith stories live in us too, and whether we are aware of it or not, the story of the Church is our story and it lives in us.

At first glance this book may seem academic. There are lists of famous theologians, church and spiritual leaders, and we may be reminded of high school history where we had to memorize the presidents (just kidding, I know they don’t do that anymore). But the point of becoming acquainted with historical figures is not to memorize but to imagine how they experienced God – and to further imagine how that way of experiencing God relates to how we experience God. The book is not the text, in the end, we are the text. Our understanding of the story of the Church is quite limited – we see only a narrow spectrum of it; what we see in the churches around us represents just a little of the story. To see the larger story of God’s work in the world provides an opportunity for us to see our own lives with God differently, more expansively.

In the end we have stories. Come and share with us on Sunday mornings.

Pastor Jim