I Don’t Want to Hear Someone Else’s Story…

Wow I know that sounds closed minded, but it’s not exactly what I mean. I love to hear the stories of other people, I can listen to them for hours. I also really love storytellers like Andy Andrews who tell us the great stories of people from history with vital lessons for our lives today. Of course I also love the stories of Jesus and the people from the Word of God, mixed with a good and biblical application for my day-to-day life. Having heard all this, you might be asking what it is I don’t want to hear and what is the point of this post.

Well I’ll tell you. Todd Henry from The Accidental Creative always signs off his podcast by saying, “Cover bands don’t change the world.” Now I’ve heard some great cover bands over the years. They are proficient, talented and can play the songs note for note, but no matter how good they are, something is missing. The one who wrote the song is the one who experienced the passion and the pain it took to create the song. Others can sing the song, but they have lived it. That’s what I want to hear. I want to hear the song writer, the one who paid his dues and paid the price. I want to hear the story and the passion and the pain behind it. I want you to tell me your story. I want to hear the joy, the revelation and the struggle, the triumph and the victory. Show me why it didn’t kill you and how it made you stronger. Tell me about what you’ve lived and make me feel it.

Nowhere is this more important than in sharing your faith. So many people are hesitant to share their faith. They often feel they don’t know enough or won’t have the right words and both of those things may be true. There is, however, one subject on which you are the world’s foremost expert. There is one thing you know better than anyone else, it’s your story and the story of Jesus in you. The story of what He has done in your life. Start there, tell your story, give your testimony. Honor God. Speak the truth and speak it in love.

Tell us your story. Chances are there is someone who really needs to hear it!

Oh and one last thing, if you think your story is boring, work to live a better one!

Tell a Better Story With Good Work…

Yesterday we had a freezing rain wintry mess. I’m never a fan of winter weather and ice is the worst. I was out scraping my windows when I looked at my front tire, it was going flat, I was not happy but I’m not writing this post to whine. God is good all the time. I write this post to tell you about great service I received. I go to this place called Kantner’s Tire Service in Shoemakersville, PA. They are the only people from whom I buy tires, ever. The reason is simple. When I pull into their garage, they ascend on my car like a NASCAR pit crew. I was in and out in a very short period of time with a tire as good as new. When I talk to other customers of theirs, almost to a person, they have the same response. These people have developed a great reputation for quality work, quality products and affordable prices. That’s a great reputation for any business and any person.

Look at your own life and your own work. What’s your reputation? How could you improve it?

Proverbs 22:29 says Do you see someone skilled in their work?  They will serve before kings;  they will not serve before officials of low rank.

We can tell a better story by always delivering our best. What kind of story are you telling?

Your Story

My coach, Craig, says that sometimes you find a business book that you have to baptize because it holds incredible principles that can be applied to the church. I am just starting one such book right now.

It’s called Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future
by Jonah Sachs. I’m just through the prologue and I can already see the benefit coming out of it for ministry. As you know, one of the main admonitions of this web site is for Creative Christians to tell (and live!) a better story. It should be easy for us. To live in this world and follow Jesus is to struggle. Much of the world system runs contrary to what followers of Jesus know to be true and we are faced with a choice, give in and follow, hiding the light of the world under a bushel if not snuffing it out or we can rise up, appearing vastly outnumbered, but with an unseen power, and conquering with love. The first is the journey of most people, the second is the journey of the hero and isn’t that the core of every great story.

Think about it, one who looks like an underdog, looks at a broken system, sees someone in need of help and rises up to make a difference, often at great personal sacrifice, sometimes even the supreme sacrifice. In the process, the hero reveals a power from within to overcome and a love greater than fear and danger and victory rises from defeat like a phoenix from the flames. That’s the core of every great story isn’t it. It’s the story of a hero. Look more closely. It’s the story of Jesus.

Friends we need to tell that story and we need to live that story. Compromise with this world’s system may make life easier, but you’ll never be a hero, and if you’re not living heroically you’re not following the one after whom all great heroes are patterned.

What kind of story are you living? It’s not too late for a rewrite. Find the things that strike your passions, the causes that affect you greatly, turn them over to Jesus and start speaking the truth in love to the situation. Determine in Christ to live heroically in this story. Determined that the status quo cannot stand and make a difference to the glory of God. You can’t do it alone, but you serve the one for whom all things are possible.

You’re aligned with the ultimate hero, we already know He wins, stand with Him. Live a better story, follow your hero.

What’s your story?

Great quote from Aslan…

I woke up about 2:30 this morning, unable to go back to sleep, with a million thoughts going through my mind simultaneously. I got up and wrote a few notes, then laid on the couch attempting to return to sleep. That didn’t happen. My son Chris had reminded me earlier in the evening of the DVD he got me for Christmas last year, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn TreaderI had not yet watched it so I put it in.

I had forgotten how amazing that film really is…

Near the end of the movie, Aslan and Lucy are having a conversation. Lucy is growing up and will not be able to return to Narnia and as she stands at the edge of Aslan’s Country (which to me represents heaven). It goes like this:

Lucy Pevensie:   Will you come and visit us in our world?
Aslan:   I shall be watching you always.
Lucy Pevensie:   How?
Aslan:   In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it. That was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.

By that point I was a sentimental mess. Maybe it was the fatigue or maybe it was because my Spirit resonates with this story. C.S Lewis represents Christ with the Lion of Aslan. To me this is entirely appropriate as Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He is with us always and His name in this world is Jesus. Yes He is the Savior and the Sacrifice but He is also the mighty lion, rampant and King who has already overcome the world! It’s eternally important that He is our savior, the lamb slain to set us free, but the lion part, the king part is important too. He our Lord and Defender. In the movies, Aslan the lion charges in when all hope seems lost and saves the day. Kinda like Jesus.

C.S. Lewis used Aslan to paint a picture of Jesus. He told a story that took us to a magical world, so that we could know our Aslan better, by his real name: Jesus!

How can you tell the story of our Lord and Savior?

 

Tell a Better Story: Sight and Sound Theater’s Jonah

Yesterday I got to experience the spectacle that is Sight and Sound Lancaster’s Jonah. It is a fantastic production that tells the story of Jonah wonderfully. I’ve done staging work for schools and community theaters for years, going to Sight and Sound is definitely “how the other half lives” in budget, resources, etc. It’s astounding. The production values were phenomenal, the staging, the sets, the props, the visuals and of course the acting and music really did what they say they do, “bringing the Bible to life. When I saw the “whale scene” my jaw dropped. It was stunning. More than the visuals though the story was fantastic. They really fleshed out the story and while they took some liberties, they were faithful to the meaning of the story and biblically authentic. I loved how they ended the show. This was what concerned me the most. The book of Jonah sort of leaves us hanging and I was concerned that they would either leave us hanging or that they would go to far from the text. Instead they brought the story to redemption in a way I will not soon forget.

If you can make your way to the Lancaster Co. PA area over the next month, you need to see this show. It’s phenomenal!
http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/changeLocation.do?locationCD=STRASBURG_PA&target=showDetail

Sing a Better Story

In the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping this is a great way to help people remember why we celebrate!

Here’s the info!
Journey of Faith performed a Christmas “Flash Mob” at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach on December 18, much to the delight of local shoppers. Thanks to all who participated. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Winning the Story Wars

Not long ago I downloaded a book onto my kindle called Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. I have not yet read the book so I realize I am going out on a bit of a limb here. In this marketing book he relates marketing to stories and creating myths. It appears from one of the videos in this series that he regards our faith as a myth and if that is the case, I strenuously disagree. Nonetheless, one of my passions for this blog is helping Christians to tell a better story. If we were to apply some of the principles espoused in these videos to the true, totally unmythic story of the Gospel and more importantly the way we share it and tell our stories, I can’t help thinking we might be a bit more successful.

This may be one of those cases where we have to baptize a worldly principle, but there is something to be learned here. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Breaking Amish… The Opposite of Telling a Better Story

As many of you know, I’m kind of a reality TV junkie. You may also know I really struggle with the Amish at times. I love them. I respect them. I just want to know where the biblical prohibition is against rubber tires, zippers, pockets, etc. They are not allowed to own a car, but they can pay someone they believe is a lost sinner to “do their dirty work” and drive them around. Don’t bother to tell me it’s about simple living, because there’s nothing simple about it. If it’s wrong to have a computer in your house then it’s wrong to have one in your business, etc., etc. etc. It’s legalism on steroids and don’t even get me started on the practice of shunning. Sheesh.

So it was with great interest that I began watching TLC’s Breaking Amish. I expected a fish out of water story, check. I expected the people to cast off restraint and go nuts, check! I even expected the media to use this to take cheap shots at Christianity, Check Mate! This was a terrible show in a lot of ways. First of all, I wondered how TLC found five people in this very closed community all willing to turn their backs on their faith. I can’t say I am surprised there are people ready to leave, I just wondered how they found them. As the weeks wore on, it became apparent there was more to most of these folks than meets the eye. The show proved that Social media is the biblical fulfillment of the verse that says “your sin will find you out.”

In watching the finale interview show, it became apparent that these people did not watch a lot of TV, as they seemed genuinely surprised at the media proctology exam that comes with celebrity. I watched five dumbfounded young adults baffled by the fact that their secrets came out. The only saving grace for this show is that hopefully the Amish relatives of these people will stick to their faith and never see it.

I think TLC should be ashamed of themselves for airing this program. Their bias was clear as they showed Scripture verses on the screen before they showed their baffled cast breaking them (and being set up to break them). It seems the intent was to paint religion and Christianity with a broad brush once again. The Amish were portrayed as villainous hypocrites rather than flawed human beings trying to live life as they understand it. TLC seemed to revel in every flaw. They allowed the cast to say egregious things about their culture with no filter or thought toward editing out slanderous things. I guess they know the Amish don’t believe in litigation.

The show is over now, leaving the “cast” to pick up the pieces of broken lives, outcasts from their families and trying to make it in a world not designed for the Amish. My prayers are with them. I’m not predicting another season, of course TLC’s targeted victims will never see the show until it’s too late, so you never know and anyway, TLC is on to the next thing, Amish Mafia… I’m sure that show will make Christians look much better.

How do we combat this kind of thing? Christian creatives, we need to rise up and tell a better story. The media isn’t going to do it for us, nor will they make it easy. It’s up to us to honor God with our gifts and the time is now.

Tell a Better Story: Hurt by Travis Thrasher

A few months back I posted a review on three books by Travis Thrasher, from his Solitary Tales Series, Solitary, Gravestone and Temptation. Not long after I posted this post, I heard from Travis Thrasher and a series of events occurred leading up to me getting an advance copy of the last book in the series, Hurt, which releases January 1. I just finished reading it and it is amazing.

I read this almost 500 page book in less than a week, and if you knew my schedule you would know that is quite a feat. This book is a real page turner. The books are supernatural thrillers that follow the life of Chris Buckley, a teenager who finds himself in the middle of a spiritual battle against a town (Solitary, NC) taken over by evil forces beyond his comprehension. It’s a coming of age story, that would probably be labeled young adult fiction, though this nearly 50 year old writer found it thoroughly engaging.

The books are at times very dark, but then that’s how it is in a spiritual battle and this is an intense battle. What I love about this series is it’s reality. Thrasher presents his protagonist warts and all. He presents teen angst in a way that makes one remember how hard  that time of life can really be. He shows coming to faith as a battle and shows that the battle doesn’t end when we come to Christ. Chris Buckley rises and falls and struggles and doubts and all those other things that happen when the forces of good and evil battle over our lives. Thrasher presents that battle and struggle so well and while there are some events in these books that most of us will never see (thank you Lord) he reminds us that there is a battle around us and it is very real. This has been an excellent series and Hurt finishes it out masterfully. I loved this book, probably the best series I have read in this genre since This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness
by Frank Peretti.

Like I said Hurt doesn’t release until January 1, 2013, but I post it now so you can read the other three books or better yet, get the books and give them to someone who is obsessed with Twilight, Hunger Games, etc. Thrasher really does tell a better story.

Order the books through this page to benefit AMOKArts.

Solitary: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series)

Gravestone: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series)

Temptation: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series)

Hurt: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series)

Tell A Better Story: Dear Amanda Todd

A friend posted this story to Facebook and I knew I had to share it. It’s one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life. The kind of thing that makes me wonder. It makes me want to ban social media and yet I heard the story on social media. It shows the power for tremendous evil and tremendous good  that exist in this one mode of communication. The first video was posted by a young girl names Amanda Todd. It was posted September 7, 2012. She was found dead about a week ago, a little over a month after posting this video, a haunting video of pain and abuse brought about by cyber bullying. it’s hard to watch but I think we must. My prayer is that it spurs someone on to take action.

This second video was a response from another young lady about the same age, named Siana. It too has some tough stuff but at the end it has something else. It has hope the hope found in Jesus.

Why do I post this? Because my readers are some of the most creative people on earth and filled with the Spirit of the living God. Brothers and sisters it is time to tell a better story. It’s too late for Amanda, but there are millions out there just like her and they need out help. They need hope. They need creative people willing to take the time to redeem and reclaim this media with a message of hope and love and Christ. It does get better or at least it can. We need to do our creative best in Christ to show people they need to be careful what they post, and we need to show people that there is hope and forgiveness when mistakes have been made. This is a battle for a generation.

What are you going to do?

Thanks to http://blueprintchurch.org/dear-amanda-todd/  for the original post!