storytelling turning out to be key to future

For the past 15 years of my ministry I have been writing stories about people in the church. I'm a decent writer. Mainly I capture the feeling of the moment.

"Little Joseph in his red boots slurping every molecule of grace out of the tiny communion cup."

"Young Henry walking into church for the very first time in his life to worship on the front row as if he had been there all his life."

"Mary Ann delivering a pie to a visitor only to discover she had knocked on the door of an apartment where an FBI raid was in process."

"Dorcus yelling out "yes" again and again during her baptism!"

"The drive-by nativity that grew as the night went on. Eight angels, seven kings, ten shepherds...."

These stories tap into the joy and the awe of God's presence. I keep bumping into the realization that the church, if not our entire society, has forgotten how to tell and share our stories. My wife just came home from a conference led by the Rev. Eugenia Gamble who says the church has forgotten how to share stories of joy. We've also forgotten how to share stories of lament. We have so sanitized our grief we can't tell our stories.

Stories are the root of God's story. Stories remind us where we've been, who we are, and where we are going. Without stories of joy and lament we loose our identity.

The church has been so busy addressing membership decline, and dealing with conflict we've almost choked ourselves to death just because we haven't been telling our stories.