Straight to the Heart: Communicating the Gospel in an Emotionally Driven CultureSample

Story

Stories are all around us. We shape the narratives of our culture, even as they shape us. From books we read, movies we watch, news we hear, social media posts we scroll through, billboards we drive by, and beyond, we can see that the Heart Culture is a world of discordant stories vying for our heart’s attention.

There’s an old proverb that goes: “Tell me the facts, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.” Stories have power to penetrate the heart and shape us from the inside out. In a culture of competing narratives, the only question is which stories will form the metanarrative that directs our lives.

“In the beginning” (Gen. 1:1) is perhaps the inspiration for the classic “Once upon a time.” With those words, God set the stage for the tale of how He saved humanity from sin and death. This epic narrative spans thousands of years and has all the elements of the best stories.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people were commanded to retell the stories of God’s activity as part of their history (see Ex. 12:25-27; Josh. 4:19-24). They had a responsibility to pass this knowledge on to the next generation, lest it disappear from their collective memory.

In the New Testament, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, He frequently alluded to the Old Testament prophets, or even to creation itself. Paul gives his personal testimony five times.

“One generation commends your works to another,” says one of the psalmists; “they tell of your mighty acts.”

Stories are a powerful part of our spiritual heritage. We are storytelling people, created in the image of a God who continually reveals Himself to us through narrative. We have an incredible opportunity to speak new stories into our culture, even as we help them rediscover “the greatest story ever told.”

In a narrative-driven Heart Culture, we all have a story to share. What stories will you tell?