A COMPELLING STORY

A Compelling STORY NIGEL WINDER | SUNZ Children and Families Consultant and Southern Director

Iam not much of a reader. It is not that I don’t want to read, it just seems that every time I sit down to read, the general busyness of life catches up on me and I find myself rereading the same page repeatedly, not taking in what I have read, or simply falling asleep after a few minutes with the book falling out of my hands — yep, I still love the ink on paper version! Despite that confession, there have been occasional books that I have got so caught up in, that I literally have not been able to put them down. I have gone to bed early and read through the night to get to the end. This does not always look pretty the next day. What makes a book so good that I am prepared to forfeit a night’s sleep? I believe there is power in a story that has the following characteristics… Compelling and larger-than-life characters who are human and real — they do things and say things and think things like I do or are like people I know. The power of imagination is stirred. There is space to fill in the gaps and imagine you are there in the story. There is something powerful and ‘transportational’ about being drawn into the story and getting to live it out in your mind. (I know that is not a real word, but you are allowed to make up words in your imagination.) Space is allowed for you to draw your own conclusions and disentangle what the story might be saying to you about life, yourself, and others. Context is unpacked. You know where the story is set and what life is like in that place

THE BIBLE IS WRITTEN IN A RICH AND MEANINGFUL CONTEXT OF HISTORY. IT HAS LARGER THAN LIFE CHARACTERS WHO ARE SO HONESTLY AND TRUTHFULLY PORTRAYED SO WE CANNOT HELP BUT SEE OURSELVES IN THEM AND LEARN FROM THEM.

and time, which brings richness and meaning to the story and helps fill in the gaps that are not expressly written into words on the page. Questions that are raised remain unanswered. A good story does not have a checklist of things you must have learnt or agreed to. A good story sits in the back of your mind, stirs the emotions, and provokes unsettling and searching questions. This has got me wondering. The Bible too is a story — God’s big story about His love and rescue of us — and it has many of these same characteristics. We miss something when we treat it like an instruction manual or an Aesop fable that has a good moral which is delivered in black and white terms at the end. I wonder if the Bible is read less often and perceived to be less relevant, not because of its message, but because of the way we have engaged with it? Maybe when we approach the Bible like a compelling story, we will be less likely to forget what we have read or drift off to sleep. Scripture Union has seen much fruit across its ministries to a wide spread of ages from opening the Bible using this approach. The Bible is written in a rich and meaningful context of history. It has larger than life characters who are so honestly and truthfully portrayed so we cannot help but see ourselves in them and learn from them. Many of the stories within the big story of the Bible lack detail, backgrounds, and information about what happened next. This, however, invites us to use our imaginations, fill in the gaps and raise our own questions. The Bible encourages us to engage with the author (God), to seek out what He meant and what He might want us to understand about Him through it. God has even given us His Spirit to guide us and lead us through this process. We don’t need to go to a book signing with the author of the Bible because He is always present with us and His signature is woven into every page inspiring the story. Wouldn’t it be exciting to get so caught up in the story of the Bible that we can’t put it down and want to keep reading it through the night. SUNZ Children and Families Consultant Annette Osborne recently led a time of Bible Engagement using this type of approach at ‘Beyond Experience’, our young leader’s development weekend. She helped us step into the shoes/sandals of Mary Magdalene. You can read a snapshot of what she shared on pages 10-11. Some of the participants responses to this style of Bible engagement and reflections regarding Beyond Experience appear on pages 12-13.