What is one of your all time favorite stories?
When I was young I loved the Anne of Green Gables book collection, I also enjoyed Little Women. As I grew older I learned about The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice! I also enjoyed poetry such as Emily Dickenson and Ralph Waldo Emerson and more in-depth stories that intrigued my mind such as Edgar Allen Poe, now I enjoy novels and short stories by authors such as John Grisham, Jim Patterson, Iris Johansen etc... stories that make me think, stories that I enjoy trying to figure out!
What is a favorite Bible story?
The story of Job, the story of the prodigal son, Esther’s story, Mary’s story, and of course Jesus’ stories.
What draws you to these stories?
What draws me is my feelings. Feelings are at the threshold between the conscious and the unconscious worlds, and while playing with creative ideas, the positive and negative intuitive feelings I experience are important messages from my inner creative self. If I learn how to read these feelings, then playing with creative ideas becomes a direct means of contact. Getting in touch with my feelings is getting in touch with myself. Getting in touch with myself through my feelings is the heart and soul of the creative process.
What is the power of a story?
Carl Jung called the source of our creativity the collective unconscious. Joseph Campbell, in his book 'Hero With a Thousand Faces,' called it the world naval. Religions call it God or the Holy Spirit. George Lucas called the positive aspect the Force.
How might expressing God’s call and vision as a story help the congregation more clearly hear God and discern his will and desires?
It may peak interest, it may give hope, it may stimulate the brain and evoke action from some of the congregation. It will allow them to tap into their own imaginations and give them focus and their own vision perhaps. It may even provoke them to share what they feel God’s call is through their own stories.
Why did Jesus use stories to tell people about spiritual truths?
All of Jesus’ stories address spiritual issues in a way that isn’t boring, sticks in your mind and challenges you to think for yourself. It is a wonderful illustration of God’s attitude to sinners but it also challenges listeners to decide what their own attitude should be and whose side they are on…
Also Matthew 13:11-13 explains why…
What additional insights into storytelling did you gain from Jesus’ answer to his disciples?
Jesus intends to create readiness in each of us, He intends to nudge us all toward receptive insight. He plans to GIVE us the insight and to make us aware of that insight. He tells us it is a gift that He will grant us- we just have to act on it!
What connects all of Jesus’ stories?
They are teaching tools, they are explanatory, they generate reactions from us and we feel from them.
Share your own faith story about someone or something from WHBC:
Harold & Eloise Jacobs
My baptism
Making 11,000 meals in just a few hours
Mission trips
What stands between what was and what can be for WHBC?
Generation Gaps
People losing interest
Too many technical gadgets
Self centeredness
Cliques/Status seperations
Praying Out Loud for each other and the congregation
Lord I pray that the congregation is not afraid of getting outside it’s box of imagining what it can do, on its own and opens its eyes, mind, and heart to imagine what God can do if its primary focus is on God’s Kingdom.
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