Learning Through Stories

The year is almost over! It’s honestly hard to believe that we only have a couple of weeks left in the semester. Students are gearing up for finals and looking forward to heading home or starting summer internships.

As we come into the home stretch of the year, we’ve been trying to reignite the vision of encountering God in ways that go beyond what we’ve grown used to. Each of us, especially those who have been around the church for a long time, can begin to silo God into certain ways we expect to experience Him. That might be through Bible reading and devotional time, attending church, or singing in worship. While those things are good, the reality is that God is not limited to just those areas. There are so many ways we can encounter Him throughout our days and lives that don’t fit neatly into those boxes.

Because of this, we’ve been doing a sermon series on this idea and discussing it in our one-on-one meetings with students as well. We’ve talked about encountering God through wonder, through the ordinary, through experiencing His love and providence, and even through our embodiment. As we’ve preached and met with students, one key element we’ve tried to emphasize is that the Bible doesn’t simply present us with a list of ideas and concepts to understand and pass a quiz on. Instead, much of the Bible is narrative, it recounts how individuals and communities have encountered God, often through a wide variety of experiences. From these stories, we learn about who God is, His character, and how we, too, can encounter Him.

Far too often in the church, we default to explaining concepts rather than teaching through stories. We might include a story in a sermon here or there, but often it’s used just to relate to the audience or illustrate a point. It’s rarely treated as the core of the teaching or the place where truth is most deeply revealed. That’s a bit striking when you think about it, because it’s not the primary way God teaches. He certainly helps us understand ideas and concepts, but most often He does so not by simply stating them, but by showing us. Think about how frequently Jesus taught through parables or through His actions. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the Old Testament, where so much of the substance of each book is found in the stories themselves.

On a campus filled with a generation that is hungry to learn and eager to engage Scripture yet also is deeply shaped by technology and quick entertainment, this approach to teaching through story and experience is especially compelling. Finding ways to do this without losing strong exegetical and hermeneutical grounding will be an exciting challenge for us moving forward. But even in our early attempts at the end of this year, we’ve already begun to receive encouraging feedback from students.

Please pray for us as we wrap up the year! That we would finish strong and help set students up for a summer in which they grow to love God even more.

Our 30-Year Celebration is just around the corner and you're invited! Please help us spread the word by inviting any of your friends who are alumni or with anyone who might like to join.

If you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form to ensure you don’t miss any updates. We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in October. Our big celebration will take place at CityBridge Community Church in Plano.

Link: https://web.charityengine.net/alumniupdate