the power of story

For the past few days, I've been teaching a class for Golden Gate Seminary. It's a pretty rigorous schedule - three graduate credits into four days. But every time I teach the class, we spend the first half of the first day telling our stories. Our background, our journey with Jesus, our current setting, our future hopes. It's a sweet time.

But not everyone likes it. Some students complain that we should be doing more academic stuff and less touchy-feely stuff.

I couldn't disagree more.

All ministry is rooted in relationship. I wonder, if you don't know the people you're ministering with, are you really ministering with them? I believe there's two central reasons we don't tell and hear stories.

First, I believe we resist telling our story an hearing others' stories because of our own brokenness and fear of being vulnerable. (When you have 20 minutes, watch Brene Brown's amazing TedTalk on vulnerability.) I totally get this, and I hope we use opportunities like these to grow and learn and be stretched.

Second, I believe we're too distracted. (I was originally going to describe reason #2 as busyness, but sometimes we use "I'm too busy" as an excuse; even when we're not busy, we can be too distracted to be present fully with others.) Television, music, cell phones, etc., all compete for our attention. Being present with people takes energy and focus, and because it's so easy to be a passive recipient of media, we often choose the path of least resistance.

I'm thankful that a few students in this week's class have shared how much they enjoyed closing their laptops and ignoring their cell phones so they could hear and be heard - see and be seen. I hope we can all grow to a place where we value being with people, giving them our attention, and hearing their stories.


What do you think?