As much as we would like to provide our students with everything they need for the journey in one retreat, one Bible study, or one worship experience, or as much as we would wish to summarize everything for our youth group in one cliché, one scripture verse, or one song, the Story of God paints a very different picture for us. The people of God have always been committed to the whole. In spite of living in a dominant culture of rapid remedies and quick fixes, fast food and instant gratification, we belong to the kingdom-culture, which views life as a journey, comprised of many steps and stages.
The characters with whom we share life and ministry were not women and men who went into a situation briefly and made a big splash, thus solving all the problems and answering all the questions. Instead, they were women and men who were committed to the long haul. They neither gave up when mountain tops of victory disintegrated, nor did they run away when great battles erupted in the valley. They stayed, they persisted, they continued! Why? They knew that the story of God was not something that they must complete in a day, a month, or a year. It was greater than any one single victory; it was stronger than any multitude of defeats. And ultimately, it wasn’t their story anyway--it was God’s!
As narrative God-talkers, we also are committed to the whole. We recognize that no single verse in Scripture will provide the final answer. Instead, we are committed to the full canon of Scripture. Therefore, we allow verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book to dialogue with all of the others. We allow the pleasant and simple passages of Scripture to be read, taught, and explored right alongside the more unpleasant and complex passages. As narrative God-talkers, we are not quick to make one passage fit another, but we allow Bible passages to stand side by side, and thus permit our students to see the whole, not only one piece.
Just as we are committed to the whole of Scripture, we are also committed to the whole of spiritual formation. For individual students, as well as for an entire class, we recognize and celebrate the fact that spiritual development is an ongoing process. It began before we ever stepped into our students’ lives, and it will continue far beyond our immediate ministry with them. Rather than basing all ministry upon what magnificent accomplishments can quickly be achieved, narrative God-talkers view spiritual formation from a much larger perspective. We are committed to providing students with one passage at a time, one song at a time, and one prayer at a time. We know that the God who has called us into his ministry will ultimately bring the many pieces together into a whole--a whole that extends far beyond the years of adolescence.
At the same time, we recognize the significance of every time we get together and “God-talk” with a student, whether it be after school over a soft drink, at a campground for fall retreat, in a home for an afterglow, on Wednesday evening for worship, or around the circle for Bible study. We realize that every word we speak, every song we sing, and every silent symbol we view places one more stitch into the fabric of our students’ spiritual formation.
Like every generation that has come before us, we face the great challenge of passing the faith on to the next generation. How are we to face this challenge with integrity and faithfulness? Our story already tells us how to communicate the truth of the Scriptures: ”Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:7-9, NRSV).
We face the challenge by being God-talkers, even theologians, who name God in the world of our students! How do we legitimately speak of God? Recognizing the creative power of language, we confidently and creatively articulate this alternative kingdom, this kingdom-culture, in such a way that our students actively participate in the community of God’s people, where they discover their true identity. Perhaps no greater calling is to be found than the calling to be a God-talker as we anticipate the question, “Why are those rocks there?”
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
The characters with whom we share life and ministry were not women and men who went into a situation briefly and made a big splash, thus solving all the problems and answering all the questions. Instead, they were women and men who were committed to the long haul. They neither gave up when mountain tops of victory disintegrated, nor did they run away when great battles erupted in the valley. They stayed, they persisted, they continued! Why? They knew that the story of God was not something that they must complete in a day, a month, or a year. It was greater than any one single victory; it was stronger than any multitude of defeats. And ultimately, it wasn’t their story anyway--it was God’s!
As narrative God-talkers, we also are committed to the whole. We recognize that no single verse in Scripture will provide the final answer. Instead, we are committed to the full canon of Scripture. Therefore, we allow verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book to dialogue with all of the others. We allow the pleasant and simple passages of Scripture to be read, taught, and explored right alongside the more unpleasant and complex passages. As narrative God-talkers, we are not quick to make one passage fit another, but we allow Bible passages to stand side by side, and thus permit our students to see the whole, not only one piece.
Just as we are committed to the whole of Scripture, we are also committed to the whole of spiritual formation. For individual students, as well as for an entire class, we recognize and celebrate the fact that spiritual development is an ongoing process. It began before we ever stepped into our students’ lives, and it will continue far beyond our immediate ministry with them. Rather than basing all ministry upon what magnificent accomplishments can quickly be achieved, narrative God-talkers view spiritual formation from a much larger perspective. We are committed to providing students with one passage at a time, one song at a time, and one prayer at a time. We know that the God who has called us into his ministry will ultimately bring the many pieces together into a whole--a whole that extends far beyond the years of adolescence.
At the same time, we recognize the significance of every time we get together and “God-talk” with a student, whether it be after school over a soft drink, at a campground for fall retreat, in a home for an afterglow, on Wednesday evening for worship, or around the circle for Bible study. We realize that every word we speak, every song we sing, and every silent symbol we view places one more stitch into the fabric of our students’ spiritual formation.
Like every generation that has come before us, we face the great challenge of passing the faith on to the next generation. How are we to face this challenge with integrity and faithfulness? Our story already tells us how to communicate the truth of the Scriptures: ”Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:7-9, NRSV).
We face the challenge by being God-talkers, even theologians, who name God in the world of our students! How do we legitimately speak of God? Recognizing the creative power of language, we confidently and creatively articulate this alternative kingdom, this kingdom-culture, in such a way that our students actively participate in the community of God’s people, where they discover their true identity. Perhaps no greater calling is to be found than the calling to be a God-talker as we anticipate the question, “Why are those rocks there?”
By Tim Green
This series of reflections on a narrative model for Christian ministry comes from the book Worship Centered Teaching.
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