Every night my boys ask for me to read a story. It could be something silly like “The Caboose Who Got Loose” or something weighty beyond their years like the original translation of Jules Verne’s classic, “In Search of the Castaways.” And to their credit, Jack loves to both hear me read God’s word as well as to read it himself, in all of his seven year old intonation! They have these stories quickly memorized and they influence so much of what they do. The way they play; influenced by stories. The way they think and act; informed by stories.
Stories speak volumes to them!
It’s not just them either; it’s the rest of the world. From unreached and isolated indigenous people groups to anyone who’s looking forward to the soon coming crop of Summer Blockbusters, stories speak in a language anyone can understand!
If stories have that much impact, they must be used to communicate important things. Jesus, using the fullness of God in the flesh of man, told stories and communicated Truth to the people He came in contact with. So much of the rest of the Word of God is told in the narrative form, essentially as stories. And we can read between the lines of the letters that the apostles wrote in the New Testament and gain glimpses at the stories and back stories that were certainly taking place, shaping the very words they wrote.
So, why am I spending so much time explaining something that you likely already understand? Because it explains both what I’m about to begin to do, and why it’s so important.
My co-workers around the world in the big cities and small hamlets of countries far and wide, are a part of stories that are unfolding everyday! Someone needs to tell those stories to everyone else. Someone needs to be a story-teller to the church. This work that God has committed to believers everywhere is incredibly exciting and powerful and it must be made known!
This is why we’re moving forward to Florida! I’m going to be part of the team of story-tellers that is NTM Communications. We’re using everything from the written word, to visual arts, to motion pictures and to the place where they all meet, the web, to communicate God’s story of redemption and how it’s changing the lives of people from every walk of life.
And if you know me, how could I possibly resist the chance to be telling stories like these?