Chapter One: Let Me Tell You A Story

Thanks to everyone for their feedback on my question about a project I’ve been working on.

Your comments have been encouraging. I’m going start putting some chapters online for more feedback. Here is what I’m thinking: this manuscript is intended to be a resource that can be used broadly by many different kinds of churches within and outside of the restoration heritage. It’s not going to be the kind of book where I’m only speaking for myself, but rather what I write needs to be something that we all can generally affirm. I’m not looking to push buttons or stretch the envelope with this project. There will be a time for that later on. Rather, I hope that what gets published is a healthy, encouraging, and motivating description of the gospel that churches will be happy to use in their guest packets, small groups, and Christianity 101 classes and that individuals will feel comfortable using as a discussion starter with their seeking friends.

With all that said, I’m putting these chapters online so that you all can interact with them on a conceptual level. Let’s not sweat the details of grammar and punctuation right now. Rather, what I need your help doing is to evaluate how the material is presented and whether or not it is going to be helpful. If something strikes you as being too confusing, too technical, or even too controversial, then let me know. If you all don’t feel good about the product, then you’re not going to use it, so here is your chance to help me produce a high quality product that you’ll be willing to use when it’s published.

Here’s the opening chapter: Let Me Tell You a Story

In order to be a lifeguard, you have to be able to swim.

Should be obvious right? Yet, there are a few people who still haven?t gotten that email. Several years ago I read a story about a young woman who, along with a half-dozen other would-be lifeguards, had to be rescued by the real lifeguards during their trial swim. It was only after she was back on shore that they read her application more closely. On it, she had said that while she couldn’t swim, she grew up watching “Baywatch” and looked good in a bikini. She thought she?d make a great lifeguard.

Huntington Beach Lifeguard Captain Steve Seim said, “Every year we get people who have no business trying out. People watch ‘Baywatch’ and say, ‘Oh, I want to be a lifeguard,’ and they have no idea what that means.?

I can?t believe that anyone could believe such a thing. Being a lifeguard is hard work and requires great skill. It?s not nearly as easy as being a doctor, which is something I?m sure I could do without ever going to medical school. Watching almost every episode of ER has prepared me to handle just about every medical emergency known to man. The only exceptions being the emergencies addressed in the episodes I?ve missed. I know I?d make a great doctor. I even look good in scrubs.

Isn?t it amazing how easy it is to let what we see on TV define our view of reality?

Think about how what you?ve seen on TV has impacted your understanding of what it means to be a Christian. You flip through the channels one night and watch a few minutes of a TV preacher making absurd promises on behalf of God while begging for money. You change the channel just it time to catch the end of a report about a group of ?Christians? disrupting the funeral of an AIDS victim with words of hate. You change the channel again and get drawn into an interview with a ?Christian? leader trying to influence the outcome of an election by alternating between simplistic moral pronouncements and prophecies of doom if the opposition wins.

What about the way Christians are stereotyped in sit-coms and crime dramas? At one extreme is Ned (the Nerd) Flanders on The Simpsons. On the other extreme is the crazed serial killer who brands himself with a hot crucifix and then uses his victim?s blood to write Bible verses from Revelation on the crime scene walls.

What you see on TV might make you want to be a doctor, lawyer, lifeguard or crime scene investigator, but it?s probably not going to make you want to be a Christian. I can?t blame you. I?ve got no interest in being a part of the religion known as Christianity if what we see on TV is anywhere close to beings an accurate portrayal of what it means to be a Christian.

Fortunately, it?s not. Reality TV is an oxymoron. The kind of Christianity we see on TV isn?t what exists in most churches across the world, at least not from my experience. If all there is to Christianity is what we see on TV, it wouldn?t have survived for 2000 years. It certainly wouldn?t have thrived across time, space, and culture the way that it has.

So what does it mean to be a Christian?

I?m assuming you?re reading this because you?re exploring this question for the first time or because you?re not content with the answers you?ve been given in the past. It may be that you attended a church that gave this book to you as a ?welcome? gift and you?re trying to get a better feel for what kind of church you?ve just attended. Perhaps a friend gave you this book and wants to talk about with you after you?ve read it.

What follows is an attempt to explain the Christian faith in such a way that it transcends the stereotypes. I hope the kind of Christianity I?m about to describe seems less like a religion of rules that can be practiced only a few hours a week and more like a way of life that influences everything we do.

The best way I know to describe it is to say that the Christian faith is a story to be lived out in the real world in partnership with God, the Great Storyteller.

Why think of Christianity as a story?

Because everybody loves a good story.

“Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a beautiful princess named . . . . . .Buttercup.”

And off we go.

The attraction to stories is embedded in all human DNA. No matter where you go in the world, you’ll find people telling and listening to stories. Listen closely to the stories a culture tells repeatedly and you’ll find embedded in them the people’s most important beliefs, values, and aspirations.

It should be no surprise to us then that the Christian faith comes to us in the form of a story. When God wants to grab our attention and communicate what is most important to Him, He tells us a story. That is what the Bible is?God?s story. By ?story,? I don?t mean a fictional fairy tale. God?s story is the truest story in the world. It?s also a story with a clearly defined agenda. It aims to draw us into itself and invite us to become a part of it in a way that no other story can.

So what does it mean to be a Christian?

My short answer is that it means becoming a part of the story God has been telling for thousands of years and will continue to tell throughout eternity. It means being able to see how the little stories we?re telling with our lives fit into the great big story of God.

In the pages that follow, we?ll discuss what all of this means, how it happens, and the difference it can make in us and in the world.

If you want to know more, keep reading.

I have quite a story to tell you.