“Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables.  This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:

“I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.”    
Matthew 13:34-35

“He began to teach many things in parables”.      Mark 4:2

"Why do I storytell to others? Have you got a minute?"

Step Inside's artwork by Karen Newe

The simplest answer would be this—because Jesus did it.  He told stories.  He took the simple things of life that people would be seeing, using, communicating within their everyday living, and then He illustrated with these common realities, with a Truth embedded inside the story.

Seeds and soil. Yeast and bread.  Common relationships of father, mother, a lost son, an unfeeling judge and a widow, the poor. A tree and its fruit. Houses built well and poorly. Weddings.  Death.

They were simple stories and left the listener with something to ponder days and weeks later. 

We can do this, too.

We can be like Jesus.  We can tell stories that count, that speak to the culture of our time.

Let’s face it—our culture needs the quiet of story.  It needs the breath of a story. Our culture is hungering to hear of the uncommon love of God in a world that does not trust or love easily.

In all the years I have been using this form of storytelling, I have seen one thing over and over.  It’s very simple—story moves people to a better place.  It is a wonder that a story well told in such a media-driven culture can make such a pronounced difference, but it does.

Over the years of sharing my stories in books and audio, I have come to understand the impact and value of my own stories.  It is incredible to hear of how a pastor has told “The King Who Waits” or “The Sack” and been surprised by how moving it was for him and his congregation.  To  hear from the parent of an autistic child, “He was quiet and listened all the way through one whole story!” is encouraging.  And to know I’ve helped a teenager find a personal declaration through a story like “The Regular Kingdom and the Beautiful Kingdom”… well, that causes me to tear up a bit.      

Story moves people and it creates community.  Don’t you love that welcoming request of “Can I tell you a story about…?”  Something very child-like comes forward in us if we’re adults and if we’re children, we’ve already moved into storytelling position by quieting ourselves to receive. 

Story moments, whether in family settings or larger settings such as churches, schools, bible studies and small groups, produce this wonderful thing called community missing in our everyday lives.  As we engage in more and more conveniences technically, we actually move further away from one another.  What was once said face-to-face has become a text.  What once meant picking up a phone has now become a quick friendly forward or an email.  What once was a card or an invitation has now become an email announcement to go “pick up” the communiqué at a website.

Don’t get me wrong, these conveniences are wonderful, but storytelling is personal.  It’s face-to-face.  It’s all about listening as an individual but also as a collected group.  It’s using our imagination to make the pictures come to life in our heads. It’s intimate and accesses things at a personal level. It relaxes us in its short moments and reminds us that we are more like one another than we are different.

In the evenings where I have spent several hours telling stories with an audience, I notice a transformation has taken place in us.  We all might have entered the room as friendly strangers but by the end of our time we have shared life through story.  We’ve become a community in those short moments of all those stories.  We’ve made the human connection our culture is hungry for—we’ve laughed, sighed, cried and agreed with applause, together.  And that is so powerful.       

Did Jesus know what He was doing?  Oh, yes.  He knew that long after the bread and fish were gone, the faint memory of a spectacular healing faded, His stories would be lingering.  His stories would be directing that person to the greater thing— a guiding truth for their everyday living and the eternal living He and the Father desired for them.

Why don’t you give it a try?  Next time, try a story. See what happens when you take this simple and profound method that the Master Storyteller, Jesus, used. 

Let me know what you discover!  I’m all ears… Melea

Step Inside's artwork by Karen Newe