We Are Called to Be Storytellers!

Every one of our lives tells a story. What story does yours tell?

As Christians, we are people who heard the “good news” (that is the meaning of gospel) and we believed it for ourselves. But it doesn’t end there—or at least it shouldn’t. That is because we are not meant to only believe the good news, but also to share it! 

Christians are storytellers, it is a part of our redeemed DNA.

We may not think of ourselves as such. We might even chalk it up to a thing for the “extroverts” to do. But sharing the Gospel and the God-stories of our lives is for everyone to participate in—and it can be done in a variety of ways by both our speech and actions. 

¹⁸ Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20, CSB)

Did you catch that? God entrusted us with “the message of reconciliation.” We are the messengers. It’s also important to be emphatic about what our message is—reconciliation.

Reconciliation, not condemnation, is our anthem and invitation!

And this difference is critical in how we think of our identity as storytellers. If we are fixated on condemnation, then the story we tell is not good news, but bad news. Instead, if we are telling the story of reconciliation we are highlighting the plot of the story where God saves us because he loves us. We are telling the story of the greatest “comeback” of all time—the coming back together of God and humanity through the saving act of Christ. That is what “reconciliation” is after all, a mending back together two things that were temporarily separated. The whole story of the Bible covers this plot!

So, how can we think more about what it means to tell the story of reconciliation?

1) Tell the story of all Jesus has done.

Being a storyteller means we get to tell the biblical story. Remember, the grand narrative of the Bible isn’t a fictitious myth with a moral lesson; it is history—told through the lens of God’s rescuing agenda. We re-read the Bible over and over, studying and soaking in its message because it is the message of our salvation through Jesus. The more we get God’s stories into us, the more they can flow out of us.

2) Tell the story of all Jesus is doing.

Our faith is not merely anaphoric—it’s not only backward-pointing. Though no events in human history trump the importance of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, there is still a lot he is doing in our world today. Furthermore, there is a ton he is doing in and through each and every one of us every week! Learning to tell the stories of what Jesus is doing in our present lives assumes we are taking a posture of following his Spirit’s leading. One thing is certain, “following the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:25) will lead to a life of purpose!

3) Tell the story of all Jesus will do.

One of the most encouraging things about the story of reconciliation is that the best is yet to come. The grand intention of Jesus’s return is to establish “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1-22:5). We get to share how the reconciling plan of God will conclude with the summing up of all things under Christ our Lord (Ephesians 1:10). This means that we get to be the most hopeful people on the planet, who are the storytellers of the best news that could ever be conceived.

All of this is best shared in the context of conversational relationships. In other words, we get to narrate the gospel conversationally, instead of it being something we all preach in front of a crowd. May our words and our actions reflect the great story.

How are you going to be a storyteller?