Donald Miller blogs. You should read it. Why? Because he’s a really good storyteller.
Today he shared a post about the power of story. He tells of how ancient cultures would use story to captivate and control people. You could get people to do anything if they believed you. Even blood sacrifice if you asked. You just had to tell them that God would kill them if they didn’t.
And then Don shared a quote from a friend and distinguished scholar, who is listening into the stories we are telling as a followers of Jesus. His friend said:
“I understand you Christians. I understand the essence of your message. It’s this: If you are not a good person, you are going to burn in hell for all eternity.”
It made me realize that we’re not very good storytellers. The central message people are not hearing is NOT grace, but judgment. That made me sad. Because it’s not what we say that matters. It’s what people hear that matters.
I love Don’s response. He says:
“So much of the richness of Christian theology has been reduced to silliness, but the story, the story makes so much sense.”
“One of the reasons so many people walk away from Christianity is because people intuit that our story doesn’t make sense. And they intuit this because, well, it doesn’t. And it isn’t beautiful or meaningful, at least not that false story that passes today as the gospel of Jesus.”
Like I said, read Donald Miller. He’s a good storyteller.
