Tell your own stories

Stories have great power. They can touch us, teach us and draw us in.

In sermon circles, a great story has a life of its own, and it will travel around the circuit like wild fire.

A few years ago one such story (just to illustrate the point) was of Tony Campolo, the Baptist lecturer and international speaker.

Tony was on a stop-over between flights. Arriving late in the city, he stopped at a diner to eat - only to discover that it was where the local prostitutes gathered at the end of their ‘shift’ to socialise before going home.

As he sat there, he overheard one of the prostitutes mentioning that the next day was her birthday.

When they’d all left, Tony found out from the owner, Harry, that the girls gathered every night, and he asked if he could arrange a birthday party the next day.

The next night came. The ‘birthday girl’ arrived; everyone shouted ‘Surprise!’, and brought out a birthday cake. She burst into tears. It was the first time she had ever had a birthday cake.

When it was time to blow out the candles and cut the cake, she asked with tears still in her eyes if she could keep it for a while, and she left. In the silence that followed, Tony said: “The only thing I could think of doing was to say, ‘Let’s pray’. There I was, at three in the morning, a Baptist Church leader holding a prayer meeting with prostitutes.”

Later, Harry said, “I didn’t know you were a pastor. What sort of church do you come from?”

Tony replied, “The sort of church that holds birthday parties for prostitutes at three o’clock in the morning.”

Harry said, “There’s no such church! If there was, I’d join it!”

This is a powerful story, even told third or fourth hand.

When it comes to encouraging our congregations to engage, stories can have a great impact. Other people’s stories are good, but our own stories are better. Capture and tell the stories of community engagement from your church. Get your congregation to tell them; record them; write them down; share them with others.

Stories don’t have to be sensational; in fact some of the best stories are very ordinary. Why is that? It’s because people can identify with them. They just have to be real and told from the heart.

So why not start to gather your stories? And when you do - share them with us! Tell us your stories, great and small.

Last Updated 30 November 2010