Simple Things: A Story Journey

“We’re doing a Story Journey tomorrow to go along with our church’s yard, garden and bake sale. We’re featuring Laura Alary’s book, What Grew in Larry’s Garden. We’re so excited.” My good friend, Laura Duggin, minister...

Our Stories in God’s Story

by Sharon Warkentin Short The need to make sense of our lives seems to be a fundamental human drive. We all do it by interpreting our individual experiences in light of some larger controlling story. The “small stories” of our everyday lives take on whatever meaning...
Storying to Build an Atmosphere of Trust and Mutual Respect

Storying to Build an Atmosphere of Trust and Mutual Respect

By: Al Mulder Storying is the telling of our stories. Although “storying” is not in any dictionary, it is part of the vocabulary at Faith Alive Christian Resources. Storying was introduced to Faith Alive by D. John Lee, a psychologist at the Michigan State University...
Telling transformative faith stories

Telling transformative faith stories

By: Several years ago, I sat at the notorious Sing Sing Prison in New York listening to a convicted murderer tell me his story. He told me about the night he had been accused, and later convicted, of killing a 92-year-old woman after breaking into her house with two...
Exploring Your Muse

Exploring Your Muse

By: “A story is a picture that I have in my head that I wish you could see. In order to move that picture from my head to yours, I use everything I have: my face, body, voice, my sounds and words. And when you laugh, it doesn’t say, ‘That was funny.’ When you laugh,...
Experiencing the story of  God’s love as a child

Experiencing the story of God’s love as a child

By: It was cold and snowy as I drove downtown to the church early that Sunday morning. I shivered as I walked into the cathedral-like Presbyterian church where I worked as the Christian education director. I wondered if there would be any children in Sunday school. As...
Experiencing the story of  God’s love as a child

The power of stories

By: As he left worship last August, Ted commented to me, “I bet if we had been telling these stories about ourselves, we wouldn’t be where we are today.” On this particular Sunday the mayor of the city, the school district superintendent and the...
Building relationships by telling our stories

Building relationships by telling our stories

By: A quotation in the New York Times Magazine has captivated me: “Every life is a story worth remembering.”1 Jesus’ life is a story on which we base much of our living as Christians. We actively remember Jesus’ life, his story. Jesus’...
About John and his vision

About John and his vision

By: I had heard rumblings about a coordinator of technical and social media, and was excited when I saw the notice. I immediately sent in my application, interviewed with the task force, and was thrilled to learn that I had been the one chosen to fill this important...