‘There was a man who had two sons…’ When Jesus wants to illustrate what obedience to God means, he doesn’t reach for Grudem, but rather a story.

Who is in good standing with God? Jesus tells us, ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray….’ The lost sheep, the prodigal son, the sower and the seed, the house built on sand – Jesus is the master story teller and his stories and parables have been spoken powerfully  to our culture over the last thousand years.

On Saturday 30th Jan we’re going to run a Zoom workshop exploring the place and power of story telling in teaching, preaching and communicating the Christian message. In following Jesus, all of us have stories to tell, childhood memories, great holiday disasters, work and family and church life are all stuffed full of material. Half the UK’s novelists and more of the UK’s stand up comics rely almost totally on mining these rich resources. And that is to say nothing of the stories of others we collect along the way, the impact of a scripture on a billboard, searching the parks pitch for a contact lens in the Gospel Hall New Year’s Day football game or seeing the face of Jesus in an encounter with a starving child.

Everyone who wants to communicate in a Christian context needs to think about story as a vehicle for truth. There’s a reason Jesus didn’t leave us a dry systematic theology!

The Train to Impossible Places

And we’ll be welcoming Pete Bell (https://www.pgbellwriter.com/the-train-to-impossible-places/) author of the wildly popular children’s series – The Train to Impossible Places.
Pete will be sharing some insider secrets on the art and craft of story building and there will be a chance for you to put your questions about story telling to Pete.

The session (two hours – 9:30am to 11:30) will be run by Mack’s Church Worker Alistair McGhee and we’ll explore making the most of our own stories in our efforts to communicate in 2021.

Alistair McGhee worked for the BBC for over 25 years and in his time at religious programmes produced Morning Service, Sunday Worship, Thought for the Day, Prayer for the Day and a wide range of documentaries, features and talks for the national networks and BBC Wales.

To book a place email your interest to:    story@mackchurch.org