What does the “Big Story” Do?
The Goals of Big Story Preaching
In the first article of this series, I suggested that “Big Story Preaching” should be a key element of any attempt to make disciples in a post-Christian world. We are all shaped by a story. The question is, which story will it be? For disciples of Jesus, this life-shaping story is the Gospel. Before we turn to specifics of how to integrate the “big story” into our preaching, we should ask another question: What are the goals of Big Story Preaching?
How do we expect the grand narrative of the Scriptures to form disciples of Jesus? I will focus on four ways: The big story defines identity, shapes worldview, informs and guides mission, and creates community.
Identity
I once met a man in a nursing home who was sitting at the lunch table with a relative I had come to visit. Though my relative didn’t know who I was, and was barely even conscious of my presence, his friend was quite lucid — even chatty. He quickly began to tell me his life story — how he had been a high school teacher in Kansas, how he had met his wife, and that they had been married for over fifty years before his she died, that his children were grown and had kids of their own, and about each of their professions. The conversation was so delightful I began to wonder why this man was in an Alzheimer’s ward. Was he a volunteer who was there to help with the residents? Then, suddenly and without warning, as if someone had pushed the “replay” button, the man started at the very beginning and repeated the entire account word for word. Before I left, I heard the same story three times.
Why is it that losing our memory is tantamount to losing ourselves? It’s because our sense of self, our identity is wrapped up in our story. Neurobiologists have confirmed that narrative is essential to identity formation. Anyone who has suffered the tragedy of watching a loved one fade into the fog of dementia recognizes the agony of a lost sense of identity. “She is not herself,” we will say. “She’s no longer with us.” Why has she lost herself? Because she has lost her story. My acquaintance in the nursing home told his story over and over for one reason: as long has he could tell his story, he knew who he was. Story shapes and defines identity.
Story forms the identity of God’s people in both Testaments of the Scriptures. Moses in Deuteronomy, almost all of the prophets, and many of the Psalms retell Israel’s story of election, slavery, deliverance and covenant. This memory is the basis for all sense of national identity as well as any exhortations for faithful living. We often refer to the typical structures of New Testament epistles as an indicative-imperative pattern. Though we usually describe this pattern as “doctrine followed by exhortation,” we could also see it as “story followed by application.” The “indicative” section retells the believers’ own story of salvation, seen in the context of the broader story of God’s activity in the world, as the foundation for defining who they were, and how they were to live.
Paul reminds the Ephesians, for example, that they were dead in their trespasses and sins, that they have been made alive with Christ, raised with him in the heavenly realms, so that in the coming age he might bestow on them the immeasurable riches of his grace. As he tells their story, he is including the Ephesians in the grand narrative of Scripture from beginning to end. The obvious and easy conclusion is a statement of their identity, which in turn leads to a way of life: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:1-10)
Our story defines our identity, which guides our living. Big story preaching offers the grand narrative of the Bible as the identity-forming story of Christian disciples.
Worldview
Not only does metanarrative form the way we see ourselves, it defines the way we see the world around us.
Our worldview is essentially the answer we give to four questions: Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? What is the solution? A community’s answers to these questions provide the lens through which they see the world. Story is the natural vehicle for carrying a worldview because each of the worldview questions is answered by one of the essential components of narrative. Every story has a setting, which corresponds to “Where are we?” A story has characters — “Who are we?” Any story is made up of a plot, which is driven by tension (“What is wrong?”) towards resolution (“What is the solution?”). The Biblical story provides a clear and coherent worldview: Who are we? We are God’s special creation, bearers of his image. Where are we? We are in the world he created. What is wrong? Our sin has corrupted not only ourselves, but also all of creation, resulting in alienation, brokenness, and death. What is the solution? God has acted in history, culminating with the life, death and resurrection of his son, that we might become new creatures, living eternally in a new creation in his presence.
N.T. Wright sees Jesus as a worldview-shaping storyteller. We find him retelling the big story of Israel in a number of his important parables (e.g. the Wicked Tenants, the Prodigal Son, and the Sower), but in profoundly subversive ways. As he speaks of the kingdom of God, he evokes a storyline familiar to his hearers, but tells it in such a way as to “subvert and redirect its normal plot.” When Jesus tells the story of God’s reign he calls Israel to follow him in a new way of being the people of God, and points towards a climactic ending which will vindicate his followers. This story ultimately offers “fresh answers to the major worldview questions.” (Jesus and the Victory of God, p. 131, 199-200) Jesus’ death and resurrection are the definitive climactic events of the grand story of the Scriptures, but it is also his retelling of the story of the kingdom of God that completes the metanarrative proclaimed by the apostles throughout the rest of the New Testament. And it demonstrates for those of us who preach the subversive, worldview-forming power of the big story.
This subversive power of narrative should also alert us to the subtle ways the stories of surrounding worldviews can creep in, corrupting the message and sidetracking our discipleship. For example, is there a sense in which Evangelical Christianity in the United States has become more individualistic and/or nationalistic than the biblical story would warrant? If so, could this be due in part to cultural narratives finding expression in our preaching? The story of the “rugged individual,” or of “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” or of “the American dream” are all a part of the cultural air we breath. But if we allow them to creep into our message, our worldview will be something less than truly Christian.
The big story of the Bible can powerfully shape the worldview of our hearers, but none of us is beyond the influence of the subtle, subversive power of the other narratives of our culture. We cannot expect to make gospel-formed disciples without establishing the gospel as the defining story of our worldview.
Mission
We typically find the authority for Christian mission in the final command of Jesus to his disciples. Certainly the “Great Commission” is the focal centre of the story of mission. However, the authority for our mission flows not only from this single command, but from the grand story of the entire Bible—the story of a God who has embarked on a mission to redeem his fallen creation by choosing and calling a people, establishing a covenant relationship with them, fulfilling that covenant in the sacrificial life and death of his own son, and conquering death and sin by raising him from the dead. When the resurrected Jesus commands his followers to make disciples of all nations, he is not merely giving them their “marching orders” so they will know how to use their time after his ascension. Rather, he is inviting them into the story of God’s mission that will ultimately end in the fulfillment of his promise to Abraham to bless all the nations of the world. And he is doing so at a unique moment in the story, between the full accomplishment of redemption in his own work, and its complete fulfillment at the story’s end.
Disciples steeped in the grand story of the Scriptures will pursue mission not merely out of dutiful obedience to the command of Christ, but out of a conscious sense of participating in the story itself. This not only gives us a healthier motivation for mission, it could also provide a more holistic understanding of mission that includes God’s purpose to redeem all of creation.
Community
North American pastors today could fill their shelves with books on congregational culture. Most of these focus on developing and communicating a clear vision, defining and implementing core values, building and managing coherent structures, etc. Underlying all of this, however, is the culture-nurturing story of a community. If a congregation is to reflect the gospel faithfully, its community-shaping story must be that of the Bible.
Just as our worldview is vulnerable to the subtle power of surrounding cultural stories, our community life is easily tainted by stories that emerge more from the worlds of business, sports, or entertainment. How can a preacher guard the culture of the community of the saints? We must be sure through our preaching that we are, above all, a community gathered around the Bible’s grand narrative. When a church sees its own story as the continuation of the story of God’s mission in Israel, in Jesus, and in the early church, it is prepared to embody the Gospel story in its life together, and to be a place in which Gospel-shaped disciples are nurtured.
The big story of the Bible is the only adequate foundation for true Gospel-shaped discipleship. So, how do we weave this metanarrative into our weekly sermon offerings? This is the topic of the next article in this series.
