The story of the gospel is the most powerful, transcendent, compelling story that the world could ever possibly know. The Scriptures bring life and hope and freedom to humanity. Once you’re inside of it, it will set you free. But we’ve let other people tell the story about us. Other people tell the story about the Scriptures.
People say to me, “I don’t believe in the Bible. It is unbearable. ”
And I reply, “Well, what part of it did you find unbearable?”
“Well, I’ve actually never read it.”
Or else they say, “I just don’t believe the Bible. It’s all a myth.”
I reply, “Okay, which part did you find to be just absolutely incredulous?”
And they say, “Well, nothing in particular. I’ve never read it.”
Every time you hear that, you can learn what’s going on. Because we didn’t care about the story around the story, we let everyone else tell the story. The media is happy to do this.
“Christians hate homosexuals.”
“Christians are for slavery.”
“Christians are judgmental.”
“Christians hate beauty and art.”
It’s subtle, but it’s everywhere. And then we don’t tell stories that cause hope to spring up inside people.
Partnering with the Future
It is imperative to tell the story of how the Scriptures have changed you, changed your intentions, and how the Scriptures are changing the world through you. Pastors need to start telling the story that prepares everyone for the story.
You see, when God changes your intentions, God doesn’t necessarily change what you’re doing. God changes why you’re doing it. We need people in the world of science whose intention is to bring the story of Jesus to the world. We need educators whose intention is to bring Christ to the world. We need people in the fashion industry whose intention is to bring Christ to the world. We need people in the film industry whose intention is to bring Christ to the world.
And you know what they need from us as leaders and pastors? They need us to be relevant. They need us to tell the story in such a way where they’re not embarrassed to be a part of the movement of Jesus. They need us to tell the story with such beauty, elegance, poetry, and wonder, that they can point to those who are followers of Christ and advocate the Scriptures and say, “Look at them. That’s what it looks like to know God.”
We have forgotten that our partnership is not with the past, but with the future.
Our partnership cannot be with tradition, it must be with invention. God spends no energy preserving yesterday, but spends all of his energy creating the future. We, as human beings, are his instruments for ushering into history what is only on his mind and on his imagination.
Erwin McManus explores issues like this further in his booklet “Spaces: Scripture Insights from Erwin McManus”. Download a PDF copy by entering your email address below:
