I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory,

1. “If the story will be told, it will have to be told by the church. All of the other cultural tellers are gone or will be gone soon. We must tell the story.” Dan Aleshire, Exec Dir, Association of Theological Schools

2. I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, because I know 'tis true; it satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

3. Refrain I love to tell the story, 'twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

4. I love to tell the story; 'tis pleasant to repeat what seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for some have never heard the message of salvation from God's own holy Word

5. Refrain I love to tell the story, 'twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

6. I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, 'twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

7. Refrain I love to tell the story, 'twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

8. What is the Narrative Lectionary? • An open source, multi-partner experimental lectionary • The goal is to foster biblical fluency and nurture Christian faith • Supported at workingpreacher.org & • https://groups.google.com/group/narrativelectionary

9. Narrative Lectionary 2011-2012

10. Five Factors of Thriving CongregationsKen Inskeep and Kelly Fryer • In thriving congregations God is has moved from an idea to a reality; • Bible frames everything they do, think, say, decide, and dream; • God’s people are ministers, they don’t receive services; • God’s people, especially the leaders, are pragmatic and willing to do whatever it takes to connect with new people; and • Believing that God changes lives, God’s people expect God to be active in their own lives. They talk about and expect God.

12. Why is the Biblical Story Crucial to Christian Faith?

13. We Live in Stories And therefore knowing the biblical Story is Core to Christian faith

14. Stories Form. . . • The basis of human knowledge. • The fabric of inter-personal communication and understanding. • The core of individual identity. • The core communal identity. • The interpretive key to new experiences.

15. 1. Basis of Human Knowing • “…the formal quality of experience through time is inherently narrative.” (Crites, p. 291). • “Knowledge, then, is experiences and stories, and intelligence is the apt use of experience and the creation and telling of stories.” (Schank, p. 16)

16. 2. Fabric of Interpersonal Communication • “Theory of Mind” describes “our ability to explain other people’s behavior in terms of their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires.” (Zunshine) • “In other words, everyday understanding is a creative process that requires you to construct explanations for behaviors and events that have occurred.” (Schank)

17. 3. Basis of Individual Identity • ‘each of us constructs and lives a “narrative” . . . this narrative is us, our identities’ (Oliver Sacks) • ‘self is a perpetually rewritten story . . . we become the autobiographical narratives by which we “tell about” our lives’ (Jerry Bruner) • ‘basic condition of making sense of ourselves is that we grasp our lives in a narrative’ and have an understanding of our lives ‘as an unfolding story’ (Charles Taylor)

18. 4. Basis of Communal Identity • “What creates a culture, surely, must be a ‘local’ capacity for accruing stories of happenings of the past into some sort of diachronic structure that permits a continuity into the present. . . . The perpetual construction and reconstruction of the past provide precisely the forms of canonicity that permit us to recognize when a breach has occurred and how it might be interpreted.” (Bruner)

19. 5. Provide the Templates by which we Interpret new Experiences • “Human memory is a cluster of experiences, each labeled in complex ways. These labels allow for the retrieval of relevant experiences at the right time. . . .The old situation then becomes a guide to follow or even a guide to what not to do.” (Schank) • “We imbibe a sense of the meaning of our own baffling dramas from these stories, and this sense of its meaning in turn affects the form of [our] experience and the style of his action. Such [stories] . . . help to link [our] inner lives as well as orienting them to a common public world.” (Crites)

20. How Do You Teach With Stories? • “The more work your story requires the audience to do, the more effective it will be.” –Roger Schrank • “We have been operating in a content delivery model, but our people are struggling in a meaning making model.”—Me

21. From Expertise to Equipping

22. What is Wrong with Our Current Patterns of Preaching?

23. “You are the light of the world”

24. All of the basic congregational practices that we teach or were taught at seminary, were strategically designed for a world that no longer exists…including the RCL.

25. Three-Zone Modelof Leadership from The Missional Leader, Roxburgh and Romanuk

26. Organizational Life CycleAlan Roxburgh & Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader, Jossey Bass, 2006

27. Organizational BeginningEmergent Leadership – New Actions

28. Green Zone Characteristics • Loose coalitions drawn by pursuit of elusive dream that seems out of reach. • Tight, focused shared vision. • High levels of social interaction. • Org life informal, ad hoc. • People are usually all generalists. • New environments. • An absence of hierarchies. • Excel in ambiguous environments with multiple challenges. • Learn to be continually adaptive. • Strategy not linear but emerges. Pioneering Organization

29. Organizational InstitutionalizationPerformative Organization and Leadership

30. Blue Zone Characteristics: • Structured Corporate Organization • Large-scale displaces ‘just-in-time”. • Specialization of roles and programs • Focus is on ability to perform • Org hierarchies displace loose teams. • Run by the experts • Loss of overall, shared vision • Lowering levels of social interaction • Rationalized planning replaces emergent planning Performative Organization

31. Organizational Decline Reactive Leadership and Regulative Agency

32. Red Zone Characteristics Highly anxiety, anger at leaders. Silos. Battles on secondary issues. Constitutions/operations manuals to assert control. Emotionally/physically opt. Leaders resign. 7.Work harder at the dominant habits and actions 8. Crisis Regulatory Agency

33. 1 Gen 50 Joseph 2 Rom 14 Psalm Psalm 103 Gospel Matt 18 Biblical Timeline Readings 9/11/11 1 Gen 50 Joseph 2 Phil 1 Paul 1400 BC 1200 BC 1000 BC 800 BC 600 BC 400 BC 200 BC 0 AD Psalm Psalm 145 Gospel Matt 22

34. 1 Jonah 2 Phil 1 Paul Psalm Psalm 145 Gospel Matt 20 Biblical Timeline Readings 9/18/11 1 Gen 50 Joseph 2 Phil 1 Paul 1400 BC 1200 BC 1000 BC 800 BC 600 BC 400 BC 200 BC 0 AD Psalm Psalm 145 Gospel Matt 22

35. 1 Exodus 2 Phil 2 Paul Gospel Matt 21 Psalm Psalm 25 Biblical Timeline Readings 9/18/11 1 Gen 50 Joseph 2 Phil 1 Paul 1400 BC 1200 BC 1000 BC 800 BC 600 BC 400 BC 200 BC 0 AD Psalm Psalm 145 Gospel Matt 22

36. Picasso, Dora Maar (upper right) Picasso, Woman in a Red Armchair (right) Jason Loya, Composition with Woman and Chair (above)

40. Joy Moore • Narrating a Canonical Witness: A Homiletic for the 21st Century. • "Has the focused quest for relevance undermined the sermon’s efficacy to convey to listeners the storied reality of God as narrated in Christian Scripture?" • “preachers [do not] convey to listeners the overarching story depicted in Christian Scripture as narrated from Genesis through Revelation."

41. Suggestions • Church Must Be The Story • Missional Identity = Being the Story • Worship Forms • Engage Scripture Differently • In a way that fosters biblical literacy • In a way that brings the biblical story along side of our stories • In a way that equips rather than “dumps”

49. We live in the age of narrative saturation

50. Dan AleshirePresident of Association of Theological Schools “If the story will be told, it will have to be told by the church. All of the other cultural tellers are gone or will be gone soon. We must tell the story. . . .” (April 6, 2011)