To make disciples is to tell stories

I wonder sometimes if, amid all I tell about operating systems and curriculum plans and the pictures of a zillion computer cords, I fail to share the real spirit of our workshops--they are very much discipleship events. We talk about what transformation really means, and what it takes to see that transformation happen. It only happens as we walk with Christ, and we won't see transformed society unless the individuals are transformed. And "it begins with me."

For instance, our second day I think in Ndola, Anthony spent nearly the whole morning talking about sharing the Gospel. He talked about how Jesus taught with stories, because our minds don't work like Greek logic, they work with stories. He talked about how it's important to have the whole story, because psychology studies have shown that if the mind doesn't have the whole story, it fabricates. Anthony told the story of the New Tribes mission, which was trying to share the Gospel with as many new people groups as possible. So they would go in, learn the language and gain enough entrance to tell them that Jesus died so that their sins could be forgiven before God and they could have eternal life, and then quickly move on to a new tribe. Well, they would come back and find that the converts weren't living at all as Christians ought to. They had made up the rest of the worldview they hadn't received. So New Tribes sought the Lord, and He replied, "Tell them My story. All of it."

We've learned from this story, which is why the first course we developed along with the computer course, and require to be taken with it, is one that goes through the whole Bible as the story of God's redemption. God works His way past the defenses of our minds, shows us who He is and how He redeems us, with a story. Let's tell the story.