My Words Fail

In his blog today, Kevin DeYoung differentiated between story-telling and preaching and it got me thinking. Personally, I love to tell stories. Like many others, I find that I am easily swept up in a strong/compelling narrative whether it's a book, movie, song, or the experience of a friend. Moreover, because of people like Lyle Cruse in my life always telling interesting stories during my high school years, I've been told numerous times that I am a good story-teller. I used to wear this like a badge on my sleeve, glad that I could peak the interest of others, especially the teenagers with whom I work daily.

However, lately, I've been convicted in my use of story-telling. At the end of the day do I want students to hear my stories and laugh, cry, think or is my desire for them to hear the words of God himself through me when I speak? In my effort to let God speak for himself through the Bible, lately in my talks I've been focusing more on the exegesis of a passage over story-telling with some biblical application thrown in. Admittedly, it's a balance I am still trying to find as I know that stories help my audience relate to me and can help the meaning of a passage be more clear and applicable to their own lives. However, too many times I've caught myself using my personal stories in order to elicit some sort of visceral reaction from my audience rather than to help impart truth.

This came to light through two things. First, this quote by Jonathan Edwards gripped me:
     
"I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth." 


Again, my goal should be to allow the truth to speak, not just create an emotional reaction through my stories. Second, was through the words of a TreeHouse teenager. After going through the first chapter of James, trying to let the Word of God speak for itself, I was discouraged, realizing that I had lost most of my audience by the end of my talk (again, I'm still trying to figure out my own balance to this more exegetical approach to communicating along with some story-telling). However, after the talk I asked one of my guys what he thought. He said (i'm paraphrasing)

"I liked it. I wish it was longer, it seemed too short. I always get bored when you tell stories. Like, I know that you're trying to relate to me, but we relate all the time. Sometimes I just want you to get up there and help me understand what I need to know and what I need to do as a Christian."


I think God used this student to speak to me more that night than vice-versa. It was much needed. My prayer is always that God would just speak to even one student whenever I give a talk. It was amazing to see my personal convictions lining up so blatantly with what God was communicating to this student. Praise God that his words never fail.