Stop telling stories as narratives

Storytelling is a deeply human experience. It is what binds us all together in our relationships and even though the ages. In this digital age we have feared the ancient art of storytelling will somehow lost as we now gather around our individual screens and "plug into the matrix". 

It is difficult to imagine a world where there are humans and no stories or storytellers. What is much easier to imagine is a world where humans tell stories as a narrative and thus, in some sense, loose the "art" of storytelling. 

Semantics aside, there is very real difference when you hear someone tell you a story and when you hear someone tell you a narrative. Narratives give us times and dates. They tell the sequence of events that happen. Narratives are what boring history teachers tell us in school. We are tested on narratives and narratives can be measured and assessed. Narratives can actually be quickly created and even distilled to a simple formula:

“Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.”

— The Pixar narrative formula

When we read a script there is a "narrator" part that is there to pull the story along, but as important as narration is to a story, the narrative is not the story. The story is something different. The story is the art, the discipline the practice of capturing people's imagination and immerse them into a reality they can experience with their senses.

If you want to hear storytelling at some of it's best, check out The Moth. If you want to experience narrative there is this classic narrative telling in the middle of a classic story:

Historically, preachers are storytellers. In my time being in the Church, I have experienced most preachers as narrators. We give dissertations on "orthodox" belief, give three points and a poem, talk about the history of the bible as a series of events, etc. Every now and again, preachers may use a story as an "illustration" or an "example, but the sermon itself is a narrative. Story is thought of as the sideshow to the main event of the sermon. 

One way to quickly assess if you are hearing a narrative or a story is by listening to the first line. If you hear something like, "My call to ministry began when I was at church camp at the age of seventeen." That is a narrative. Chances are the rest of what is shared will be a list of dates and events that happened on those dates, like a Sportscenter Top Ten. If you are hearing a glorified list, you are not hearing a story. That is narrative. 

However, if the opening line is something like, "I never felt I was called to ministry, until I experienced being so hungry I ate food from a dumpster." That is the makings of a story. 

I do not fear storytelling will vanish, I fear storytelling will be co-oped by narrative.

God is like light NOT God is light (right?)

There are endless metaphors about God. One of the metaphors that is very popular in the Bible is God is light. It is worth remembering that this is a metaphor. Which means, like all metaphors, there is a point that the metaphor breaks down. 

For instance, when we think that God is light (as opposed to God as light) then there is a fear of the dark. There is an embracing of all things light. We talk about that God is found in the light places of the world. God is found in the happy and the bright and sunny places. And, on the inverse, God is not found in the dark and the dark is to be feared and avoided. 

Again, it is worth noting that God is not light. God it like light.

It is also worth noting that, in the same spirit, God is like darkness. There is no place that one can be where God is not (Psalm 139). 

It is my prayer that our spirituality of the dark will become as developed as our spirituality of the light.

How do we develop our spirituality of the dark? There are others in the faith that are much more qualified to speak to this matter (Taylor, John of the Cross, Rohr, etc.) however there is one quick note about developing a spirituality of the dark - In order to see what our shadow sides have to teach us, we have to turn away from the light. 

I know this may feel like heresy. I get it. We are very convinced that God is light. But again, God is not light, God is like light. And, God is like darkness. 

I know you are human, just don't be human around me.

There are many people that I come across who talk about how they wish the pastor would be more intentional at practicing what they preach. Perhaps they had an experience with a pastor and the pastor was a jerk to them. How can someone preach love on Sunday and be a jerk on Monday? 

Isn't that hypocritical? 

People have also expressed to me that they appreciate that I am a "real" person and not a 'holier than thou' sort of preacher. Words like authentic and real and human are thrown around and these words of affirmation make me feel good. They make me feel like I am really connecting with people and thus building trust and, in turn, spreading love. But there is an edge to all this "realness" and "authenticity": the pastor can be "real" and "authentic" but in very controlled ways.

Pastors can rarely call out the BS they see without doing more damage.

Pastors cannot flip people off or tell them just how wrong they were.

Pastors cannot tell someone that they are sort of crazy or imbalanced or out of line or inappropriate or acting a fool. 

Pastors cannot let their hair down, cut loose or in any other way loose control. 

Many of my clergy friends feel that people are okay with clergy being human, just as long as clergy are not human around them. 

Many of my friends feel like people give permission to (and would expect) pastors to express the range of human emotions but just not with church people. 

This may not be just a clergy thing. Do you find yourself in a lot in life where you are expected to be happy, carefree and "put together" all the time? Are we willing to let each other really be human?