I know of a pastor who does this
thing. He goes to a coffee shop, orders
his coffee, sits at a table, and pulls out a sign that he puts on the
table. The sign says, “Tell me your God
story.”
Then he drinks his coffee. People sit down. They tell him a story. They tell him all kinds of stories.
I remembered that pastor as I have been
reading a book that will be part of diocesan convention next week. The book’s author, Dwight Zscheile is our
keynote speaker. The book is called The Agile Church.
The chapter that engaged my imagination is
“Disciplines of a Learning Church.” The
first discipline is: Cultivate places for
conversation and practice. The
author writes about how the church typically approaches nonchurch members. Typically, we invite them to come to us so
they can hear our story.
Now let me say, it’s a powerful story. In fact, the fourth discipline he names is: Interpret the present in light of the past. Our story, the one we are living now, is part
of a bigger story. When we read
Scripture every Sunday, we are connecting to that bigger story. And we draw from it. The bishop described this two weeks ago – the
Book of Exodus, the people of God on the move from their settled past to an
unknown future. Their holy place, their
sanctuary was a tent. They folded it up
and they moved. And Jesus who did not
have a place to lay his head, whose ministry was always on the road, or in
somebody’s living room for the evening.
On the move is part of our past and it
sustains us as we fold up our tent and move into our future.
But that’s the fourth discipline. Let’s go back to the first.
