Re-Visioning the Narrative of the Church

“If you want to change the culture, change the narrative.” – Timothy Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City

“We need stories. We can’t identify ourselves without them. We’re always telling ourselves stories about who we are: that’s what history is, what the idea of a nation or an individual is. The purpose of fiction is to help us answer the question we must constantly be asking ourselves: Who do we think we are and what do we think we’re doing?” – Robert Stone, Author (1985)

“The writer shapes story around a perception of what’s worth living for and what’s worth dying for, what is foolish to pursue, the meaning of justice, truth – the essentials values. In decades past, writer and society more or less agreed on these questions, but more and more ours has become an age of moral and ethical cynicism, relativism, and subjectivism – a great confusion of values. As the family disintegrates and sexual antagonisms rise, who, for example, feels he understands the nature of love? And how, if you do have a conviction, do you express it to an evermore skeptical audience? The erosion of values has brought with it a corresponding erosion of story.” – Robert McKee, Screenwriter (1997)

This section will contain links to posts concerning the need for the Christian church to reevaluate the stories we have been telling and living – going back to the Bible to see if it may be possible that collectively we have taken some wrong turns and imagining ways to both repent and transform into the image of God.