Becoming parabolic: Learning to tell stories like Jesus did
Steve has been a Bible teacher for over 30 years. He has written many articles, more than 20 e-books, and several study guides, most recently, Overcoming: Guide to Understanding the Book of Revelation. His website, DeeperStudy.com, encourages all people to go deeper in their understanding of the Word of God, the Bible, and to become authentic, New Testament Christians who serve a risen Lord.
God bless you, brother! I preach on a residential campus for senior adults . . . Lakewood Village Senior Living Community at 5100 Randol Mill Rd in Fort Worth, Texas 76112. I am into the fifth year of work as the campus minister for this 33 year old campus which is one of three campus in the Metroplex operated by Christian Care Centers, Inc., 900 Wiggins Parkway, Mesquite, TX 75150, http://www.ChristianCareCenters.org.
I love your skills with humor, cartooning, and God’s Word. I am preaching the parables. I began three Lord’s days ago. It is being very well received for senior adults (I am 79!) and that is a very definite challenge. However, as you know, Garrison Keiller has demonstrated nationally the power of the skilled teller of the human predicament.
Decades ago, Dr. John Savage trained several where I preached in Shreveport in 1983 to call and care on active, inactive, and (I choose not to use his term, church dropouts, the popular designation in the early and mid ’70’s.) disengaged brothers and sister (according to my published Project Thesis copywriter in April, 1992. One of his 11 listening skills is “Story Listening” and a deeper level is called “Story Polarization”. Savage trained three of us for Southern Hills Church of Christ to be trainers and we began to help our congregation maintain the health and stability of 3 or 4 support groups of brothers and sister who called and care with the back-up of monthly meetings to support our calling teams of two.
To make a long story a tad shorter, that is why I returned to ACU in 1989 to go down the Marriage and Family track to research patterns of disengagement and re-entry in two local congregations in Tarrant County. Guess which three parables I preached about last Sunday, September 25 from Luke 15? Why were the Pharisees and tax collectors upset after this set of parables in Luke 19 in Jericho when Jesus invited himself to Zachhaeus’s home . . . why did Jesus proceed to receive his pentinent sacrifice with mercy and grace?
God bless what you are doing! I need your resources and I thank you for your making them accessible to my computer at such reasonable expense of money and time! You are in my prayers! Keep it up! Your brother, David M. Malone, D. Min., dmalone121@att.net, (214) 662-5191, 121 Flyaway Ln., Fort Worth, TX 76120-1635
David, I just returned from a mission trip to Durango, Mexico, where I taught 13 lessons on the parables. Thanks for your links and for your encouragement.