The stories we tell ourselves strongly effect how we see ourselves, others, and the situations we encounter. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n However individuals are not the only ones who tell stories, organizations do as well. A few months ago, I visited a church whose inner-narrative declares them a welcoming and friendly congregation to all. Yet, as a new visitor, no one greeted me or the other guests sitting in front of me. Most churches (and people) struggle with some tension between who we say we are and what we do\u2013we all have bad days\u2013but when we leave our stories unexamined and untested we are likely to see their truth erode over time.<\/p>\n One of the unfortunate effects of a mainline protestant culture where evangelism is treated like a four letter word<\/i> is that we have forgotten how to tell the stories of our faith. We no longer feel comfortable sharing with our friends and neighbors how our encounters with God have changed our lives. We may wear our political beliefs on our sleeves (or Facebook statuses) but accept that faith is a personal and private thing.<\/p>\n What is even more disconcerting is that we have forgotten our own stories of transformation and thus, our purpose for gathering. It isn\u2019t uncommon to encounter church leaders (lay and clergy) who struggle to articulate a faith perspective for why they do what they do. Without a purpose and story grounded in a rich Christian faith, it is difficult to answer a question many younger generations are asking (directly or more often through their absence): \u201cWhy should I bother with church?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In just a few weeks, our conference is offering a first step in exploring the stories that ground us and how we share them with others. \u201cWe Have a Story to Tell!\u201d<\/a> will take place on November 14th, from 9am to 4pm, at Puyallup UMC (see below for an alternative Portland-area date). I hope you\u2019ll consider registering today for a day of reflecting on the importance of story and its potential for transformation both inside and outside the walls of our church buildings.<\/p>\n Editor’s Note:<\/strong> The “We Have a Story to Tell” Communications Training will take place in two locations across of the Greater NW area, one in the PNW, the other in OR-ID. Click the appropriately link below for more information about each.<\/p>\n PNW Training – Nov. 14<\/a>\u00a0– Puyallup, WA \u00a0| \u00a0OR-ID Training – Nov. 16<\/a>\u00a0– Woodburn, OR<\/p>\n Image Credit:<\/strong> “Lego Pile” by\u00a0David Lofink<\/a>,\u00a0CC BY 2.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By the Rev. Cara Scriven | Tacoma District Superintendent Last week, my youngest daughter got upset when her twin sister wouldn\u2019t allow her to build a LEGO castle for her My Little Ponies the way she wanted. The situation erupted when she tore apart the castle and threw LEGOs across the room screaming, \u201cYou\u2019re mean!\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":11037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[135,6,384,388],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communications","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-districts","10":"category-tacoma"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/legos.jpg?fit=1068%2C569&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2RZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11035"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11046,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions\/11046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rising-Strong\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Rising-Strong-221x300.jpg?resize=221%2C300\")
<\/a>Bren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s latest book, Rising Strong<\/a>, makes a similar point when Brown wrestles with the question: \u201cAre people doing the best they can?\u201d\u00a0 She tells a story of a woman at a bank who is grilling the teller about her funds. Overhearing the interaction, Brown immediately begins to judge the woman telling herself that this woman could be acting a lot better than she is. When it is Brown\u2019s turn, she asks the teller, \u201cDo you believe that woman was doing the best she can?\u201d Surprisingly, the teller responds in the affirmative and offers several possible explanations for the woman\u2019s behavior that reveal a grace Brown\u2019s inner narrative failed to incarnate.<\/p>\n![\"story-to-tell-2-nd\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/story-to-tell-2-nd-177x300.png?resize=177%2C300\")
<\/a>The stories we tell ourselves are powerful, but until we carefully discern and live into the one God has for us, it will be difficult to understand the transformation we need. Without the important work of digging deep toward the roots of God\u2019s story for us, we are left with our approximations; instead of building God\u2019s Kin(g)dom, we risk building castles of our own creation and the inevitable eruptions that follow.<\/p>\n
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