In a slight change of pace, I really wanted to take a couple of minutes and recommend a great resource to you. About a year and a half ago, I stumbled on the idea of storying from Michael Novelli. His website is here.
The basic idea is that it's a really powerful thing within a community to return to the power of the story of the Bible. The Bible was written in narrative form, but so often we break it up and analyze it into tiny, bite-size pieces. It's really easy to misinterpret. It's also really easy to sort of contain God if we can categorize and analyze things to the point where they all make sense.
Last year a small group of people met in my house about twice a month to story through the Old Testament. I was immediately captured by the stories. I was confronted by the character of God in those stories, who was so much bigger than I'd remembered. We had great conversations about the stories and about what they challenged us to do in our own lives.
As I've learned to recognize emotional barriers to faith in my life and in the lives of those around me, this idea of story has really jumped out at me as a way to engage with those barriers. Through story, we can introduce ourselves and our friends to the person of God rather than just ideas about God. And those stories have the power to transform. They challenge our preconceived notions and ideas, and they force us to engage with God in a different way than if we just talk about him in the abstract. I would highly recommend this resource.
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