THE STORY OF GOD – 2025
THE POWER OF STORY
If you’ve ever read, listened to, or watched a brilliant story, then you know that narrative has a way of affecting you to your core. Think of a book you’ve read, or a movie you’ve seen, that grabbed at your mind and your heart so much, that you were never the same after.
When we experience a story like this, it makes us want to share it with others. We retell the story, and if we are with someone else who has seen or read the story, we love to dialogue and discuss the deeper meanings hidden in the narrative, pointing out its specific impact on our lives.
Every year, Citizens Church journeys through a dialogical narrative of the Bible from the beginning to the end, over the course of 5 Sundays. This is a helpful practice, since the Bible is so long, with so many characters and story-lines. We hit all of the essential plot points, enough to allow us to engage and see the story from a birds-eye view.
Here’s what you can expect for these 5 weeks:
This Story comes from the Bible. Some people in the room believe that everything in this story is true, and others do not. That’s a great thing! Imagine we’re all in the first century, and someone is reading the Iliad or The Odyssey, and we have Greeks in the room who have oriented their entire lives around their mythology and see it as truth. But others are just sitting in to hear the story.
We’re here to grow and to build relationship. A good story causes us to grow. Shared experiences draw us into community with others. We’re here to do both.
This is supposed to be enjoyable. The goal is for this to be light-hearted and for none of us to take ourselves or others too seriously.
Feel the freedom to challenge the story. No emotion, question, or thought is off-limits. This is a safe space to challenge what’s in the story. There’s permission to wrestle over things in the story that affect us positively or negatively. For those who don’t believe this story is true, we hope you will be pleasantly surprised to see that those who do believe are likely bothered by the same things you are.
We’ll only discuss information that has emerged from narratives that have already been told. If you’re brand new, none of the people who already know the story are allowed to jump ahead. They will let the Story unfold, only sticking with what we’ve heard so far. This keeps the playing field level for everyone.
Our journey through the Story of God will take place at New Traditions School at 10 am, every Sunday morning for 5 weeks (September 7th through October 5th). You can find more details about Sundays (location, parking, etc) here.
