Storytelling in an Inattentive World

We, as believers, have been left on this earth with the Commission to make disciples of all men. We have been left as witnesses to the salvation offered by Christ, heralds of God's grace, ambassadors of the Kingdom of Light in a land that knows nothing but darkness. We are storytellers telling two stories - ours and Christ's - hoping that their collective weight intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually will convince others of their worth and veracity.

But we live in a world that prefers 140 characters at a time as opposed to the great, lengthy novels of old. We live in a society that sacrifices the good taste of a home-made meal for the convenience and speed of a microwavable TV dinner. We live in a world so impatient that people (including myself) record TV shows so they can fast-forward through commercials, even though it's an additional monthly cost to do so.

How do we fulfill our Commission when our main method - storytelling - is in contradiction with the pace of our culture?

In our last letter, I wrote to you about a 3-minute testimony and how we were helping our students write them about their own journeys with Christ. The premise behind a 3-minute testimony is that it packages the Truth of the Gospel, starts and ends within a short amount of time, and it catches people's attention. It's that last part that makes this tool so effective. When people start asking questions wanting to know more, then you know you have their attention, and now you're no longer in sales pitch mode but rather honest conversation mode. In case you had any interest in this tool, I wanted to give you some steps for making one for yourself.

First off, here's an example by one of the students who came to the conference with us:


Simone Gundersen from CCCNEHQ on Vimeo.

Powerful, right? Well, here are some of the tips I've gathered on how to make one these - I challenge you to try! If you do, I'd love to read it! If you figure something out in writing it,  let me know!

1. "How do I start?" Every good story has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End. Where were you and what was life like before you knew Christ? How did you encounter the Living God and come to believe His Word as Truth? what has God done in and through you since you trusted Him for your salvation and you began to walk in the Spirit?

1A. Now, more than likely, thinking about answering those questions gives you a whole list of stories, moments, and trains of thought that you need to sift through. If so, move on to tip #2. If you don't have good answers to these, most likely you  grew up in the church and the traditional conversion story doesn't seem apparent in your life. However, there must be a moment where your walk with God started, right? There also must have been times where your life was difficult, right? Tell us that story and answer us this question instead: why did you stay with God all this time? why do you still trust Him? If you still feel lost, talk to a close friend who knows you well and can help you pick out the compelling parts of your story.


2. "How do I pick which stories to tell?" Filtering is definitely the difficult part of this process. Here's my best advice: pray about an image, or a metaphor - maybe even one from Scripture - that speaks to salvation and matters to you. For example, my story centers on the idea of the scales of good and bad, and how that distorted my view of God until I learned about Jesus and about faith and grace. Simone centers her story on the "need for a Savior". What image or metaphor can you center your testimony on? Once you pick one, then pick only a few stories that center on and illustrate this idea.

3. "How do I end it?" Your testimony needs to end by putting the ball in their court. At the end of her story, Simone challenges her audience to recognize their need for a Savior, no matter how "good" they think they are. Make a challenge or ask a question that pushes the audience to take the template of your story and try to apply it to their own lives. It's this twist that puts them in a place to consider where they are at in relation to Jesus, and where they want to be. If you put an image or metaphor into the story, look for a question connected to the image. For instance, Isaiah tells us that the redeemed are white as snow while Jesus calls the Pharisees whitewashed tombs. If either of these images works in your story, you could ask if your listener(s) is/are a white-washed tomb or white as snow. Make it simple, short, and clear. Leave no room for middle ground because in God's world there is no middle ground.

4. "How do I use it?" Practice it. Don't memorize it word for word, but become really familiar with it. If it doesn't fit, work on it until it feels comfortable. Then, start telling it. If you finish and people seem unaffected or disinterested, feel free to go no further. You've told them about sin and Jesus and redemption and sanctification and how it all worked for you. You can't make them accept it. Should they want more, however, then keep talking as the Spirit leads. You'll never know from the get-go who's ready to kneel at the cross of Christ and who isn't. Let God figure that part out.

As I said, if this is helpful or interesting to you, let me know! I've enjoyed using it and I hope you find it empowering.

God Bless!

January Prayer Letter

Here is our January Newsletter:

Dear Ministry Family,

Happy New Year! My how the holidays came and went so quickly! We pray that God lavished each of you with precious family time, sweet time celebrating our Savior, and plenty of laughs as we closed out 2011 and launched this new year. Our holidays were spent back with our two families in Holden, MA, and then we had our own small New Years’ party before heading out to Albany, NY for our week-long winter conference with the students. But before the holidays we had to wrap up the semester with the students and what an ending we had!

Preaching the Gospel and telling our life story to non-believers is and always will be a central effort of our ministry. A large part of our training entails learning how to use different tools and learning how to read the tone and progress of a spiritual conversation so we can learn how much to say and how to carry a conversation over multiple meetings with a student. A growing portion of our weekly schedule is dedicated to going out on campus – together and with students from our ministry – to preach the Gospel to other students. Our main difficulty with this at the moment is that the student body seems completely uninterested in what we have to offer, so please pray that God will show us how to effectively present His Truth in a way that will powerfully impact students and that He will care for the seeds that have been and will be planted.

Students developing a passion and a drive to share their faith makes this part of our ministry even more rewarding! In mid-December, the students put on an Open-Mic Christmas party to which they invited their friends and roommates. Students then got up and sang worship songs with explanations of why the songs mattered to them, shared artwork they had made that expressed their faith and struggles, read poetry that beautifully encapsulated the Christmas story and how it looks forward to Easter and salvation, and read fictional stories that rang with the truth of Scripture. At the end, one student even stood up unexpectedly and spoke for several minutes on the importance of the true story of Christmas. Watching students merge their passions, schooling, and talents with their faith filled me with awe and I know that many of the friends who attended were impressed and interested by what they saw and heard. Please pray that many more such opportunities to use their gifts to share their faith will occur for the students!

The chance to inspire students to take hold of the Gospel and share it boldly continued at our most recent conference last week. One day of the conference – called “Storytelling” day – challenged the students with turning their powerful testimony into a three-minute story. Not only does this force the students to become intimately familiar again with what really matters about their story, it helps them gain clarity and focus in what otherwise can seem like a jumbled, chaotic story about life. Seeing the excitement to tell their stories to others well up as they completed their task pointed to the success of the idea – some students even video recorded their testimonies so they could post them on Facebook and other internet spaces so as to rouse up Gospel-centered discussion. We hope that the students will continue to boldly witness in whatever means and media God opens to them!

May the passion to preach the Gospel catch fire at UMass Dartmouth, at colleges and universities across the country, and in your hearts as well! God has left us here to be storytellers and we are each a small part of the Greatest Story ever told. Pray for us as well, now that we clearly feel the Lord’s leading to commit ourselves long-term to this ministry working on college campuses and begin the process of applying to join staff. Thank you for your prayers and for joining us on this adventure! We pray that God continues to bless you and strengthen this partnership!

Serving with you in Christ,

Matt & Rebecca Litchfield

P.S. – Two housekeeping matters: 1) Some of you might prefer an e-mail copy of this letter rather than/in addition to the hard copy. We’re happy to send you either or both! Please just send an e-mail to matthew.k.litchfield@gmail.com letting us know if you want to add/change to e-mail format. 

What's in a name?

Hey All!


So, you may or may not be wondering about the name of our blog and I'd thought I would take a moment to share my thoughts in picking the name - some came before I suggested it and others came afterwards.


The first - and most literal - reason stems from the fact that our ministry is at UMASS Dartmouth, a school made almost completely of concrete. 


The second comes from the intent of the blog. Some of you have asked and/or are wondering about what happens in our lives on a more day-to-day basis. For others, the idea of what we're doing is a new or very different idea. Some of you just like hearing stories.  Regardless of the reason, we can fit only a small window of what God is doing in our letters and we want to show you more, if you're looking for it. So, here we will offer more concrete information and day-to-day stories that never make it to the letters.


As I reflected further on the name, however, I realized that it also reads as a highly tongue-in-cheek name since we know that there's so much about our ministry that isn't "concrete". First, Spirit-filled ministry of any variety must always be growing, stretching, reaching, going - hence the Bible often uses plant/trees imagery for our spiritual walk, and that is the very opposite of concrete. Second, college ministry must always shift and change so that it can reach students where they are. There was a time where "one size fits all" was the motto of organizations like Cru, but now we have developed an athlete ministry, a Greek (fraternity/sorority) ministry, and others reaching students through arts, academia/intellectual, and even the internet! Jesus challenges us to go to all nations, not expect them to come to us, and achieving that on the university campus involves consistent flexibility and a willingness to change modes to keep the Gospel in contact with the students - meaning our ministry must be anything but concrete in how we go about it.


My prayer is that through this blog you'll see our ministry go from practicing widespread tactics of college outreach to a ministry designed specifically to transform UMASS Dartmouth into a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching, Jesus-following, Spirit-led body of believers. May what is - out of newness and inexperience - somewhat patterned and modeled continue to become more dynamic, powerful, and compelling.


Thanks for joining us on this wild ride - you're a vital part of this journey and a valued companion for the road.


Blessings!

Greetings!

Hello!

Matt and I are so excited about adding a new form of communication with you all. In addition to our monthly newsletters, we will be posting stories and prayer requests through out the month that will hopefully glorify God through the encouragement and support that will be shared results of this blog. I'm so excited to share with you exciting moments from our discipleship and evangelism times with students, training and anything else that the Lord lays on our hearts to share. We would also like to encourage your comments, hoping that this will help you feel that you are on campus with us! I'm getting more and more excited as I write this, realizing that pictures can also be shared from all of our events. Here is to our future ministry communication!
Love and Blessings!