Living in Stories

Tell your story in five frames

YOU

arrival to the planet

your uniquegifts

your contribution to community

you arrive in the middle of a story

reading scripture

• About us

• AND not about us

(mostly not, & it’s not fair to make it say whatever you want)

“For I know the plans I have for you,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.”

Does God have a plan?

life in exile

“These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles…

Build houses and live in them;

plant gardens and eat what they produce…

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare…”

--Jeremiah 29.1, 5-7

Have you ever felt in the wrong place, with the wrong people?

activities directed toward the future

build houses

plant gardens

set goals

“Mobilizing others to achieve purpose under conditions of uncertainty—what leaders do—challenges the hands, the head, and the heart.”

Marshall Ganz, “Public Narrative, Collective Action, and Power,” in Accountability Through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action, ed. Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2011.

seek shalom now

Public narrative (Marshall Ganz)

• Self—your deepest values

• Us—we don’t develop independently

• Now—this moment that requires values in action

God’s confidence in us

our confidence in God and our neighbors

How are you investing in the future with your neighbors?

Encourage

Write advice to people of faith who feel like exiles in your congregation or neighborhood.

Point them to signs of hope where you live and encourage them to participate in shalom for all.

[looking ahead]

• Scripture

• Place/displacement/context

• Adolescents

• Self/other

• Service

• Faith community

God, you call to us in every circumstance, confident in our abilities to turn to you. Grant us grace to express our confidence in you and our neighbors by daily actions for shalom in the world you love. Amen.