Stories are powerful. They bring people together. They change lives. Mere words can rewrite reality.

As a writer, preacher, teacher, and communicator words are kind of my bread and butter. In college, I minored in Communication Studies so I got to see the "technical" side of using words to persuade, inform, and make people fall in love with you (Yes, I had a whole unit on Romantic Communication, so I can give you some tips if you need them. :P).

But as a student of the Bible, I got to see the practical side of words--how these stories of old can have an impact today. The Bible is not only filled with narratives but is commonly viewed as a story. It's a disjointed story at times but you can see some major threads throughout. We can't deny this story's import. The grand Biblical story and the individual stories within have toppled governments, changed lives, turned murderers into missionaries--just in general affected the world in more ways than we will ever know.

I recently reflected on the power of story when I remembered how a single talent show changed everything for me. The summer after my junior year of high school I attend Honors Summer Academy at Oklahoma Christian University. I attended the camp not knowing a single other camper. At the time, I had a very tough time making new friends and it was hard to get out of my shell. Most days I'd stay in the dorm room and do homework (yes, I willfully chose to do school in the summer to get college credit).

But Wednesday of that week everything changed. We had a mid-week talent show that students could optionally participate in. I don't know what possessed me, but I signed up to perform a comedy routine, really, an exaggerated story of my mission trip to Hungary the previous year where I was assaulted by an officer in the Hungarian military at the President's Palace. True story! (Mostly)

Apparently, it was received well. Very well received. From that point on in the camp, people were a lot more friendly. The story built this connection point between me and others as they asked for more details or brought up how much they laughed. And they saw a peek at my true personality in this story and so realized that I'm not a half-bad guy. So in the latter week of the camp, I had more friends, more interactions, and was doing more things. All because of a silly story.

We humans respond to stories because they touch on so many parts of our brains. Stories reach inside of us where mere logic can't. Stories draw us in and give us a picture of a new world. Oftentimes, we place ourselves in these stories which give us empathy and understanding. Stories should not be underestimated.

Btu growing up, evangelism was most often taught as an appeal to the rational brain; I was tasked to use logic and reasoning and apologetics as a weapon against anything the non-Christian believed. My church tradition comes from a rich intellectual strand that saw some obvious problems with overly emotional religion. Unfortunately, like what happens too many times to count, we swung too far in the opposite direction. But it's not just my tradition, many Christians have prioritized the rational method over the original way of evangelism: telling stories.

Elaine Graham's excellent book Apologetics Without Apology: Speaking of God in a World Troubled by Religion explains how modern apologetics--a "defense of Christianity"--swerved away from its original intent. The OG peeps using the term apologetics in the second century weren't appealing to facts and logic, but to the power of story. They weren't concerned with trying to convince people to believe that Christianity was right so much as they were trying to convince people that Christianity was good. They used personal testimonies and stories about the Christian experience to show this truth.

Graham's book is a call to get back to what worked so well in the first place. The Western world by and large is bored and angry with religion. The way to reinvigorate this world is not to throw facts and figures at them but to show them that Christianity offers a powerful new story for the world.

Near the end of Apologetics without Apology, Graham writes: "Apologetics, then, is not so much a matter of rational argument, as being able to explain and witness to the wider canvass of an entire lifestyle; and to narrate and make transparent and accessible an entire worldview."

All I'm saying is that if a silly story about a Hungarian guard whacking me with his gun while I posed for a harmless picture and accidentally broke international law can open up new friendships that I still have to this day--how much more could our personal story with faith impact those around us? Stories can get at our hearts, the very place Jesus wants to be, so let us tell stories that reach deep into the hearts of those around us.

The world needs our story. And we need to tell it.

What's your story? (Feel free to reply and tell me)

Off to serve time in a Hungarian prison,

Jake Doberenz

P.S. One day I'll tell you the full story about the Hungarian guard assault. But you just get a teaser today. Deal with it.