Stories to Know (Both Kinds)

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Sharing Our Stories at The Red Brick ChurchWe look forward to enjoying a fun family sermon series this summer. Teaching from the Sermon on the Mount will be combined with stories of how God has worked in our lives. We need your help to make it happen.

Our families and church family need to know two kinds of stories:

  1. We need to know the true stories of Scripture. God shows us through Joseph, Daniel, Ruth, and many others how we can be encouraged and have hope (Romans 15:4).
  2. We need to know stories of how God has shown himself faithful in our families. We should identify stories that we want to be told for generations to come.

On Sunday mornings this summer, we will be considering both kinds of stories. I will preach from God’s Word with an emphasis on the Sermon on the Mount. .

But we also want to hear your stories. I am asking for volunteers from our church family to write out a story that is important for your family and church community to know.

Once we have these stories, I (Pastor Chris) will choose a number of them to be shared with our church family. Hopefully you will read them in church! Here are some guidelines:

  • Identify a story you want your family to remember. Ordinary stories are probably best. Rather than telling us about the time your uncle wrestled a grizzly bear, we want to hear about how your dad worked a night job to pay for college.
  • Don’t share a story in which you are the hero (Proverbs 27:2). We are impressed that you fought alongside Davy Crockett at the Alamo. But we’d rather hear about your Sunday School teacher and how she persevered in teaching you despite your misbehavior.
  • Use a simple outline: Tell us what happened and why you remember it.
  • Be short: 4-6 minutes – We are looking for something in the 4-6 minute range. Don’t buy the lie that such a short length is not enough time to say anything.  Identify one incident and go from there.
  • Write it out – We want you to be able to share these with other people. If you can tell the story, you can write it out. In fact, once you get it written out, you can make it better! I’ll help you if needed.
  • It needs to be a story, that is, a situation that moves to resolution. So rather than saying, “My mother was a great lady,” tell about a time when your mom cleaned a neighbors home.
  • The deadline is Sunday, April 26. I need a draft of your story by then, preferably emailed to me. I will email back when I receive it so if you don’t hear back from me, let me know.
  • Don’t get all shy on us. Those heroes of our lives, the ones God used, they should be remembered. It’s really a matter of character to stand up in front of our church family and share about  how someone has been a blessing.