God’s Story

Charles Kiser —  August 15, 2010 — 1 Comment

Storyline hosted its DNA event this weekend. Friday night is a ‘Storyline 101’ session – where we talk through the values and practices of our community with people who are new to Storyline. Saturday is called ‘Leader DNA’ – where we provide training to developing leaders in house church ministry.

At the beginning of the first session on Friday night, Ryan read the “God’s Story” article from our website, like he always does. And, like always, it charged me up and reminded me who I am and why I do what I do.

I’ll share it with you here in hopes that it will provide similar encouragement.


GOD’S STORY

We believe the story of God in Jesus is the true story of the whole world.

It is the grand storyline of which all of our lives are a part in one way or another. We want to discover our place in this story. We believe the Christian Scriptures are the definitive source of this storyline.

Creation

The world in which we live came into existence by the work of a creator God. This God is a personal God that exists not as an isolated individual but as a loving community of persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This God is good in every way—characterized by love, holiness, faithfulness, compassion, and justice.

Out of loving community, God created the world for the sake of sharing his love with it.

Humanity was the height of God’s creative work. Humans were created in the image of God, to reflect God’s nature as relational, loving and just people. They were to care for the world in a way that reflected the good nature of God.  Click here to read an excerpt from the Scriptures about God’s creation of the world and humanity.

God designed humanity to experience a relationship of trust with God. For the sake of genuine relationship, God gave humanity freedom to choose whether or not to remain in a trusting relationship with God.

But something went terribly wrong.

Brokenness

The first humans were enticed by the powers of evil at work in the world and used their freedom to choose their own path—to be their own gods. As a result of their decision, their relationship with the creator God was broken and so were they.

Terrible evil resulted. The world was cursed. Humans murdered other humans. Evil is a part of the story to this day.  Click here to read an excerpt from the Scriptures on the entrance of brokenness into the world.

But this God did not give up. He did not destroy the world and count it a failed project.

Partnership

God raised up the family of a man named Abram and made a pact with them: God would bless the whole world through them and use them to restore his broken relationship with humanity. To read more about Abram, click here.

This family grows and becomes the people of Israel. God gave them a law to live by that would embody what right relationship with God looked like. Israel lived as an example for the rest of the world to see. To read more about Israel’s law, click here.

Yet Israel fell into the same traps the first humans did: over and over again Israel tried to go its own way and be its own god. The problem of brokenness was too deep for humanity to fix. God would have to do something drastic.

Jesus the Messiah

And so this creator God did the unthinkable: he took on human form in Jesus, a Jewish man from Nazareth. Jesus embodied the fullness of God and modeled for Israel and the rest of the world what it looked like to be in right relationship with God. Click here to read about Jesus’ entry into the world.

Jesus called people away from being their own gods and urged them to turn toward the one true God. He taught about living in love, service and humility rather than with dominating power and selfishness. He declared that another world was possible and was indeed making its way into the present world. It would replace the world humanity had made for itself. Some of Jesus’ most famous teachings can be found here. 

Jesus’ message was so radical that it upset the powers that be—both the Jewish leaders of Israel and the Roman Empire. As a result, he was executed as a criminal for insurrection by way of crucifixion—suffocating to death while hanging from a wooden cross. Click here to read an account of Jesus’ death.

What seemed like a failed cause became the greatest victory in the story when, three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus was the real deal. The world he spoke of was the real deal. Not even death could stop it. For an an account of Jesus’ resurrection, click here.

Followers of Jesus came to believe that in the death of Jesus, God provided a way for the world to be healed. God took all of humanity’s brokenness upon himself, through Jesus, on the cross. At the cross, God defeated the powers of evil that enticed humanity. Those who trusted Jesus’ work on their behalf could experience a right relationship with God as a gift from God to undeserving people. For early Christian commentary on the death of Jesus, click here.

After Jesus rose from the dead he returned to the loving community of God, promising to come back and make the world right for good. In the meantime, his followers were commissioned to share the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the rest of the world.

The Church

Anyone who believed the story could be a part of the new community of faith—called the church—that was experiencing right relationship with God and each other. The church’s task was to live into the new world that had opened up through Jesus and to invite others into that world. To read a text about the church, click here.

God even gave himself, the Holy Spirit, to live in those who followed Jesus and empower them to live in relationship with God and fulfill their task. Click here for a text about the role of the Holy Spirit.

This is the part of the story we find ourselves in.

The Restoration of the World

One day, Jesus will return and restore the world to rights, just as he promised. Brokenness will be eradicated. The powers of evil will be stamped out for good. Pain and suffering will end. This world will be transformed into a new world where we’ll enjoy the loving relationship with God and each other that was always intended for us. To read more about the restoration of the world, click here.

How do we know this story is true? While it’s not possible to make an airtight case (about anything), we do have good reasons. Dozens of authors in different contexts have recorded this story in the scriptures over the course of many centuries with remarkable coherence—so much so that we believe God was behind it. People have been living by this storyline for thousands of years. And this story makes sense to us—it answers our questions about nature of reality in a way no other story does.

Perhaps the greatest reason this story is true to us is because we believe Jesus really was raised from the dead. That changes everything.

We’re discovering our place in this story. And we invite you to discover yours, too.

In Story of God
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House Churches on Mission

Charles Kiser —  July 27, 2010 — 2 Comments

Below is an article by Patrick Cone, one of Storyline’s house church leaders (for the Victor Church), relaying some of the work they’ve done to get involved in the community and work for justice. I love the way working for justice attracts and connects us to those who are searching for God.

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As stated on its website, Storyline Christian Community lives to discover its place in God’s story through dependence on God, mission, life change and genuine relationships.

One way we do this is through our justice initiatives. Each house church chooses an area in which they think they can be of use in the community around them.

The Victor house church has chosen the Ferguson Road Initiative as our area of influence. The Ferguson Road Initiative’s mission is to “transform White Rock Hills and Greater Casa View into a safe, beautiful, prosperous and proud community by inspiring hope and working together to achieve a shared vision.”

Just 10 years ago, east Dallas’ Ferguson Road corridor was the most crime-ridden area of the city. The initiative has brought vast improvements and we want to be a part of that movement. Two of our members live in this neighborhood and the area would be a very attractive place to plant a house church in the future.

Our partnership with the initiative began in April, 2010. So far, we have adopted St. Francis Park, a large park right in the middle of the community. We meet as a church group once a month and pick up trash and try to make a difference cosmetically. We believe part of being a child of God is taking care of his creation. So far, we’ve had 90% church participation. We also have a friend who has faithfully joined us at each “justice event” to date, yet has never attended a house church gathering. We are excited about our friend’s desire to join God in his mission here in Dallas and we rejoice that his heart is for justice.

However, park clean up is just the beginning. As the school year approaches, we hope to get involved in adopting a classroom at one of the schools in the neighborhood. We have also had members get excited about mentoring, an anti-graffiti initiative and one member was even selected by the Initiative’s board to serve as event coordinator for the community-wide fall festival. This position will involve recruiting other members of the community to volunteer at the event. What a wonderful way to meet new people.

Our church family prayed and considered this opportunity for several months and in the end, we believed God was leading us to the Ferguson Road Initiative. We are excited, FRI officials are excited and we believe we can work together with the community to inspire hope in this neighborhood.

In Community Connection, Justice, Mission
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Engaging our Neighborhood

Charles Kiser —  June 3, 2010 — 1 Comment

Storyline hosted its annual City on a Hill retreat on May 21-22. The retreat is designed to equip people who are interested in participating in God’s mission to bless and restore the world.

The focus of Friday night is, “What is God’s mission?” The focus of Saturday is “What do missional people do?”

We answer Saturday’s question, “What do missional people do?”, with five key elements. Missional people engage in five rhythms as they participate in God’s mission. They:

  1. Listen to God
  2. Engage their neighborhoods
  3. Show hospitality
  4. Work for justice
  5. Tell the story

If Storyline has a “rule of life,” it’s these five elements. These rhythms are what we center our life around as community.

I got a facebook message last weekend from Heather Amend about how the conversation about “engaging our neighborhoods” had impacted her. By engaging our neighborhoods, we mean becoming embedded in the broader community of which we are part: 1) our street; 2) our workplaces; and 3) our “third places” (social hang-outs).

The assumption is that we can no longer expect  people who are searching for connection to God to come to us. Like Jesus (cf. Luke 5:27-32), we must go to them. Further, the church should spring up ‘out there’, amongst people in our community who are searching for God – rather than extracting them from their environments and into to our “safe” church contexts.

One learning point from the conversation was the suggestion to engage the community in community – that is, not as a loner, but in conjunction with other friends on mission.

Heather’s facebook message pertained to that – and got me excited about the way Storyliners are participating in mission. I’ve felt all the same dynamics she mentions; it’s nice to have someone articulate them so well. Heather’s comments demonstrate that the best learning happens when we’re actually doing something.

Hey guys,

I figured something out, a revelation if you will.

You know how you told us to go in pairs for non-church spaces? I thought of several more reasons why that’s good. That’s because I joined a meetup group and went to my apartment’s brunch by myself this morning. The meetup group worked because Elizabeth went with me. The apartment brunch was 10 shades of awkward.

– Whenever I go somewhere by myself, I am quite certain I project a “Help! I don’t know anyone” vibe.

– If I’m flying solo and I invite someone to a Storyline event or to hang out, it’s like, “Come hang out with ME.” It’s more pressure. Who wants to hang out one on one with someone they just met?

– When you invite someone to an event and you’re in a pair, it’s like, “Hang out with US.” Immediately it’s like being invited into a crowd, which is less weird than being invited to hang out one on one.

– The person you’re inviting already knows TWO people at the place you’re inviting them to.

– It shows them that you have friends and you’re not a loser.

– It kind of depends on who you’re approaching. When I went to interview the homeless at Solomon’s Porch, flying solo wasn’t a big deal at all. Those people are so much more approachable. But Uptown people?

Just some observations. Anyway, I firmly back you guys’ idea that you should go in pairs.

In Community Connection, Mission
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Shakespeare in the Park

Charles Kiser —  June 3, 2010 — Leave a comment

Join us for Shakespeare in the Park on June 26! Click on the picture to register.

In Hospitality Events
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Storylines: Darcey

Charles Kiser —  May 30, 2010 — 3 Comments

It may seem strange after watching this video, but Darcey’s story is one of the most important stories Storyline can tell.

Her story demonstrates that our community belongs to people who have questions. People who have doubts. People who don’t have it all figured out yet. People who are on a journey.

In fact, Darcey’s story is a part of all of our stories, whether we’re veterans in the faith or newcomers.

At the end of the day, Storyline – indeed, the Church – exists for people like Darcey.

In Life Change, Storyline
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