STORY=POWER 6a - Telling Stories to Children, Building on a Theme

In Melbourne, Australia, we have an outreach program that about 30,000 people come through called the Road to Bethlehem. Each Christmas, lots of Adventists get dressed up in costume and we put on a Christmas pageant that people walk through. And this last year I played the role of Herod in one of the scenes. And it's a lot of fun because you get in character and you say the same lines though over and over and over. We did 42 go-throughs in one night because it's just the same scene every 5 minutes. And after one scene there was this small boy who basically the guides try to get them up and moving to the next scene as fast as possible, but this one boy just stayed seated. And just was staring at me. And I didn't want to move off my throne until he left. But he just stayed there and he's just staring at me. And his sister finally comes back and she says, "Come on, we gotta go." And he looks up at her and he goes, "He's not the— you're not the real Herod." And then he jumped up and went with his sister. And something amazing had happened in his mind. He had got so involved in the story that he was waiting because he believed the story as it was happening. And he was waiting for something to happen to tell him No, this is just a story. This is just— we're just acting. But it wasn't happening. His suspension of disbelief was still there. He was waiting. And he had suspended the rest of the world and said, this might be real. And when we're talking to children, it's something really amazing about them is they have still the creative power to completely get involved in a story. And as storytellers, most moviemakers, novel writers, anyone who's creating a story that they want people to go into that world and forget forget about their outside world and their outside life. They call that the suspension of disbelief because the story you're telling is untrue. And so you're suspending the disbelief in the untrue story and playing with it and letting it be real. But at the end of the book, you close it and the disbelief comes back. Oh, it was just a story. Or at the end of the movie, the credits roll and you're reminded of who you are and where you are, and you go back to reality. But in Christian storytelling, we have an awesome privilege because we don't really want We don't want our young people to say, "Oh, it's not a true story," and move on to the next scene in life. We want them to say, "I want to keep this story alive." And when we go to schools, or when I go to schools and talk to kids and I get them day after day for a whole week, or at a camp meeting where you get them for 10 days in a row, there's a number of things you can do to help them recognize that this story is more than just a story. It's not just an old story in the Bible. They're not just stories that happened to Pastor Dave. These are stories that are in my life too. And some of the key things we can do is one, one of them is to create a repeated pattern because they're coming back every day. Or as teachers in classrooms or Sabbath school teachers, you can create a repeated pattern where when they come in, they know, oh, this is the place where I learn these stories. I recently did a week of prayer at a school that the title of the week of prayer was I Want to See Jesus. And the whole goal that I had is every night, well every day really, I would pretend that I'd just woken up and I'd had a dream. And I would come out and I wanted the kids to understand that the stories I was telling were real Bible stories, but that I was approaching them from a creative way. So I created this little poem that I said at the beginning of the talk every day. And I meant for it just to be a poem that I said in introduction, But I was amazed that by the end of the 5 days, the kids were saying the entire poem with me. And it's not short. And what I would do is stand up on the stage and I would say, "I went for a walk in my imagination, and when I arrived in the part of my mind where memorized Scripture is stored, I found myself standing in the Kingdom of God walking on streets of gold." And I really must tell you about someone I met on that road. His name was Micah. That was the first day. And Micah told me stories. And he would say— he tells me stories about the Golden Rule because that's the favorite story he's heard in heaven. And he tells me stories about how it tied back in with what he actually wrote in his book long, long ago. And he said actually the key verse that ties into the Golden Rule and kind of gives us this understanding of what it means to live a godly life is— is my favorite way of saying it is in a song, and it's Micah 6:8. And then I taught the song to the kids, and the song goes, he has shown thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk Humbly with your God. And I got the kids to sing that with me. And then at the end of the talk with Micah, I said, well, Micah, thank you so much for telling me your stories, and it was so awesome to hear them, but I really want to see Jesus. Is he around here anywhere? And, oh yes, I just saw Jesus. He was just here. He can't be far away. And so I would run off the stage and I'd say, okay, bye. I want to see Jesus. And I'd run off the stage. And the next day when I came on I did the same intro. I went for a walk in my imagination, and when I got to the part of my mind where memorized Scripture is stored, I found myself walking on streets of gold. And I really must tell you about someone I met on that road. And the second day, I met a Roman soldier, and the Roman soldier told me about Jesus and justice and how Jesus was so powerful with his justice. And he was the soldier in his justice teaching, and he was the soldier who said, Truly, this was the Son of God. And then after hearing all of his stories, I said to him, "This, you know, what you're saying about justice, it reminds me yesterday of a song that Micah taught me, and I sang the song. You know that bit there where it says, 'To do justly'?" He said, "That's exactly right. That's what I'm talking about." And then I said, "Well, thank you for telling me your stories, but I really want to see Jesus." And then he told me Jesus was here, and I run off the stage, "I want to see Jesus!" And the next day I come back and it's Mary Magdalene that I'm meeting. And Mary tells me stories of how gracious Jesus was and how merciful he was. And her key thing that she says is, "Jesus loved mercy." And I say, "Hey, wait a minute, that reminds me of a song. It's a song Micah taught me, 'To do justly and to love mercy.'" She said, "That's what I'm talking about." I said, "So Jesus loves mercy?" "Yes, he loves mercy." "Well, thank you for telling me your stories, Mary." And Mary's— we went through a number of stories in her life, and then I I ran off the stage, "I want to see Jesus!" And then Thursday I come back and this time it's Peter. And Peter tells me about how Jesus humbled him and he watched Jesus being humble and it caused him to be humble. And I said, "Wait a minute, that reminds me of a song by Micah that Micah taught me. It says, 'To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.'" "That's exactly what I'm talking about. You're right, David." And so I said, "Oh, well, has Jesus been around here?" And again, I run off the stage, "I wanna see Jesus!" Finally, on the last day when I come out and I say, "And I really must tell you about someone I met on the road. His name was..." And the kids all shout, "Jesus!" Because they know this is the last day. He's gotta meet Jesus. All week long he's been wanting to meet Jesus. And so then I say, "You're right, it was Jesus. And then Jesus tells this story to me." I say, "Tell me your favorite story." And Jesus tells me this story that I Partway through it, I said, "Wait a minute, that's my story. You're telling me about me. I'm your favorite story right now?" He said, "Of course you are, because I'm talking to you right now." And at the end, I asked the kids, "How many of you would like to go to heaven one day and hear Jesus tell you his favorite parts of your story?" And they raised their hand, and we have a commitment ceremony where they're able to choose to follow God in baptism and in Bible study. And after doing that week of prayer, This little boy comes up to me, he was a grade 1 student, and he's standing there next to me as I'm giving high-fives to all the kids that are going out. He says, "Pastor Dave, can I ask you a question? Pastor Dave, can I ask you a question?" I pat him on the head, "Yes, little man, I'll be right with you. I just want to give you my full attention." And all these kids are going by. "Pastor Dave, can I ask you a question?" "Yeah, just wait a minute." Give high-fives to more kids and they go out. And finally all the kids have gone and I go down on my knees and face this kid eye to eye and I say, "Okay, what is it, little man?" And he looks in my eyes and he says, "What did Jesus look like?" And that's the place where we want to get children, to where he wants the story to be real. But I'm able to tell him, "Let me tell you something. I told you at the beginning that I was just— we were pretending I had a dream. I haven't seen Jesus yet because Jesus is coming back soon. And when he does come back, you and I will see him at the same time." And we can walk up to Jesus and we can ask him to tell us the favorite parts of our story that he knows, and he will tell us those stories. Do you want to meet Jesus one day? And he said, "Yes, I do." I said, "Well, we will see him together." The joy of telling stories to children is that joy of letting them know the story is true. They don't have to suspend their disbelief because Jesus is real.