Trying it out: Do you want your faith community to be a vibrant and powerful lending community that joins God in ministry inside and outside the church walls? Then start with the stories of faith you already have. Learn to notice and name and celebrate evidences of God’s Presence among us, both yesterday and today. Here are some guidelines to help you get started. (After these guidelines, you will find some specific starter questions that you might try on.)
Each missio:Engage! team member is to find two people to interview, according to the following guidelines. These can be church members, but it would be great to interview faith-filled people who are not members, as well. As soon as possible after the story listening encounter, you will write out or type out your notes from the conversation. More on that, in a moment.
Starting places: Think about the ten or so people you really admire inside and outside your faith community. You admire them for their faith, or their courage or their joy. All of these are gifts of the Spirit and evidence of God at work. Your assignment will be to set up a time to meet with two of them (separately) and then listen out one of their stories of faith. You’ll take notes and then reflect on those notes with your missio:Engage! team, later.
Guidelines: The following suggestions are offered in the hopes of making this process as natural as possible. Please feel free to adapt these to suit your personal style. It might help if your team came together to plan out who will ask whom for interviews.
Invite the prospective story-teller in person, if at all possible. Calling them by phone is also OK. Try not to invite the person by e-mail – this is one invitation where it’s best to connect, face to face.
Here is a possible invitation and explanation:
“I know you to be a person of faith (or courage or hopefulness). The kind you have is a real gift and deserves our attention. I’d like to learn more about your journey of faith – how you came to have this confidence (or courage or hopefulness). Would you mind sharing an hour or so with me? I’d like it if you would tell me some of your story. Here’s why! Several of us are convinced that our faith stories are this Church’s greatest treasures. We believe that our greatest gift is the faith we have to lend each other and that’s why I’m asking.”
You might want to offer the person some time to think about the story they would choose to tell. Few of us have ever been asked for these stories – it may come as a surprise or even a brand new experience. Some of us like to prepare when we tell stories close to the heart. You might ask for the story or invite the story one week and then make time to hear it in the next week. You may need to ask ten people in order to gather up two stories.
Remember to ask for the stories in a safe space and at a moment when you have a little time to listen deeply.
Here are two questions that I’ve learned to ask in open and reverent curiosity: “Can you think of an experience you’ve had that really opened your heart to recognize God’s Presence and Love in your life? Would you mind sharing some of that story with me?”
Practice open curiosity and wonder when asking for the stories. Pay attention to the parts of the story that are not told, as well as to the parts that are.
Listen for the ways that the person’s heart was affected by the story, as it unfolds.
Honor the story as it is offered. If you have questions, ask permission to ask them, without interrupting or breaking the flow of thought and the telling.
Wonder out loud about how the story convinced the teller’s heart that God was/is present. Do not imagine that you already know anything of the person’s experience. Instead, assume that they have had an experience that is unique to them. Resist the urge to compare the story with other stories or your own.
Be comfortable with the small silences that mark the personal telling of a special story.
Keep checking in with the storyteller. Make sure they are comfortable with the questions you are asking – that they feel respected and honored in this process.
Let the story stand on its own – resist the urge to make it better or more powerful.
Keep in mind that the telling of the story is up to the owner of that story. If it is to be retold, the preference is to let the owner share it. In other words, the story needs to stay confidential unless permission to share is given.
Section One – Suggested follow-up questions for use during the interview: With those story-listening guidelines in mind, here are some follow-up questions that you may find helpful. These are not offered for you to ask in sequence – they are intended as a starting place for deeper story listening.
You’ve shared with me an experience that convinced you of God’s caring presence or goodness in your life. I’m wondering about what convinced you that this was God at work? How did you know?
How did this experience affect your heart, in that moment? What did that feel like?
Can you recall the sense you had immediately before this experience?
How did that feeling compare to what you felt afterwards?
Where was the turning point for you – what was it that changed in you through this?
How does this experience continue to turn your heart towards God?
How does this experience affect your relationship to this faith community?
Are there ways in which this experience continues to strengthen your faith in God?
How do you feel about sharing this story with me?
Are there any other questions you wish I would ask of you?
Is this a good stopping place?
Would you mind if I share with you the gifts you’ve given me in our time together and in the telling of this story? (Reflect, in the moment, on the gifts you have received from this story. It’s perfectly OK to pause for a moment and read back through some of your notes. Try to make eye contact and share the highlights of what you heard. Explain that you want the story-teller to know that you heard them.)
Thank them for the honor of hearing this piece of their journey.
Give them a copy of this resource to read, as well.
Section Two - Gathering up your own reflections: Go as quickly as possible to a space where you can fill in the rest of your notes. Also, ask yourself some of the following questions, as appropriate.
What do you experience as the gifts of this story-listening experience, for you?
In fifty words or less, would you describe the way that God showed up for the story teller, in their story? (Please do not share any confidential pieces of the story. This is your description, in your language, of the summary of the story.)
How did it affect you to hear the story?
How did it affect the way you think of your own stories of God’s Presence and activity in your life?
Do you think others in your faith community would be blessed to hear the story, just as you did?
Does your church or ministry offer the kind of “safe space” needed to retell the story in a more public way?
What do you think it would take to make that space available on a regular basis?
Prepare to share your answers to Section Two with the rest of the Team. You will not be sharing any of the responses to Section One with the team – that is for the original storyteller to share, if and when he or she chooses to. Try to limit your report to one side of one page. If it would help you, you might copy and paste the questions onto a fresh page so that you can type in your responses in a new file for each one page report. Please share those one-page reports with your team members via e-mail so that they can read them before our 3rd Sunday session on November 2oth.
My prayer is that you experience this as a joyful and life-giving assignment that convinces you that stories are the BEST containers for Truth. I also hope that you will discover that you are gifted as an Archeologist of Hope and the enormous gift it is for you to focus on this hope as wealth you have to share with all of God’s children.
