In this week’s episode of The Ministry Growth Show, we’re continuing a series where we are sharing our thoughts and insights on all things brand, marketing, and storytelling. Today, we’ll be highlighting a problem that we see in the Church that we’re calling Story Poverty. This is not a fun and creative play on words. We truly see that the Church is in a state of story poverty. Our business marketing communication styles from the 80’s and 90’s have permeated the Church and we’re stuck talking about how great our organization’s are, rather than testifying of all that God has done. We’re stuck in our old ways, and we need to start rethinking our communication strategies. #endstorypoverty
Transcription:
Welcome back to the Ministry Growth Show. For the past 5 episodes we’ve been working through a series where we’re sharing our thoughts on all things brand, and in our last episode we started exploring storytelling. This episode we’ll be continuing our exploration of storytelling as we dive deeper in our thoughts and insights on the subject. In this episode we’re going to start getting pretty granular and we’re going to discuss story from a structural standpoint.
At the end of our last episode I made a statement that left things a little unfinished. Namely, that I believe God hard wired us from the beginning to engage with one another and the world around us using story. Taking that statement a step further, I truly believe that God hard wired us to engage specifically with a single story structure. It’s a story structure we’ll explore in great detail today, but first, let’s give a name to the problem I established in our last episode.
I stated in our last episode that I believe that the Church, at least in the West, is stuck. Specifically stuck communicating as if we are still living in the broadcast era, but maybe more significantly we are stuck communicating our brand specific strategies, models, data, and statistics as the first communication touch points that people hear when they experience our brands. Now, I said that I don’t think it’s necessary to completely halt all siloed brand communication or stop communicating our data and statistics. All of that content has a place. When it comes to siloed brand communication, I think like Rick Warren, that we can all work together under our own flags to accomplish the task and the mission we were called to in Matthew 28, and when it comes to data, statistics, and strategy communication, that content has a place, but only after we have engaged with our audiences emotionally, only after we have inspired them. Overall, we need to talk less about ourselves, and talk more about what God is doing to transform individual lives with the gospel through our ministries.
That brings me to the point that I want to make today. I believe that the Church is in a state of story poverty. I’m not alone in this believe either. Todd Michaels of The 315 project has described the situation like this before, “what if I told you that there was a community somewhere in the world, and a percentage of the people in that community didn’t have access to clean water. What percentage of that community would need to lack access to clean water in order for that community to be considered in a state of water poverty? Is it 40%, 50%, maybe 60%? There’s no right answer, the point is that those are all bad situations. The same goes for the Church and storytelling. From what we can tell in our research, more than 90% of the content being produced by the Church is not storytelling content, in most cases it’s less than 1%. Think about that, less that 1% of the content being produced by the Church has something to do with individual life change or transformation. The idea that the Church is in a state of story poverty is not simply a creative play on words for use as an ad campaign. All throughout scripture we are called to testify of what God has done in our lives. Revelation 12:11 says, and they conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives, even unto death.
1 Timothy 6:12 says, fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
In Acts 22:1-21, Paul give his own testimony.
In Acts 26:1-32, Paul gives his full testimony again.
Acts 4:33 says, with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.
Romans 10:17 says, So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
In John 4 we see the story of the woman at the well. Later in that story after the Samaritan woman shares her story with her community we see in John 4:39, “Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” That’s literally all she said, “he told me everything I ever did.” She didn’t argue people into the faith, she simply shared what Christ did in her life. She testified of his great work.
And in 1 Peter 3:15, we read, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready ay any time to give defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
God is serious about story and we simply aren’t testifying of His great work.
Now, I want to be clear, stories are being told. Christians are sharing the reason for their hope all over the world. God is moving in powerful ways through the testimony of His people. I’m not saying that isn’t taking place. What I’m saying is that, from what we can tell, stories and testimony seem to take a significant back seat to the rest of the content being produced by the church. That’s what we would like to see change.
One of the things that I think will help in getting the church unstuck, is a right and true definition of story. I know a lot of people in the ministry world believe in the power of story, and I see a lot of ministries and churches acting like or saying that they do tell stories. But, a clear definition of story often reveals that a story isn’t actually being told in most of those cases.
Let’s first define what story is not. I’m going to read an excerpt from a book by Robert McKee, recognized in Hollywood is one of the most successful story coaches ever. He says, and I’m summarizing and reading the key takeaways, “A story is not a process. Like a story, a process has a beginning, middle, and end, but unlike a story a process has neither a desire nor a conflict nor a core character.” A story is not a hierarchy. “When asked to tell their company’s story, many executives simply reach for its organizational chart. To them, the corporate story describes how things get done… But corporate organization is simply another kind of process.” A story is not a chronology. “Other executives, when asked the same question, recite their company’s history. But a corporations chronology is once again, just another process.” A story is not a journey. Euphemisms, such as journey, separate the mind from the unpleasant realities around it. But the protagonist of a well told story is not a passive passenger; she struggles dynamically through time and space to fulfill her desire.” And lastly, a story is not a narrative. Now this one was hard for even me to hear. I would have clumped both narrative and story into the same definition, but here’s what McKee says about narrative. “Many marketing campaigns have flopped because an ad agency didn’t know the difference between narrative and story. Narrative may sound academic, even scientific, but in a business context, the term is neither logical nor precise. Its use commits a categorical error for this reason: All stories are narratives, but not all narratives are stories. The four previously listed misnomers are narratives, not stories. Narratives tend to be flat, bad, repetitive, and boring recitations of events. They slide through the mind like juice through a goose, and as a result, they have little or no influence on customers. Stories, on the other hand, are value charged and progressive. The mind embraces a well told story; the imagination is its natural home. Once through our mental door, story fits, sticks, and excites consumer choice. The next time you’re bored to the bone by somebody’s story, in all likelihood you’re not being told a story. If you were, you’d be listening and engrossed. Instead the guy is torturing you with a narrative, probably a repetitious recitation of… and then I did this and then I did that and then I did the other thing and then, and then, and then….”
In Robert McKee’s words, here’s what a story is precisely in it’s most basic form. He says it can be expressed in just three words. Conflict changes life. I’ll say that again. Conflict changes life. That’s what a story is. And man, if that doesn’t resonate with us as Christians. Conflict changes life. That is the gospel. Conflict conflict conflict, death and resurrection, lives transformed. And each of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, has gone through this process because we share in his death and resurrection as we see in Romans 6.
Church, our knowledge transfer based podcasts are not stories. Sharing the list of events that took place during a human trafficking rescue is not a story. Sharing our corporate manifesto and detailing the latest strategy that we’re using in our ministry to be more effective at fighting for our cause, is not story.
Stories have a character. Stories have a core value, stories take place in a setting. And most importantly, stories have structure. Dan Harmon, an incredible scriptwriter says that, “without some semblance of structure, it’s not recognizable as a story.”
When we say that the Church is in a state of story poverty. When we say that the Church needs to start storytelling more often, what we mean by story is this: Real people’s stories, real transformation, real testimony’s of life change. That’s it. That’s what we classify as story within a ministry context. Can you be creative and tell fictional stories that carry relatable themes for your ministry? Absolutely, but let’s start somewhere. Let’s simply start testifying of real life change on a regular and consistent basis. Once we’re in the practice and acting like a body of believers that are a storytelling people, then we can start being creative. And before you push back and say, yeah, we’ve tried storytelling before and it didn’t work. Ask yourself, did you tell a real story, or did you share a list of events? Storytelling works, it’s always worked, and it will always work because it’s the medium in which we’re hard wired to engage.
Now that we’ve got a clearer definition of story, I want to spend some time discussing story structures. Remember, “without some semblance of structure, a story isn’t recognizable as a story.” The stories we tell, the testimonies we share, are always going to engage deeper and with a broader audience if the story has structure.
Now, there are a handful of story structures that exist, from simple to complex. I’m going to argue that we should use a single structure called The Hero’s Journey, and I’m going to argue that we use in on repeat. The Hero’s Journey was created by Joseph Campbell. Other authors, like C.S. Lewis have called it the monomyth, and Lewis even argued that Jesus was the fulfillment of the monomyth, but more on that later.
First, there’s a handful of reasons why I think we should be using this structure.
We know that it engages with all people across all culture, across all time. Ancient cultures used this storytelling structure, and today it’s still one of the most used story structures in Hollywood. Our own lives follow this story structure on repeat, and that’s one of the reasons we engage with it so well. 2. Jesus was the fulfillment of the monomyth, and we’ll discuss why that’s important soon. And 3. This structure is the primary story structure used throughout the stories of the Bible. Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Jonah, Samson, and Daniel’s story all follow this structure. Jesus’ own ministry follows this structure. I believe that God hard-wired this structure into us because he knew the plan from the beginning. He orchestrated the lives of the characters we read about in scripture to play out in a way the we would all relate to for centuries to come. Biblical, character driven stories that relate across cultures. Not only that, knowing from the beginning how the story would play out, Jesus’ own ministry follows the same structure because he knew this structure would relate to all peoples across all cultures across all time. Lousi Marcos, a Lewis scholar and Professor of English at Houston Baptist argues that, “Perhaps the reason that every ancient culture yearned for a god to come to earth, to die, and to rise again was because the Creator who made all of the nations placed in every person a desire for this very thing.” This is what Joseph Cambpell was onto in his research. In his research of the storytelling structures of ancient civilizations he saw consistencies across all of the cultures he studied, predating any interaction with one another.
J.R.R. Tolkien once suggested to C.S. Lewis that in Acts 17:16-34, Paul is in all likelihood referring to some myth of a dying and rising god, probably the god Ceres. Ceres, from where we get our word cereal, was the Corn King that was believed to die and rise again with every new season. Paul uses the internal logic of the narrative of the culture to make a direct appeal for the parallel of Jesus. Paul is contextually arguing that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Monomyth. All cultures across history were telling stories with this structure and then Jesus comes on the scene and fulfills the myth’s that people were telling, the only difference is that his death and resurrection story is true. Finally, humanity had a hero that could fulfill what we had all hoped for, a hero that would have the power to defeat death itself.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis believed Christ was the fulfillment of the monomyth because Christ was the myth that had become fact. Christ lived and so fulfilled the myth that was already hidden in the hearts of every person, in every culture.
Here’s where I think things get really exciting. Jesus is the fulfillment of the monomyth. Jesus is the greatest hero, the difference between his story and all of the other cultures and myths that came before him, is that the story of Jesus is the myth that came true. And because his story is the myth that came true, we get to share in this story by sharing in his death and resurrection. Romans 6:3-5 says – “Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” Folks, we get to share in his death and resurrection. That means, that our testimonies are a fulfillment of the Hero’s Journey in the same way Christ is the fulfillment of the Monomyth. We get to play the hero in the story, because of Christ’s death and resurrection work. And this story plays out over and over again as we are sanctified, as we repent and die to our sin, we are raised to new life. Each time we die to our sin we are raised to new life, and we are sanctified and made more like Christ continually, and this is an ongoing process over the course of our lives until we see Him in glory. I’ll say it another way. Because you and I repeat the journey over and over again as Christ sanctifies us, as he uproots sin in our hearts, we get to repeatedly share in the death of our old self and resurrection to new life, and furthermore, I have a whole new and additional story to tell.
Regardless of what your past looks like, we all share a story that is just as powerful as the next follower of Christ, because we all died with Christ on the cross to our old self, and we were all resurrected to new life because of His death and resurrection. Christ did this, and we get to share in it, and that’s a powerful story, regardless of your old life. It doesn’t matter if you were rescued out of murder and addiction or if you grew up never knowing a day where you didn’t faithfully follow Jesus, it’s his death and resurrection that makes the story powerful, and therefore all of our stories are just as powerful as the next because we all get to play the hero in the story, because of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Now, please don’t hear me say that I’m getting saved over and over again, but we do share in his death and resurrection over and over again as he sanctifies us. The story is not over after Jesus saves us. We have our initial transformation story and a thousand other stories after that, as Christ makes us more like him.
Here’s some exciting application. When we’re asked to give our testimony, how many of us go back to our story of transformation that took place 20-30 years ago? That’s a great story. It needs to be told, but that is only the first story. In fact, that’s an incomplete story.
This is not just a cool story structure that can be used for our marketing purposes. Understanding this truth opens new depths of reality and understanding in our walk with God. By understanding this structure, we can begin to see a more clear picture of God at work in our lives and the lives of those around us. And when we tell stories and share testimonies of God at work in our lives using this structure, we’ll know for sure that we’re using a story structure that engages with all people, all cultures, and all audiences. The business world will tell you that you have to differentiate. Marketers will tell you that you have to find your unique, differentiated audience… the segment of the market that your brand specifically relates to the most. I don’t disagree with those statements and beliefs, but with this structure we just might have a tool that can legitimately relate to everyone, in the same way the gospel is relatable and applicable across all cultures.
And quickly for those of you who don’t believe we should be using the Hero’s Journey. I would argue you don’t fully understand the story structure if you don’t think it applies. One of the biggest arguments that I hear against the Hero’s Journey is that we shouldn’t be placing our wealthy, western donor in the hero role of our stories because that ends up playing out and being viewed with a type of white savior perception. I understand the argument, and it’s why I think the Story Brand framework isn’t quite complete. Story Brand tends to lean towards the donor being the hero and it usually stops there. I don’t think the Story Brand framework takes things far enough. The Hero’s Journey is powerful because I relate to the hero character in the story. Everyone does. So, if I place a beneficiary in the hero role in my story, and a donor views that content, they will relate to that story and place themselves in the story, ultimately sharing the hero role, because they’ve placed themselves in the hero’s shoes. Therefore, the donor gets to be the hero, because they relate to the beneficiary, and it’s a win win for everyone.
Alright, so we’ve covered the reasons I feel we should be using this single storytelling structure for the storytelling and testimony content that we produce as a church, but what does the structure actually look like? I’m going to go over the structure briefly in this episode, but if you’d like a deeper dive into the structure, we go into all of the fine details in a few of our storytelling courses, so be sure to check those out.
I mentioned earlier that Campbell studied the story structures of ancient civilizations and found some consistencies across all of the cultures he researched. He found that the stories they told followed the same basic structure, even in cultures that had no previous interaction with the other cultures that were sharing stories in the same ways. He found this fascinating and eventually came to the conclusion that this reoccurring story structure was engrained in our DNA through the evolutionary process. As Christians, who believe in the imago dei, we believe that we’re created in the image of God, and therefore, I believe that this wiring was engrained in us by our creator. You’ve heard me say this in this episode already.
The point is, Campbell found this reoccurring story structure that popped up across all cultures. He essentially argued that every great story is the same and that they share the same components. Christopher Vogler is a screenwriter and storytelling professor and his version goes like this: A hero lives in an ordinary world, they are called to adventure and they refuse the call. They meet a mentor who encourages them to cross the threshold and pass from their ordinary world into a special world. There, they’ll meet tests, allies, and enemies, they’ll approach the innermost cave, where they’ll have a big ordeal, they’ll find a reward, and they’ll head back on the road to the ordinary world. As they return to the ordinary world they’ll have a resurrection experience and ultimately return to their ordinary world with the elixir.
Almost every successful story follows this structure, or elements from this structure. Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Dune, Almost every Marvel and DC superhero origin story from Iron Man to Batman, The Matrix, The Lion King, and Finding Nemo, and the list goes on and on. The more you get to know the Hero’s Journey, the more you’ll start to realize that every story is the same and follows the same basic structure. At least the stories that are good and see success.
Dan Harmon, who is the creator and screenwriter of the TV series Community, studied the Hero’s Journey and distilled the structure down even further. His structure is as follows: The character, needs something, they go, and cross the threshold into the special world, where they search for something, find it, they take it, and return having changed. Dan Harmon calls this the story circle and it’s an 8 step simplified version of the Hero’s Journey. The nice thing about this structure is that it’s simple and short. Where as the full Joseph Campbell or Christopher Vogler versions of the Hero’s Journey might fit well for a full documentary story, Dan Harmon’s story circle can help us craft engaging testimonies in a short amount of time. I can share my own testimony in about a minute and a half using Dan Harmon’s version, and I know that it follows a structure that is going to engage with people emotionally.
Remember the quote I shared earlier from Dan Harmon, “without some semblance of structure, it’s not recognizable as a story.”
The reason this story structure applies and has been successful across all cultures and all time is because this is how we all go through life. In the same way, Luke SkyWalker is called to adventure, goes on a quest where he faces enemies, learns something about himself, and returns with the tools to change his ordinary world, that same story plays out in my own life over and over again as I take on a new career path, face challenges, learn new things, and gain new experience, returning from that new adventurous world with skills and experience I can take into my next adventure and challenge.
I’m amazed that we serve a God who told the stories of scripture to us in a way that he knew would engage with us because he wired us to engage with that story structure. He even sent His son and the gospel story played out in the same way that he knew would engage with us, because he wired us to engage with that story. It’s a testament to His deep desire for redemption, for humanity to turn back to right relationship with the Father, He’s done everything He can to make a way to restore things back to their original design without removing our free will to choose.
In our next episode, I’ll spend the entire episode showing you how the most popular stories of scripture all follow The Hero’s Journey. The structure works, Church, let’s use it to our advantage.
