Teaching Our Story

Narrative Leadership and Pastoral Formation

Teaching Our Story is based on the premise that as congregations become intentional story-forming communities, they can shape the lives of millions of generative, faithful, and civic-minded adults. To do so, a framework that relates narrative work to the full range of congregational life is needed. This book offers such a framework, featuring essays that examine crucial shapers of narrative, outline a course in preaching that addresses crucial questions for today's church leaders, illuminate the creative power of listening to the collective stories of a faith community, and observe what can happen when first-year seminary students are asked to become story brokers -- integrating the stories from their communities with biblical stories, their own personal stories, and the theological doctrines formed within the story of their tradition