the single story

It is a book written over hundreds of years by dozens of authors in numerous cultures. And yet it is one single story, guided by the Best Director, God, and featuring the Best Actor, God. Yes, the Bible is a remarkable book – and it all happened before the globe began to shrink.

In training people at the ‘grassroots’ it is critical that this one single story be heard and understood. It is too easy to divide the Bible up into unrelated stories, each with their own little moral for us. That is not the way the story works.

There are many resources which can help us, but maybe the simplest of all is Phil Crowter’s Teaching God’s Big Story, available free as a downloadable pdf here. Simple, clear, learner-friendly, concise, comprehensive – and with pictures!

But over the years I’ve had a tiny issue with it and so last week I decided to address that tiny issue.

While the text of the book covers the whole story well, the same cannot be said for the pictures. One picture is labelled ‘Land’ and then the next picture is labelled ‘Jesus’. That is hundreds and hundreds of years in the Bible’s story without a picture.

So I asked ‘the laminating queen’, otherwise known as Barby (my wife) to help me out. She made little packs of the eight images and in the training I gave a pack to each small group and asked them to put the pictures in order, as they followed the storyline of the Bible. Not a straightforward exercise because the images, on their own, are a little unclear. So that is good. They had to struggle a bit for awhile.

Eventually I showed them the right order. Then I pointed out this chronological anomaly between ‘Land’ and ‘Jesus’. Barby had prepared a blank laminated card and each group was asked to draw their own picture on that card, a picture which best represented what happens in the story between ‘Land’ and ‘Jesus’.

What fun we had.

With their additional card, three groups chose a version of this story:

One group, far more focused than my picture of their work, chose this direction:

A further group went in another direction with their one additional card:

As you can see, all the groups enjoyed doing their work on the same gorgeous tablecloth. Interestingly, none of the groups chose to depict the ‘Exile’ with their additional card. This fits with my sense that the Exile tends to be underdone when the story of the Bible is told.

As they chatted and played cards, their appreciation of the facts of the single story deepened. From there we moved on to the significance of the story and one of my favourite teaching topics, ‘the four chairs’. So provoked were they by this discussion that some started talking about planting a new church, the Fourchair Foursquare Gospel Church.

nice chatting

Paul

Archive

Receive new posts to your inbox

I’d love to keep you updated with my latest news and posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

About Me

paul06.16

the art of unpacking

After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.

7 Comments

  1. Lyndon Drake on September 17, 2018 at 6:28 am

    I would definitely have gone for "exile" and agree that it's a really underdone theme

  2. Tim Bulkeley on September 17, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    I'm inclined to agree, though the episode of exile is not at all the limits of the theme, running through all the narrative books is the repeated motif of human failure as pride, lust, and the rest cause the story of the heroes to crumble in decay – it's not just David look at how Nehemiah ends. (Perhaps even Esther with the vengeance of the victors?) 'The Exile' is the focus of this wider theme.

  3. the art of unpacking on September 17, 2018 at 6:47 pm

    I may be wrong, but I kinda see the OT story as about Exodus and Exile, with stuff happening before, during and after these two epochal events. One is primarily about grace as God 'passes over', the other is about judgement as God 'passes through'. And the whole Testament – well, both Testaments, for that matter – show these "themes" (as you express it, Tim) winding their way in and out of peoples' lives.

    That is why, Lyndon, I agree with you. Exile is underdone and tends to be underdeveloped in peoples' understanding of the story.

    Paul

  4. Tim Bulkeley on September 17, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    Hmm, for sure exodus and exile are two major turning points in the story in history. But as themes, they sit (I think) along with land, kingdom, and temple, but even more with the perpetual reminders of human sinfulness.

    All the heroes are broken, spoiled, rotten and by and large fail, yet through them the grace and even the redemption of God breaks in.

    I guess to the extent we are saying different things I am more hesitant of reducing the complexity of the narratives which are the (main?) expression of the metanarrative.

  5. Paul on September 18, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    Yes, Tim, Love those themes: Land, Kingdom, Temple … and we could add Rest, Glory, Covenant, Law, Sacrifice etc etc. Lots of them threading their way through the story, giving it colour and variety and depth. But is not Exodus and Exile – God of Grace, God of Justice – the framework into which these themes sit? Maybe that is more what I was trying to affirm and I chose the wrong word. And so back to where we started – for this little booklet NOT to have a card for Exile seemed odd to me. Paul

  6. sad1111 on July 10, 2020 at 8:35 am

    What's the four chairs please?
    Teresa (I'm not sure where "sad1111" comes from)

  7. the art of unpacking on July 13, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    Hi Teresa – there is a brief description of the Four Chairs in this link on my blog:
    https://paulwindsorblog.com/2016/11/the-four-chairs.html

    Let me know if you want any more information.
    Happy to send you fuller notes, if you wish.

    best wishes

    Paul

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

true, but not true enough

February 5, 2025

“What is a Christian?” A ‘follower of Jesus’ is the standard response. And it is true, but it is not true enough. Let’s think about this for a minute. So I have this encounter with Jesus. Maybe at a camp of some kind. In the singing and the speaking he becomes so real. It is…

yay! it’s you

January 27, 2025

We had been on holiday in Queenstown. Barby had to come back early to go to work. I stayed on for a couple more days with our daughter, Alyssa, and her family. When I did fly back, Barby had the car and so the easiest thing for me was to get an Uber home—and so…

expect an exception

January 24, 2025

I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but I am not really a flag-in-church kinda guy. All those years ago, as a student in the USA, it was a shock to see the flag up there in the same neighbourhood as the pulpit, the Lord’s Table and the baptistry. “What is going on?” “Have I…

transforming friendship

January 15, 2025

Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…

handa leads the way

December 29, 2024

Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…

elchristo, elmina—and beyond

December 19, 2024

Today is Day 56—and on Day 57 we board a flight for home. There has been so much to absorb as Barby and I have encountered the people of God in different places. el-christo, in bolivia A few days before we left NZ, I discovered that I had five sessions to give in Pakistan. Yikes.…

cadeca art

November 20, 2024

The little chapel at Cadeca Casa del Catequista, a retreat centre on the fringes of Cochabamba (Bolivia), caught my eye on an earlier visit in 2017. Lots of photos… I was thrilled to learn that there would be a return visit, this time with Barby—and with lots of video. Enjoy. A 360 view Some Old…

the emus

October 19, 2024

Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…