Finding Your Story in THE Story

By request, here is an audio version of Touchstone Community's Teaching Time from Sunday, January 15, 2006 entitled, "Finding Your Story in THE Story." (Click on title to hear)

Synopsis: My life, my story, is part of THE story God is telling in the Bible.

The stories of practically all cultures follow a distinct pattern that I refer to as "The Story WAVE." First there is exposition or introductory material that lasts only a brief portion of the whole story. It just "gets you into" the story by introducing characters, time and place setting and the conflict. Then the majority of the story gives us the rising action in which characters seek to resolve the conflict through a series of complications or obstacles. This action reaches the climax or resolution when the problem is solved and the conflict ends. The anti-climax simply ties up a few loose strings in a brief way. Even TV shows and movies (which are really visual stories) follow this WAVE. All stories follow this pattern...

...except the story that is the Bible.

Instead of a WAVE the Bible story follows a Boomerang pattern. I first realized this distinct and unique pattern under the ministry of Kevin Myers. His copyrighted "Bible Boomerang" teaching points this out brilliantly. Using that idea of a story that moves away from a beginning, turns 180 degrees and returns to the start, we see the Bible story. Now the Bible story has parallel beginning and ending and building a people sections and a dramatic turning point. We discover his directing history from "God and man united in peace and love" to "man ruining it all" through "God building a people to bring Jesus to us" to the "birth, death and resurrection of Jesus" which turns the corner back to "Jesus building a people to bring us to God" and finally "God and man united in peace and love." Our life right here and now are part of God's story.