“It’s Our Story and We’re Sticking to It” (Which Story and Why Does It Matter?)

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

“It’s Our Story and We’re Sticking to It.” That line refers to a false narrative that someone constructs and then clings to with passionate insistence in order to avoid an uncomfortable truth. However, I want to turn that phrase on its head, so that we can think about the single grand Story (capital S) that can keep us from getting caught up in the distortion of false narratives. The heart of this topic is in the subtitle: “Which Story and Why Does It Matter?” I believe this is a crucial and urgent question for all Christian communities and perhaps particularly so for the nascent Global Methodist Church. As a new denomination forms, what is the big Story that will shape the beliefs, thinking, attitudes, practices, and mission of the connection and each local church in its peculiar context?

We are Story-shaped creatures. Human beings turn over and over again to the explanatory and imaginative power of big Stories (meta-narratives, to use the formal term) as the matrix through which we understand fundamental questions. How does the world work? What are we here for? What is the ultimate nature of reality? The answers to these questions—the kinds of answers that are both formative and transformative—come not through theories or systems of thought, but through Story. As Wesleyans, as people of “one Book,” we are people of the Story—and so we find answers to the fundamental questions in the Story of the God who acts in history for the salvation of the world. (In Spanish and French, a single word, historia or histoire, covers both categories, “story” and “history.” This is instructive for us; our big Story is at once narrative and history.) 

This Story, in its broad canonical sweep, can be conceptualized through a variety of metaphors that help us grasp and articulate its plot line and main characters. A very useful metaphor is that of a drama in various acts, first proposed by N.T. Wright, then elaborated on by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, among others. Other proposals use “the mission of God” (Brian Russell, Christopher Wright) or “the life of God” (David F. Watson) as a unifying motif for understanding the broad sweep of the canonical narrative. In The Blue Parakeet (2008), Scot McKnight proposed a way of seeing the “Story line” of Scripture, one that would likely have resonated with John Wesley, given its centering of the imago Dei. McKnight proposes this encapsulation of our Story: God creates Eikons, or image bearers (Gen. 1–2); the image cracks and becomes distorted by sin (Gen. 3–11); the covenant community becomes the locus and instrument of God’s redemptive, image-restoring work (Gen. 12–Malachi); Christ, the perfect Eikon, redeems and restores cracked Eikons (Matthew–Rev. 20); finally, there is consummation, the fullness of the image-restoring work (Rev. 21–22). These are, as McKnight puts it, “the basic elements of the plot to which all Bible writers have been asked to conform. . . . Whether you turn to Exodus or Ezra, Malachi or Mark, or Acts or Hebrews, you must read each book as a variation on this Story” (67). The Story is the necessary interpretive lens for the stories, as well as the hermeneutical matrix for our understanding of reality.

Whichever metaphor we choose for remembering and articulating the broad lines of the biblical meta-narrative, our Story is the story of the God who works redemptively in history, and it is centered upon the person and work of King Jesus. As Nijay Gupta (2024) puts it, “The crucified Christ is the vivifying center of our Story” (Galatians, 2). We are invited into this grand Story not just as readers but also as participants, equipped by the Spirit of God to join God in his redemptive work. Think of how many of the significant smaller narratives that make up the Story have open endings—Jonah, Mark’s Gospel, Acts. The very design invites us to step in and “complete,” as it were, the narrative.

The urgency of this is that we all, both as individuals and as communities, are shaped by a Story (big S), and if it is not the grand Narrative of Scripture, there will be other big Stories that usurp its formative and transformative role. These Stories are alternative ways of answering the fundamental questions human beings ask, and they can be so subtly and deeply woven into the generational and ideological fabric of our communities that we are not even aware of their controlling power. N.T. Wright and Michael Bird (2024), in a chilling phrase, call these alternative Stories “idolatries too large to be noticed by those who hold them” (Jesus and the Powers, 100). Their keen insight is a flashing yellow light for the church, calling us to the difficult and vulnerable work of examining our controlling narratives.

Wesleyan scholar Ken Collins calls this phenomenon “narrative displacement” or “narrative drift,” the shoving aside of the biblical Story by another controlling narrative. When this happens in our communities of faith, consciously or otherwise, the result is that we no longer interpret the world through the lens of the Story of Scripture; instead we read Scripture through the lens of whatever narrative has displaced the biblical Story. The results of this narrative drift are catastrophic for both discipleship and mission. As far back as 2008, Australian sociologist John Carroll painted a stark picture of the consequences, which have become ever more visible in the intervening years. As an outsider (not a professing Christian) looking at the decline of the church in the West, Carroll diagnosed the root problem as the church’s amnesia about its Story: “The Christian churches have comprehensively failed in their one central task—to retell their foundational story in a way that might speak to the times” (The Existential Jesus, 7). I encourage you to read that line again, allowing its gravity to sink deeply into your mind and heart. This Story-telling failure stands in sharp contrast to what we see in the pages of the New Testament.. As Wright and Bird put it:

Paul [and this could be said of all the apostles] was not a travelling evangelist, offering people a new religious experience, but an ambassador for a king-in-waiting, establishing cells of people loyal to this new king, and ordering their lives according to his story, his symbols and his praxis, and their minds according to his truth (21, emphasis added).

This would be a good point for each reader to do some clear-eyed diagnostic work, preferably in the company of trusted brothers and sisters. Can you identify the competing big Story (or Stories) that usurp the place and power of the biblical Story in the minds and hearts of your community of faith? What are those stories? Where do they come from? How are they shaping the beliefs, thinking, attitudes, and actions of people in your church and community? 

Operating out of the wrong Story or a distorted version of our Story will always result in wrong interpretations of what we read and see and experience. Those wrong interpretations, in return, will produce wrong choices. In The Drama of Scripture (2014), Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen share a whimsical anecdote from Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue that illustrates the power of story in shaping our understanding of the things we see and experience (17–18). They describe a man sitting on a bench at a bus stop, when suddenly a stranger sits down next to him, perhaps uncomfortably closer than normal North American personal space allows, and whispers in his ear: “The name of the common wild duck is histrionicus, histrionicus, histrionicus.” The stranger departs as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving the man perplexed. What in the world is he to do with this information and its strange delivery? What will make this odd statement comprehensible? It all depends upon the Story, the broader framework of meaning that is shaping both the words and the event. The authors suggest three Stories that provide different lenses on the experience. If the big Story is the world of libraries and research, it is plausible that the stranger is a research librarian who has mistaken the man at the bus stop for the patron who asked him earlier that day, “What is the Latin name of the common wild duck?” Or perhaps the big Story that provides the matrix for interpreting this experience is the world of psychotherapy—the stranger has just come from a session with his therapist, who has encouraged him to overcome his fear of speaking to strangers by approaching the first person he meets and saying the first thing that comes into his mind. Or just maybe the big Narrative here is the world of espionage—this stranger is a spy who has arranged to meet his contact at the bus stop. The Latin phrase is the code that will confirm his identity. If the man on the bench is operating out of the wrong controlling narrative, he will interpret the situation incorrectly and respond to it inappropriately.

In Romans 1:18–20, Paul affirms a “general revelation” version of God’s Story, available to all human beings in every context through the witness of creation. We might say that written large and clearly on the very fabric of  the universe is the first act in our great Drama: “God created the heavens and the earth.” Paul says: “Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (NLT). But this Story is rejected in favor of other narratives: 

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles (vv. 21–23, emphasis added).

Paul summarizes his point with this telling phrase: “They traded the truth about God for a lie” (v. 25a). The result of such narrative displacement is, in David Benner’s words (Opening to God, 2019), that we end up “surrounded with gods that are too small to be up to the task of holding our deepest personal longings, never mind the world’s most urgent problems.” 

We return to where we began, with the declaration that the church of Jesus Christ does indeed have a Story—the great Story of God’s redeeming, rescuing, restoring work, carried out through the blood of Jesus the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit poured out in the church. This is the Story we inhabit, the Narrative that shapes our being, thinking, and doing. In the face of competing narratives that seek zealously to displace the biblical Narrative, may we commit to “sticking to” our Story. It matters deeply for the faith, life, and mission of the church.

Rachel Coleman lives in Elida, Ohio. She is affiliate professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and profesora adjunta de Nuevo Testamento for United Theological Seminary. She is also the regional theological education coordinator (Latin America) for One Mission Society.

For those who are interested in a reading list related to the Story of Scripture, here are some places to begin:

Bartholomew, Craig G. Listening to Scripture: An Introduction to Interpreting the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2023.

Bartholomew, Craig G. and Michael W. Goheen. The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Narrative. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2014.

SPANISH: La verdadera historia del mundo: Nuestro lugar en el drama bíblico. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017.

FRENCH: Le gran récit de la Bible: Trouver notre place dans l’histoire biblique. Impact Académia, 2021.

McKnight, Scot. The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Russell, Brian D. (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016.

Watson, David F. Scripture and the Life of God: Why the Bible Matters Today More Than Ever. Franklin, TN: Seedbed, 2017.

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Great Story and the Great Commission: Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2023.

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006.

SPANISH: La misión de Dios: Descubriendo el gran mensaje de la Biblia. Buenos Aires: Certeza Unida, 2009.

Wright, Christopher J.H. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission. Biblical Theology for Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010.