If you’ve read any books on church leadership, you have learned that storytelling is a powerful tool when it comes to casting and instilling vision with those you are leading. When I first became lead pastor, I learned very quickly the power of leveraging stories. I found a glimpse into a life that is being transformed has a far deeper impact than a talk about vision. Here are four reasons why I’ve found this to be true:
1. Stories allow people to see the vision fulfilled.
Our team realized in the beginning stages of ministry that, as people who were far from God began to place their trust in Jesus and follow Him, we needed to begin to creatively tell those stories. In turn, people began to pay attention as stories emerged of God’s deliverance from suicidal thoughts, alcohol, pornography and other addictions. The stories of life change were the evidence that the vision was real and brought the vision to life for people.
2. Stories will inspire people that they can do it.
In order for our vision to be fulfilled, we needed everyone to begin investing in their friends and family members who were far from God. We needed them to care enough to have a conversation and then make an invitation to our service. When we started telling stories of how a simple personal invite to church resulted in a transformed life, people started to believe it was also possible for them to live out the vision. People started to think, “Well, if that’s all it takes, I can do that,” and it empowered them to participate in the vision. As they started inviting their friends, many more started to come to faith.
3. Stories engage the heart.
Stories of life transformation are emotional. When the hearts of people are engaged, they begin to buy in to the vision. At our church, we began to leverage “Baptism Weekend” to tell stories of how God had changed people’s lives. Baptism Weekend quickly became a Big Day for us. For many years, we actually required every person who was getting baptized to tell their story from the platform. It was always an incredibly emotional and moving time for everyone in the room. Hearts were engaged as people caught a glimpse of vision fulfillment. Even today, we regularly hear people say, “Baptism Weekend is my favorite weekend around here.” When hearts are engaged, the vision will be embraced.
4. Stories allow people to see God move.
A story of life transformation is the evidence that your vision is not man made, and it points to a God who is in the business of restoring people. Only God can change a human heart. Jesus put it this way, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31, 32) When people see God involved in what you are doing, they will buy in.
As I mentioned, leveraging baptism is one opportunity for us to tell stories, but we also utilize many other options. We believe it’s important to share stories of life transformation in every way we can—from videos during the weekend message to sharing an inspiring story with our staff through an email. We post videos of stories to our website, push them through our church app, and we also share stories before our offering during the weekend services. Simply put, leaders tell stories, and every story we tell will recast and reinforce the vision to which God has called us.
Questions to ask:
- Have you been telling stories?
- How have you been telling them?
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