Ben is the founder of The Whiteboard Sessions and now STORY Conference.

Read more blogs from Ben at benarment.com and follow on twitter. 

A TRIBE OF STORYTELLERS

Pastors are facing a crisis of identity in the pulpit today. They don't know whether to be scholars, motivational speakers or talk show hosts. They feel pulled between using catchy sermon titles like "Desperate Households" and preaching verse-by-verse through Leviticus - all because their heroes are doing it.

Somehow the message has gotten lost in the method.

One of the ideas I’ve grappled with over the years is, What is Christian art?  I mean, what makes an artistic expression like music or drama or dance uniquely Christian?  What does that term mean anyway?  And I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t necessarily anything that has Christian symbolism or religious themes or doves and crosses.  More than anything, Christian art must begin to reflect the overarching story of God, the Meta-Narrative, that our Triune God is in the process of redeeming that which has fallen, that which He had created, that which He loves.

The story of all that is, is the story of God.  He takes His pen in hand to write this story: Creation, Fall, Redemption.  All of history, all of the Bible, all of what was and is and will be, reflects this three act play of Creation, Fall, and Redemption, that God is writing in the universe.

But that’s not all.  He writes this story in our souls as well.  For all of us have our own stories, our own vignettes of how God’s grace has saved us, changes us.  And our stories enter into His larger story of the redemption of the universe.