Story in Life, Ministry, and Academics

Story in Life, Ministry, and AcademicsFaculty Luncheon, Biola University

April 9, 2014

It began on this side of the pond with weekly Friday

morning grad-student breakfasts at the Carriage Coffee Shop

with Sherwood and Judy Lingenfelter. It began on that side

of the pond with the Antipolo-Amdugtug Ifugao of the

Philippines and Australian Trevor McIlwain. I will now

attempt to build a land bridge between the two ponds.

Fresh back from the Philippines on home assignment for

the third time I began attending the Friday-morning

breakfasts with the Lingenfelters as I worked towards my

doctorate. Never one to miss new insights, Sherwood

Lingenfelter began to quiz me and make some recommendations

after I had introduced to the breakfast group an abbreviated

version of McIlwain’s Chronological Bible Teaching (CBT)

birthed in the Philippines.

That Friday morning conversation helped land this New

Tribes Mission missionary-practitioner a TAship with Harold

Dollar in the only church planting class in the then School

[email protected] Faculty Luncheon, October 18, y1

mailto:[email protected]

of Intercultural Studies. I soon took over the course giving

ample time to McIlwain’s CBT model. I eventually became a

fulltime Cook faculty member that would lead to a course

developed in 1995 that is presently entitled, Narrative in

Scripture and Ministry. Cook’s MA concentration (8 courses)

in orality (primary and secondary) went public in 2011, a

first in Christian universities. Some backstory is

necessary.

Backstory

Deeply trained in theology and anthropology, or so we

thought, our family went to live among the Antipolo-Amduntug

Ifugao in central Luzon of the Philippines with the goal of

birthing new communities of faith in strategic locations

that were capable of reproducing themselves among their own

people, and beyond, within eight years. Our SIL partners,

Dick and Lou Hohulin, would translate the entire Bible,

develop literacy materials, and provide basic medical

assistance that would be continued by the Ifugao. Living 7.7

years there challenged so much of our education and

training. Who was teaching who? Here are a few of those



challenges, as well as others learned along the journey

beyond residency among the Ifugao.

Gospel as Story

As I began to work systematically through the New

Tribes Mission evangelism model—Word, God, Satan, Humanity,

Sin, Judgment, Gospel—I soon discovered that the Ifugao were

totally unimpressed with such a presentation. How could they

not appreciate such propositional, linear logic, I wondered?

It was back to the drawing board.

The next time in Manila I purchased some children Bible

booklets, covered the English captions with Keley-i ones,

and began again when we returned to Ifugao. I had instant

evangelists of both genders and all generations from

different geographical areas. Presenting the gospel as a

series of Old and New Testament stories rather than a

sequence of propositions made the message come alive for the

Ifugao.

Somehow I had missed that “The gospel was originally a

storytelling tradition” (Boomershine, 1991: 16); that “The

early Christians were story-tellers” (Wright, 1992: 372). I had



missed the fact that the gospel was a good tale to be told,

not just taught propositionally through some plan. But there

was something else I had overlooked.

On another trip to Manila to publish the first Ifugao

evangelism lessons I roomed with Trevor McIlwain at our

guest home who had just returned from home assignment after

several years in Australia. After reviewing the English

back-translation of the Ifugao evangelism model he declared

unceremoniously that there was a much better way of doing it

than this.

Not a little disconcerted I immediately inquired of its

superior (Steffen, 1997; 2014). After much coercing and

cajoling McIlwain finally told me about what would later

become known as Chronological Bible Teaching (CBT) and later

still as Firm Foundations.

McIlwain designed the seven-stage story model that

began in Genesis and concluded in Revelation to correct a

flawed evangelism approach that had produced wholesale

syncretism among the Palawanos, a tribal group residing on

the island of Palawan. CBT provided a solid Old Testament



foundation for the gospel, tying evangelism and follow-up

into seamless discipleship. It provided the structure that I

lacked for a comprehensive presentation of Scripture.

McIlwain was correct. It was a better model.

David Claydon correctly points out that “The gospel is

being proclaimed now to more people than at any other time

in history, yet many of those are not really hearing it” (2005:

3). That is because most proclaiming the gospel communicate

it through propositions and plans rather than stories. That

has certain challenges for 60-70 percent of the world as

Scot McKnight opines:

When the plan gets separated from the story, the plan almost always becomes abstract, propositional, logical,rational, and philosophical, and most importantly, de-storified and unbiblical. We separate ourselves from Jesus and turn the Christian faith into a System of salvation. (McKnight, 2011: 62)

The people not hearing the gospel, it should be noted,

are not just those living across the pond in tribal settings

or even in urban centers, but those living on this side of

the pond as well (Steffen, 2013). And this would include

many post-moderns. It slowly dawned on me, story evangelism



(experiential apologetics) should supplant propositional

evangelism (evidential apologetics) for most of the world if

Christ’s spokespersons are to gain receptive hearers.

Leighton Ford captures it well, “Conversion is a

collision of narratives” (1994:14). Our worldviews are

developed through symbol-based stories that provide meaning

and memory; they are deconstructed and reconstructed through

rival symbol-based stories (Steffen, 1998). We live in a

story-symbol layered world where rival stories and symbols

challenge accepted stories and symbols for supremacy on a

daily basis, even if we are unaware, of which I was.

The Metanarrative of Scripture

Another related theme the Ifugao taught me was to think

and teach from whole to part rather than from part to whole

(which I seldom reached), as the Western education system

biases. While they loved the Bible stories, they wanted a

circular clothesline so that they had somewhere to hang

them. And they wanted the circular clothesline presented

first. Paul Koehler would identify the Ifugao’s need as

“clothesline chronology” (Koehler, 2010: 108).



Michael Goheen provides a cogent reason for avoiding a

fragmented presentation of the Bible, something common to

the West, and transferred often unassumingly to the East:

“If the story of the Bible is fragmented into bits

(historical-critical, devotional, homiletic, systematic-

theological, moral) it can easily be domesticated by the

reigning story of culture” (Goheen, 2006: 9). A Talbot

student adds another reason:

Could this compartmentalization be the reason why I have struggled to maintain a vibrant relationship with God throughout my time in seminary? Could this be related to the fact that I have forgotten the stories of my powerful God and reduced him to a subject I studyin seminary?

The metanarrative (clothesline) focuses of various

themes even as it marches across the landscape from Alpha to

Omega as it relates God’s autobiography. For Eric Sauer the

big picture focuses on the theology of world history:

The phrase ‘History of Salvation’…contemplates and interprets the whole history of mankind in its relationto God and from the watchtower of faith. ‘The march of the gospel through the world is the proper theme of world history.’ This is the one meaning of all history.Therefore the history of salvation in its full range isa ‘Theology of World History.’ (Sauer, 1955: 94-95)



I also learned that the metanarrative of Scripture, not

just the New Testament story (Gal 3:8; Isa 40:9; 52:7;

61:1), should provide the framework for the gospel story.

Both Testaments help guard the gospel against detrimental

abbreviations and “cultural and doctrinal biases” (Fleming,

2005:301), even as the gospel story drives the entire

metanarrative from creation to consummation.

Fortunately, there has been a recent proliferation of

metanarrative materials that takes us beyond The Jesus Film

(1979), Son of God (2014) and the narrower slice of Jesus’

life, The Passion of Christ (2004). For example, Talbot

Seminary’s Ken Berding creatively composed “Sing Through the

Bible” that covers all the books of the Bible in 30 minutes

using various tunes. Dallas Theological Seminary’s Vic

Anderson’s “God’s Plan for the Ages” offers people in the

pews the metanarrative to provide an overview of Scripture

seldom proclaimed over the pulpit or heard in the Sunday

School classroom or home Bible studies. Dorothy Miller’s

“God’s Story” (DVD) covers the same through colored drawings

in 80 minutes.



The New Testament was never intended to introduce Jesus

Christ to the world. Too much of the gospel story has been

left on the cutting floor (Isa 40:9; Mk 1:14; Acts 13:32,33;

14:15; Ro 1:1-4; Ga 3:8; 1 Co 15:3,4). McKnight would

summarize it this way, “Any real gospeling has to lay out

the story of Scripture if it wants to put back the ‘good’

into the good news” (McKnight, 2011: 85).

Gabriel Fackre astutely challenges a Western

evangelical shortcoming—abbreviating the gospel, “Yes, the

Jesus stories are the heart of the matter, but not without

their context, the ‘overarching’ canonical Story from

creation to consummation of which it is the Centre” (Fackre,

1997: 166). McIlwain (2005) would concur.

All of the above, I eventually realized, helps fight

the fragmented communication, and hence fragmented

understanding of Scripture that is so prevalent in the West

today, and disseminated so unassumingly abroad through

short- and long-termers, pastors within Christian churches,

and faculty within educational institutions. I thank the

Ifugao for impressing on me the importance and need to



include the metanarrative of Scripture for whole-to-part

preferenced processors.

The Sacred Storybook

The Ifugao had me thinking and asking theological and

pedagogical questions I had never before considered, much

less asked. This would lead to a number of aha-moments and

personal paradigm shifts. Here are a few.

Narrative is the Predominant Genre of Scripture

One of those questions surrounded the literary

composition of Scripture. Recognizing that multiple genres

exist within Scripture, but if boiled down to just three—

narrative, poetry, propositional—what percentage of the

Bible would each constitute?

At first, I shot too high, giving 75 percent to

narrative. That left 15 percent for poetry and 10 percent

for the Epistle-type literature (Steffen, 2005: 36). I have

since revised my numbers to 55-65 percent narrative, 25-35

percent poetry, and 10 percent for propositional (Steffen,

2010).



While it is very difficult to know the precise

percentage of each of the three genres due to definitions

and the integration of genres within Scripture (e.g.,

Isaiah, Jeremiah), I can categorically say that narrative is

the predominant genre of Scripture comprising at least 55

percent of Scripture. I agree with Eugene Peterson when he

says, “The Holy Spirit’s literary genre of choice is story”

(Peterson, 1998: 3). All genres find their roots, and hence

their meaning, in narrative.

View Scripture as A Sacred Storybook

If narrative is the predominant genre of Scripture,

that raises other significant questions. One is, how does

one view Scripture? Some see it as a Sacred Self-help Book.

Others see it as a Sacred Devotional Book. Still others see

it as a Sacred Moral Manual or a Sacred Encyclopedia. During

my teen years I saw it as a Sacred Law Book. After years of

formal Bible study it became a Sacred Textbook. Then I met

the Ifugao.

Presently, I view the Bible as a Sacred Storybook (I

like Sacred Drama too). The Bible is the story about the



King-Father’s honor and his family; it is the story about

broken and restored relationships (human, spiritual,

material) through a chosen Mediator.

The Sacred Storybook has a beginning, a middle, and a

glorious ending through which he honorably restores a series

of broken relationships culminating in a new creation, all

through a plan initiated by him in eternity past. Five

hundred plus individual stories morph into one big arching

story, a metanarrative that cries out for the King-Father’s

rightful honor and our allegiance and worldview

transformation to bless others. Each individual Bible story

integrates the imagination, emotion, and facts, making it a

riveting read or a dramatic drama.

Orality Plays A Major Role in Scripture Authority

In The Lost World of Scripture (2013), Wheaton’s John Walton

and D. Brent Sandy take on the thorny issue of inerrancy by

researching the process of how Scripture came to us. The co-

authors convincingly argue that meaning rather than wording

is God’s primary intent in revelation.



Walton and Sandy conclude that Canon construction came

to us not just through redacted texts, but through oral

transmissions as well. While the latter is not new, the

depth of research in the area of literary production in the

Near East in the past several decades has provided

significant new insights. But because most Westerners lack

these insights, Walton and Sandy argue that their literary

backgrounds have minimized the contribution of oral

tradition in Canon construction, and have consequently

placed an overemphasis on words rather than meaning.

Cultures in the Old and New Testaments were hearing

dominant (in contrast to eye dominant). Jesus focused on

spoken words rather than written words as most of the

population was illiterate. Fluid oral texts, which may help

explain some so-called inconsistencies, along with redacted

texts, helped construct parts of the Old Testament, the

Gospels, and Acts. Paul and others wrote for the ear (“oral-

derived text”); people listened. God’s sacred writings were

geared towards an oral-preferenced world.



Evangelicals must learn to enter the oral world to be

able to better appreciate the great emphasis oral tradition

has played in completing the Canon. Superimposing a text-

dominant perspective to the Sacred Storybook will

shortchange us, and those who learn from us. Inerrancy goes

beyond exact texts, and therefore may be an inadequate term.

Authority, according to the co-authors, lies in the more

fluid oral tradition (meaning) rather than textuality

(words).1

Systematic Theology Dominates in A Story-Symbol World

Other related questions that I asked myself were, if

narrative is the dominant genre of the Sacred Storybook, why

then does systematic theology reign supreme in the

seminaries as the queen of the sciences? Why do evangelical

seminaries give only a slight tip-of-the-hat, if any, to

narrative theology while offering numerous courses in

systematics?2

N.T. Wright may provide some insight for the scarcity

of narrative theology being taught to Bible students in an

interview with Tim Stafford:



The great story—and after all the Bible is fundamentally a story—we’ve got to pay attention to that, rather than abstracting dogmatic points from it. The dogmas matter, they are true, but you have to join them up the right way…What happened with the Enlightenment is the denarrativization of the Bible. And then within postmodernity, people tried to pay attention to the narrative without paying attention to the fact that it’s a true story…The overarching story of who Jesus was, the story of God and Israel and the coming of Jesus, has to have a historical purchase on reality. (Stafford, 2007: 38)

Wright’s quote took me back to Bernard Ramm’s influence

on past and present hermeneutics, particularly through his

The Christian View of Science and Scripture. Two quotes, with tacit

influence from the Enlightenment, point to the emphasis

given to systematics and aristolean deduction. Ramm posits

that, “Training in logic and science forms excellent

background for exegesis” (Ramm, 1954: 153). This leads

naturally to his second posit, “Systematic teaching of

Scripture is the Scriptures final intention” (1954: 155).

While modernity influenced Ramm, post-modernity

influences many of today’s interpreters. Some proponents of

narrative theology, which Fackre succinctly defines as

“discourse about God in the setting of story” (Fackre, 1983:



343), gave up on “realistic narrative,” preferring multiple

communal interpretations in its stead. It is time to rescue

a version of narrative theology that respects history. That

will help liberate the Sacred Storybook from at least some

Western cultural biases.

If the predominant genre of the Sacred Storybook is

narrative, evangelicals must give narrative theology its due.

It is time to restory, renarrate, redrama, recharacter theology

laundered of the earthy so that abstract concepts can be placed

within concrete events. Why? Because “narrative speaks in the

idiom of the earth” (Fackre, 1983: 345). Because “Storytelling

reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it”

(Arendt). Because “dull dogma” will give way to demanding

drama. Because “We not only learn truth but see it enacted in

living relationship” (Osborne, 2006: 208). Because “Theology

must be at least biography” (McClendon, 1974: 37) in that

convictions must be lived out in life. Because “Spirituality is

not less than cognitive, it is more than cognitive” (Mathews,

2003: 95). Because “The trues of stories are made, not by

logical persuasion, but by experiential engagement. Stories do



not convince by argument; they surprise by identification”

(Shaw, 1999: 61). Because “Paul’s writings are less a

collection of doctrinal studies than a series of theological

conversations between the apostle and his diverse audiences

within their life circumstances” (Fleming 2005:105). Because

the Bible did not come to humanity in a book of concepts and

categories. Because clarity without characters takes one down

the fast track to empty coldness. Because not to do so is to

make systematic theology the West’s ethnotheology, thereby

limiting God to a rational being.3 Logos is an event!

Even so, one genre is not superior over another; they

are just different, providing necessary unique perspectives.

Propositions require a narrative foundation to provide

context, imagination, and emotions. Narratives require

propositions for focus and clarity. While there seems to be

an initial sequence—story to systematics, there should not

be superiority. For example, to help grasp the meaning of

the proposition “Jesus is Lord,” it helps to know the

referent stories about Jesus turning water into wine,

walking on water, healing the sick, raising the dead,



calming the storm, exercising demons, defeating sin, death,

and Satan (the antagonist).

This roll out pattern is not unlike what is found in

early Genesis—God spoke and then he brought order

(categorization) to chaos. For example, he created light,

separated it from darkness, and gave names to both. Adam

brought order to the animal kingdom by naming the created

animals. It is not an either-or, but rather a both-and. Both

illustrations go back to events. All genres come with

strengths and weaknesses, and therefore have the ability to

enhance each other.

My lettered-literary background, while providing some

great insights, skills, and a form of logic that I would

never want to surrender, robbed me of others. The Ifugao

taught me about the literary aspect of hermeneutics long

before “literary” was added to the grammatical-historical

hermeneutic of my Dallas days. The Ifugao would agree with

Kevin Vanhoozer when he claims that, “the dramatic is the

didactic” (Vanhoozer, 2006: 148).



Narrative Logic

The Ifugao taught me that there was another form of

logic, one that they considered superior to my propositional

logic. The myth and mystery-based logic went something like

this. A theme developed as a spiral with periodical stops to

add depth, color, and most importantly, theme repetition.

Additions were anything but linear; rather they were just-

in-time additions to advance the theme through other

characters and events. While all were present, emotions and

imagination seemed to trump reason but not reject it.

In The Culture of Education (1997), Jerome Bruner identified

two types of logic that exist in every culture, the logical

scientific and narrative. In Making Stories (2003) a more

mature Bruner posited that we must not lose sight that when

one takes advantage of both forms of logic, understanding

enhances. Interestingly, the separation and/or superiority

of right brain over left-brain thinking, or left-brain over

right-brain thinking, did not always exist. Walter Fisher

cogently reminds us that,



Before the advent of philosophy in ancient Greece, all modes of human communication were regarded as mythos/logos, form/content, and feeling/reason. No instance of human communication was privileged over another as having a special capacity to convey knowledge, truth, or reality.(Fisher, 1987: 192)

The contrast of two forms of logic raised several

interesting questions. Which form of logic serves as the

best way to learn and practice theology? A more overlooked

question is, for who?

Entering the narrative world through the use of story

is one thing. Including narrative logic in that entry—that

honors myth and mystery—is quite another, but a necessary

step to gain a deeper appreciation and respect for the scope

of the Author’s logic, nor to mention those who prefer

narrative logic.

Secondary Orality

Story used in evangelism and follow-up, such as

Chronological Bible Teaching (NTM) and Chronological Bible

Storying (IMB), has played a vital role in missions for over

thirty years. Over time it moved beyond illiterates and semi-



literates to oral-preferenced learners. Few in the academic

world noticed.

Then some educational institutions began to add it to

their curriculum on the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Change is in the air.

While in Hong Kong last year, a distinguished Asian

seminary professor approached me. He was having great

difficulty communicating with the younger students and not

sure what to do about it. He certainly was not the only one

of the 59 gathered for the 2013 International Orality

Network’s (ION) consultation at the Hong Kong Baptist

Theological Seminary to discuss secondary orality in

relation to theological education.

Following Walter Ong, I define primary orality as those

who communicate only through verbal and visual means.

Secondary orality, on the other hand, refers to those who

are literate but still prefer to communicate through verbal,

visual, and digital means. Ong refers to this preference as

residual orality (Ong, 1982: 41).



Teachers in established theological institutions at

every level have recognized that their students are having

greater difficulty following their teaching, much less

reproducing it through tests and papers. Their oral-

preferenced students, who Jonah Sachs (2012) identifies as

“digitorals,” prefer images over words, texting over

talking, watching over reading, screens over paper,

interacting over writing, dialoguing over listening to

lectures, creative productions over writing dull papers,

group activities over individual effort (see: Collins and

Halverson, 2009; Richards, 2013; Smith, 2013; Thomas and

Brown, 2011). How can teachers pass on thick theology to

such learners? Will not thin theology result?

Knowing something was amiss, but not having the

vocabulary or categories to identify or articulate it, much

less fix it, an uneasiness has swept over the more observant

faculty. Could this consultation add to the discussion begun

a year earlier at the Wheaton consultation (2012) out of

which came Beyond Literate Western Models: Contextualizing Theological

Education in Oral Contexts (Chiang and Lovejoy, eds., 2013)? This



“how-to” volume, along with the forthcoming Hong Kong

volume, offers practical solutions (often through case

studies) for school administers and teachers involved in

theological education. ION currently offers assistance to

seminaries and universities to assist faculty challenged by

oral-preferenced students.

Theological Education

Referencing the fragmenting of knowledge within the

seminary curriculum, David Wells’ summary remains as true

today as when it was written over two decades ago.

Subjects and fields develop their own literatures, working assumptions, vocabularies, technical terms, criteria for what is true and false, and canons of whatliterature and what views should be common knowledge among those working in the subjects. The result of thisis a profound increase in knowledge but often an equally profound loss in understanding what it all means, how the knowledge in one field should inform that in another. This is the bane of every seminarian'sexistence. The dissociated fields—biblical studies, theology, church history, homiletics, ethics, pastoral psychology, missiology—become a rain of hard pellets relentless bombarding those who are on the pilgrimage to graduation. Students are left more or less defenseless as they run this gauntlet, supplied with little help in their efforts to determine how to relatethe fields one to another. In the end, the only warrantfor their having to endure the onslaughts is that



somehow and someday it will all come together in a church. (Wells, 1993: 244-245; see Farely, 1983)

A seminary student wrote this comment, “I have been

taught how to outline and analyze Scripture, but I have not

been taught how to capture the drama of story and

communicate truth through it.” Werner Mischke (2014) asks

this provocative question, “Could it be that the days of

colonialism in mission methods may be largely behind us—while

colonialism in theology is still an issue?” (p.169).

The “What if?” Theological Education

What if one could redesign theological education from

scratch? How could this impact 21st century faculty?

Students? People in the pews? Facilities? Seating

arrangements? Textbooks? Curricula? Technology? Tests? On-

line courses? Assignments? Theses? Dissertations? Following

are a few questions to jumpstart the dialogue.

What if teachers viewed Scripture as a Sacred Storybook

or Sacred Drama rather than a Sacred Textbook? What if the

first course a student takes highlights the mountaintops as

it sweeps across Genesis to Revelation, tying it all



together in a unified story? What if a capstone course

required a review of the same?

What if theological education was driven by stories

rather than abstract concepts? What if it was driven by

concrete characters rather than philosophical ideas? What if

character studies preceded concept studies? What if

propositions were personified? What if it promoted discovery

learning through problem solving rather than listening to

the lecture to pass the next exam? What if it was driven

from whole-to-part rather than part-to-(sometimes) whole?

What if all Bible classes showed how they relate to the

metanarrative of Scripture?

What if the teacher told part of his or her life story

before overviewing the course syllabus? What if seating was

semicircular making conversing convenient? What if mystery

was given equal status with mastery? What if andragogy drove

teaching in the classroom? What if case studies and

simulation exercises became more dominate in the classroom?

What if communal learning drove on-line courses? What if



learning objectives were open to more than the teacher

goals?

What if all faculty were provided a seminar on primary

and secondary orality? All students? What if the class sat

in a circle? What if technology was used in the classroom to

provide immediate depth to discussion and encourage

interaction? What if students initiated it? What if meaning

took precedence over words? What if courses were taught in

spiral fashion so that repetition provides review as new and

deeper materials are added? What if a digital schematic

accompanied it for the faculty? For the students? What if

geographical maps were used or created to teach books of the

Bible? What if biographies were considered textbooks? What

if biographies were required reading/viewing of Bible and

other significant characters? What if faculty devised a

grading matrix that equally rewarded orality and digital

technology?

What if the imagination, emotions, and volition were

given equal weight with the cognitive? What if narrative

logic was given equal status with propositional logic? What



if theories were taught as stories and through stories? What

if theories required demonstrated practice and servanthood?

What if the grading matrix included storytelling abilities

before groups?4 Abilities to use metaphors and images to

create a theater of the mind?

What if hermeneutics gave the same amount of time to

narrative theology as it does to biblical theology and

systematic theology? What if experiential apologetics were

given the same weight as evidential apologetics? What if the

creeds were taught through storied events? What if Greek was

taught through song?5 What if the Epistles were taught

through story? Reviewed through song? What if students were

required to develop the theme of a book of the Bible by

analyzing the cast of spiritual and human characters

mentioned within it? What if homiletics replaced three-point

sermons with Bible stories and symbols?6 What is some

courses addressed the needs of many of the students setting

in the classroom, such as caste, ancestor veneration,

polygamy? What if evangelism was based on Bible stories

rather than propositions and plans? What if spiritual



formation practices were based on Bible and post-Bible

character studies? Hidden curriculum (unintended learning)

of symbols and rituals? What if the arts included

ethnodoxology?7 What if chapels expressed the same? What if

theological education was driven by missio Dei?

What if syllabuses were written in story with bullet

points? What if PowerPoint was big on images but brief on

words? What if some required assignments could be fulfilled

through the production of videos or dance or pieces of art

or composed songs or proverbs or poems or Prezi

presentations? What if book reviews were written or told as

stories? What if dissertation research was based as strongly

on story collection (qualitative research) as it is on

gathering statistics (quantitative research)? What if

assigned papers were required to be written in stories? What

if textbooks were written in story? What if theses and

dissertations8 were written in story format?

What if exams were given to groups with all receiving

the same grade earned? What if the number of oral exams were

equal to the number of written exams? What if comprehensives



were given through case studies to discern the integration

of theory and practice? What if honor-shame values received

the same attention as guilt-innocence in classroom dialogue?

In grading? In the Sacred Storybook?

What if graduation depended on accurately telling a

minimum of 35 Bible stories, and the doctrines they teach?

Depended on telling five books of the Bible from memory?9

Depended on one’s ability to tell 15 Bible proverbs and 10

Psalms? Depended on one’s ability to identify Bible

characters that followed (or failed to follow) the Ten

Commandments? That define the Covenants? The Great

Commandment? The Beatitudes? The Great Commission? Depended

on knowing the stories of the key players who made the

genealogies in the Gospels? Depended on one’s ability to

identify the Bible characters that convey the major

doctrines of the Bible? Convey ethical and unethical

behavior? Convey exemplary and cautionary models of

leadership and followership? Depended on relating spiritual

power issues with the gospel (1 Thess. 1:5)?



What if graduation depended on one’s ability to tweet

the metanarrative of the Sacred Storybook? Tweet the gospel?

Tweet the theme of each of the 66 books of the Bible?

Depended on one’s ability to dramatize the metanarrative

from Genesis to Revelation in 30 minutes? Depended on one’s

ability to tell the stories of the 11 characters and two

symbols mentioned in Acts 7? The 19 characters who made the

honor role of faith along with the 10 symbols mentioned in

Hebrews 11? Of the approximately 550 stories in the Sacred

Storybook, what is the minimal number that should comprise a

Biola graduate’s “Story Collection” (Steffen, 2005:101)?

Would such revisions in theological education help

produce thick or thin theology for a 21st century audience?

Would memorable theology that translates into practice

result? Would lifelong learners result? After all,

“Education is not an affair of ‘telling’ and being told, but

an active and constructive process” (Dewey 1966:38). Let the

dialogue begin because it will do no good to stay where we

presently find most faculty and students involved in

theological education.



Character Theology

One of the questions I have considered over the years

is, what follows the four phases of Chronological Bible

Teaching?10 Once one understands the gospel (Phase 1), and

has captured the overview of Scripture from Genesis to

Revelation (Phases 1-4), now what? This has led me to

propose another type of theology to add to (not replace)

biblical theology, natural theology, historical theology,

systematic theology, and narrative theology. I would add

character theology (Steffen, 2005:149; 2010: 155-156; 2011:

146-149). Should character studies precede concept studies?

Should character studies lead to concept studies?

The answers to the following questions could help

develop needed character theology: Who are the anchor

characters within the Sacred Storybook that God uses to tell

his story so as to invite us into his story? For example,

Abraham is mentioned over 70 times, Moses some 80 times,

David around 60 times. Which Old Testament names get

repeated numerous times in the New Testament? The answers to

these (and other) questions would help identify the anchor



characters that help develop the metanarrative, and

therefore must become household names.

What are the anchor stories in which these anchor

characters participate? How do they make God the hero in the

stories? What doctrines do their biographies teach? What do

their biographies teach about vices and values? Exemplary

Christian conduct? Cautionary conduct? Leadership?

Followership? Economics? Religion? Politics? Persecution?

Proclamation? Communication? Of the 2900 plus characters

included in the Sacred Storybook, what is the minimal number

that should become part of a Biola graduate’s “Character

Collection” (Steffen, 2005:101)? What is the minimal number

of Christian heroes (theological and missional) post

Scripture that should be included in a Biola graduate’s

“Christian Heroes Collection”?

In Telling God’s Stories With Power, Paul Koehler provides some

direction for which anchor characters to include:

Consider the fact that one can think through most of the stories of the Old Testament by following the livesof no more than a dozen individuals and their families:Adam, Noah, Abraham-Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel-Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah-Elisha, and Daniel. These 12



cover most of the historical eras of the historical eras of the Old Testament. The Gospels chronicle the life of only one Man (with many supporting characters),and Acts can be told by simply following the experiences of Peter and Paul. If someone were to learnthe stories that pertain to these fifteen people, they would have a mastery of a large portion of the Bible. (Koehler, 2010: 104)

This list of characters, of course, would have to be

expanded to cover all aspects of the Christian faith and

life in that Christianity is a total way of life. Paul

provides more clues in relation to characters (good guys and

bad guys) from Exodus and Numbers, when he notes that,

“These things happened to them as examples and were written

down as warnings for us” (1 Co 10:11, NIV; see also James

5:10-11, 17-18). Propositions must become personal

(individually or collectively) and practiced. This is best

accomplished when introduced through a cast of captivating

characters.

One intriguing and instructive way to cast captivating

characters would be to identify the contrasting characters

(individuals or groups) portrayed within the Sacred

Storybook. 11 These could include: Adam and Eve, Cain and



Abel, Hagar and Sarah, Abraham and Lot, Ishmael and Isaac,

Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, Rahab and the Spies,

Samson and Delilah, Eli and Samuel, Jonathan and David,

David and Bathsheba, Naomi and Ruth, Ester and Haman, Joseph

and Mary, Elizabeth and Zacharias, Martha and Mary, Jesus

and the Pharisees, Matthias and Barsabbas, Philip and

Nathanael, Ananias and Sapphira, Aeneas and Dorcas, Paul and

Silas, Lois and Eunice, Priscilla and Aquila, Philemon and

Onesimus, and so forth.

In Cracking the Code, D. Brent Sandy and Ronald Giese

provide some background for contrasting Old Testament

characters,

Since Hebrew narrative does not describe character in much detail, the interpreter must pay special notice tothe details that are given in the Bible….Characters areoften contrasted in Hebrew narrative. Thus, as they areplayed one off the other, a better idea of each is gained. Rahab stands over against Achan; Samuel againstthe sons of Eli; Ruth is seen as opposite to Orpha. (1995:74)

Contrasting the actions (or inactions) of binary pairs of

Bible characters will help highlight and define doctrines,

point out the tensions when attempting to practice various



values, provide principles for followership and leadership,

and so forth.

But character theology is much more than reflecting on

what the lives of Bible characters have to teach Christ

inquirers and followers in at least two ways. First, it

places the Bible characters in their rightful place within

the roll out of the metanarrative. For those already having

been exposed to the metanarrative, this is not a difficult

advancement. Doing so begins to add depth to the

chronological clothesline as new information continues to be

added. And it fights fragmentation so common in the West as

it integrates the “successive installments” (Kaiser

1978:10,11) of individual stories into a unified whole.

Second, it makes sure that the main message given by

the characters in the stories makes God the “chief

Character.” I appreciate Charles Koller’s recognition of

this principle when he says,

…the Bible was not given to reveal the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to reveal the hand of God in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; not as arevelation of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, but as a revelation of the Savior of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.



(Koller, 2007: 32)

Good character theology places the spotlight on the

chief Character rather than other spiritual or human actors.

This helps make it possible for people to discover the awe

of God, and respond appropriately.

Character theology will prove powerful because people

identify with the thinking and actions of others. C.S. Lewis

tell us why and when, “Friendship is born at that moment

when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too? I thought

none but myself…’" LeLand Ryken would add, “The power of

story as a literary form is its uncanny ability to involve

us in what is happening….an invitation to share an experience, as vividly

and concretely as possible, with the characters in the story” (Ryken, 1984:

34-35). Observing other characters in action provides

opportunity for deep personal reflection because they serve

as a mirror into one’s life. Christian film could be very

influential here.

If one wishes to see the face of God, gaze into lives

of Bible characters. Why? Because “Every story in the Bible

whispers his name” (Lloyd-Jones, 2007:17). That quote sums



up the power of character theology to transform lives and

communities.

Narrative Textbooks

Digitorals have a difficult time reading textbooks,

particularly theological textbooks. Too long. Too content

dense. Too abstract. Too divorced from life. Too boring. Too

few pictures.

So what’s the solution? Require less reading? Watch

DVDs? Listen to audio books? Digitorals would love all those

solutions. All possibilities for sure but there has to be a

better way. And there is.

After developing the narrative course and teaching it

several times I decided it was time to practice what I

preached. It was time to write a textbook in story format.

So I began a book about Shorty and Maygo Term’s short-term

adventures in a fictitious fish world. I drew up a storyline

and then tried to wrap it in story. What a challenging

adventure as I was never trained to think in story! Too

ambiguous. Too messy. Too elementary.



The small book of 144 pages seemed to take forever to

write. But the further I got into it, the more comfortable I

became. I was beginning to think in story. Sometimes I would

abandon the storyline altogether and just let the

conversations evolve. This sometimes resulted in dead ends;

other times it brought brilliant contours to the storyline.

I had Dennis Cozad draw some pictures (symbols) to highlight

key points of each chapter. Business as Usual in the Missions

Enterprise? (1999) eventually resulted. This student’s comment

in a book review, written in story, is representative,

‘It was very clever. I thought it was a stroke of genius to talk about missions in the form of a narrative. With all the emphasis on orality, it’s like practicing what you preach! But creating that book musthave been extremely difficult to do. I think it would take an awful lot of time to structure your thoughts inthe form of narrative – creating the story line and adding all the dialogue.’ name replied.

‘I agree. I loved reading it and learning the information from reading the story. I think I learned alot more that way,’ name concurred.

In 2011, I wrote The Facilitator Era: Beyond Pioneer Church

Multiplication, again in story format. This textbook was a lot

more fun to write. Thinking in story was not as difficult as



it was the first time around, even if still not second

nature.

Is it time for faculty to consider writing their next

textbook in story format? They will learn some of what the

digitorals already know about the power of story and

symbols. They (who write about Bible themes) will also learn

what Bill Bright perceived when he co-wrote his last book

entitled Blessed Child with Ted Dekker, “I have come to the conclusion

that a good novel on biblical themes can reach many more people than most

theological works” (Zoba, 2001: 56).

Summary

If the Millennials, rather than those in monasteries, were

the first to develop theological education, what would it look

like today? Would story, symbol, and the screen observed

through the eye gate and ear gate dominate the way by which

people would learn, play, work, find Christ, and mature

spiritually in the 21st century? Would the Millennials’

preferences end up just a transient trend or a “jump between

backpack and briefcase” (Elmore, 2010, p. 32)?



To participate in this new (for some) revolution some

wholesale paradigm shifts will be required in the church,

seminary, and university, and most importantly, our lives.

Some sacred cows will have to be slaughtered. Faculty who

learn how to keep the lofty earthy and mysterious through

creative multisensory, multi-intelligent models12 that

challenge character, commitment, competence, and cultural

blind spots will fair well in the 21st century, as will

their students and their disciples at home and abroad. The

land bridge, or story arc, between the two ponds will then

be complete. The Lingenfelters and crew can now hold hands

with the Ifugao and McIlwain.



Notes

1. A great foundational book to begin one’s journey into orality is Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy. Two key questions would be: (1) What preceded literacy? (2) What followed literacy?

2. I taught half of the Evangelism and Follow-up course for Talbot each semester for over a decade. Class size was normally around 30. I would ask each class, how many of you have taken a class in systematic theology? Biblical theology? Historical theology? Narrative theology? All had taken multiple courses in systematics. Less had taken biblical theology. Still less had taken historical theology. No one had taken a class in narrative theology. Some remembered it touchedon in other classes.

3. I remember returning from the Philippines as a grad student and attending a Talbot chapel. While I do not remember the faculty member who spoke, I have never forgot some of his spoken words, “God is a rational, linear, logical, propositional Being.” I thought to myself, he certainly does not know the God of the Ifugao. They would not recognize his God.

4. Warren Buffett told Columbia business students that he would give $100,000 for 10 percent of their future earnings if they had good communication skills. Following Buffett’s lead, John Fallon at Walhalla High School started Presentation Skills I and II: “In this era of email, texting and voice mail, true face-to-facecommunication is becoming a lost art. While many peopleare comfortable with private, individual conversations,most people are uncomfortable speaking to groups, largeor small.” See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/05/29/the-1-skill-college-grads-should-have-learned-in-the-5th-grade/ (Accessed January 24, 2014).



http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/05/29/the-1-skill-college-grads-should-have-learned-in-the-5th-grade/



5. See Kenneth Berdings’ Sing and Learn New Testament Greek: The Easiest Way to learn Greek Grammar @ http://www.amazon.com/Sing-Learn-New-Testament-Greek/dp/0310280990

6. See: Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching by Kent Edwards.

7. See: http://www.gial.edu/academics/world-arts

8. See: W. Jay Moon’s dissertation published through the American Society of Missiology Monograph Series entitled, African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture: A Narrative Portrayal of Builsa Proverbs: Contextualizing Christianity in Ghana, 2009.

9. See: http://thegoodbookblog.com/2012/jan/28/the-easiest-way-to-memorize-the-bible-what-i-learn/ (Accessed January 15, 2014).

10. While the Chronological Bible Teaching model has seven phases, only the first four (Genesis through Revelation) have been addressed.

11. I am indebted to Dottie Connor Bingham for this idea. Long ago she created a children’s game with puzzle-like-pictures of binary pairs of Bible characters. Players were to match the picture pairs. The Ifugao loved the game and soon wore it out. She is presently revising the game.

12. Calvin Chong (2014) notes that the gold standard of higher education has shifted from one’s “ability to deliver inspiring, content-rich lecture” to “a wide repertoire of learning strategies” (p.137). Chong thenidentifies that wide repertoire that “encourages activeand participatory learning-in-community” to include, “discussion learning (Brookfield and Preskill 2005; Christensen, Garvin, and Sweet 1991; Vella



http://thegoodbookblog.com/2012/jan/28/the-easiest-way-to-memorize-the-bible-what-i-learn/

http://thegoodbookblog.com/2012/jan/28/the-easiest-way-to-memorize-the-bible-what-i-learn/

1995; Vella 2003; Vella 2007), collaborative learning (Barkley, Cross, and Major 2005), problem-based learning (Amador, Miles, and Peters 2007; Flint 2007), case studies (Kunselman, and Johnson, 2004), simulations (Hertel and Millis, 2002; Thiagarajan 2004; Thiagarajan 2006), and role-playing and social drama (Alpren 1952; Boal 1993; Boal 1995; Duncombe and Heikkinen 1988; Gorvine 1970; Hopkins 1970; Rohd 1998)” (p.137).



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