OUR PRAYER FOR TEACHERS:

May you find the rest you need in a quiet, once-busy room.

May your heart deepen for those entrusted to your care as you notice their empty place.

May your face lighten as you see theirs in the small windows of your screen.

May your spirit quicken when you discover how they are learning new things.

May your resolve be strengthened.

May your practice be enhanced.

May your creativity be replenished.

May you know peace.

ADVENT

A coming into place, view, or being – arrival.

A coming into PLACE.

PLACE – a particular portion of space.

In our never-ending wrestle over where we should put God, here we find Him in the most peculiar place.

A coming into VIEW.

VIEW – an instance of seeing or beholding.

In our determined insistence that we have not seen God, we are welcomed into an instance where He comes into view.

A coming into BEING.

BEING – the fact of existing.

In our agitated confusion over whether God exists, we swaddle the squirming truth of God being.

God has arrived.

ADVENT.

(head to Matt’s blog for some more great ADVENT content)

This week my newsfeed has been dominated by a Christian sport-star’s post that has offended the LGBTQI community. Followed by the subsequent debate over free speech, and employee social media contracts.

Whatever your perspective, when stuff like this happens – for those seeking to teach the Bible – it puts us in an unenviable position

It can be hard to bounce back when we feel like our story is being misrepresented.

In the public square, or in the classroom, or even in our own meeting places, it can feel like everyone thinks that you carry this unhealthy agenda of indoctrination.

At AccessTheStory we now have some years under our belt of diffusing this tension and cultivating learning practice that provides genuine space for leaders and learners to discover together.

One of the things you can do to help make this shift is RESHAPING YOUR DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES – our learning experience VERGE became a rich laboratory for this to happen – where we made the choice to assume that the story of God was being heard for the first time – let me give you a couple of examples of how our learning outcomes shifted:

• My expectation through the telling of the creation narrative has usually been to convince people of the existence of an Eternal Creator, whereas as we retold the story afresh, one of the more common learning outcomes has been for learners to simply reconsider their own heritage or starting place.

• Another example has been through the narrative of Genesis 3 – a default expectation in the past has been to convince people of their sinfulness, whereas a consistent learning outcome through VERGE has been for people to discover the origin of pain in creation and separation in the experience of humanity.

As we observed these kinds of responses, it helped us reshape our desired outcomes – it seemed like as we gave ourselves permission to hold our agendas loosely, new discoveries and responses to the story of God emerged in ways we never expected.

We’ve pieced a simple learning framework together which gives more examples like the ones I’ve already stated. You can access this framework now by signing up to our storyline tribe.

Our hope is that through this framework, and any other interaction you have with AccessTheStory, you will see your community move beyond the expectation of being indoctrinated, and into the realms of transformation.

Three years ago she was unable to attend school because her family could not afford to send her.

One day she was offered an opportunity to be sponsored through AccessTheStory’s partnership with Ambassador church, who were caring for the kids in her community.

Over the next 2 years Florde Mae received a weekly allowance for transport to college through AccessTheStory under the supervision of the local church.

When she graduated from college she was able to get a job at a hotel, and she now helps her mother put food on the table at home.

Just over two weeks ago, our team returned from their 12 day trip to Cebu in the Philippines.

There, they ran a short VERGE camp:

our Director, Trav, ran a 2 day leadership seminar:

and the team served with local Christian communities among the poor:

It is such a privilege to be partnering with Ambassador Church of Christ in Cebu as they see God’s love impact their neighbours.

If you would like to further AccessTheStory’s partnership with Ambassador Church in Cebu – go to:

donate.accessthestory.com

by Trav Johnson

Clare* is a pleasant 17 year old with a quiet demeanor and a beaming smile.

I think she might have been uncertain about me at first, but she was polite to the ‘old person’ at her youth group’s camp!

When I spoke with her early into our vergeWA experience, she said she was glad to have the opportunity to connect with her church friends.  Sometimes she finds it hard at church events because she goes to a different school than most of her friends – a school where hardly anyone shares the same faith she has in God.

Her Pastor had spoken with both Clare and her Mum to convince her to come to Verge – so she did – joining her pastors, youth leaders, and youth group friends on a 4-day experience through God’s story.

As the story unfolded, so did Clare.  She seemed cautious for the first couple of days – experiencing the AccessTheStory episodes from Designed to Satisfied – but after hearing the stories of the first Christians at the end of the third day, Clare did something none of us expected.

As we sat around the campfire that night – inviting campers to tell their story – Clare broke the silence.  She shared about her loneliness at school, but one day she discovered how a Buddhist friend became a Christian through her influence.  Her friend told her that the answer she gave to one question and the kindness she showed sent her on her own journey to Jesus.

Clare had no idea until the girl asked her another question months later.

Not only was Clare blown away with how God involved her in someone else’s life, but that night she inspired her entire youth group to be willing to share their faith story – even if they feel lonely.

Last week, after a three year hiatus from running VERGE in WA, we saw a community of around 40 people journey through God’s story together.  We’re finding more and more that the emerging generation is excited to be able to  explore faith when they are invited to do so.

Check out this  facebook post from a parent to her church’s youth leaders:

Hey ya’ll …. thank you all so much for your time and your hearts and your willingness to share your faith this weekend. My 15 year old daughter, and 17 year old son (and the other children I carted home) absolutely have been raving about this weekend. Both my kids were deeply touched and challenged in their faith. They have come away from Verge with a deeper understanding but more importantly they feel deeply connected to their faith. They experienced and saw and heard things that made their faith real and palpable to them. You all opened those doors for them and your shared your stories and how Jesus transformed your lives. And you know what??? They heard you!!!

* ‘Clare’ is known by another name, and we wanted to respect her privacy

Keen to track with AccessTheStory?  Join our “StoryLine” tribe here.

“3 shifts helping us reach a generation.”

You can check out his notes on the talk at www.travjohnson.com

If you’re not up for a 5 or 6 minute read, here’s some grabs from the post:

The shift in MINDSET is one where we shift from “Taking Jesus to …” to “Joining Jesus there”.

I wonder how much of a colonial (even crusade) mentality shapes our approach to mission.  Failing to see the people along the path of our triumphant conquests – we rush through with our untested assumptions and pre-packaged programs, and we march headlong into our campaigns and building programs without stopping to notice where God is going before us, where He is already at work.

 

The shift in METHOD is one where we shift from “clever answers” to “intentional questions”.

I wonder whether while apologetics may have their place, we get so busy defending the faith, that we neglect the offensive work of the Holy Spirit in the space of good questions.

 

The shift in MESSAGE is one where we shift from “salvation formulas” to “the gospel story”.

AccessTheStory is founded on the belief that the church’s understanding and proclamation of the gospel needs to change if we have any hope of engaging the next generation.

 

Keen to check out Trav’s entire article? – go to www.travjohnson.com

sign up to our regular updates – storyline.accessthestory.com

“Bartimaeus cast aside his beggar’s robe and stepped forward, feeling his way toward Jesus.”

JESUS: What do you want from me?”

Well, it wasn’t money.

Up until now that’s all people expected he was after.

Not this time.

In that moment, when he dared to break from his routine.

When he dared to call out to the travelling teacher and he dismissed the disgust of the crowd around him.

In that moment, when he threw off the cloak that prompted the pity of others, and he staggered toward where he believed Jesus was standing.

Perhaps he desperately clung to Jesus’ clothing; perhaps he felt the touch of Jesus on his shoulder; perhaps he was close enough to hear Jesus draw breath as He asked the question:

“What do you want from me?”

Bartimaeus knew exactly what he wanted.

Mark 10:46-52

after more great AccessTheStory content?

subscribe to our mailing list:

storyline.accessthestory.com

For as long as we’ve known her, she has longed to see her students engaged in the Bible story – but she often laments the challenge of helping students discover with the tools at her disposal.

We received this email from her today:

I did the story of Leah with my Year 9 girls class yesterday. We are looking at self worth, and thriving – not just surviving.

I used the art work (above) as a prompt and gave them time to respond to some questions.

(I then) explained that the art work was inspired by the story of Leah, Rachel and Jacob.

Then I read ‘The girl no one wanted’ from the Jesus Storybook bible and they storyboarded and journaled.

Below are some cool responses from girls who are strong, opinionated, and mostly anti-god – there are 3 girls who admit they are Christians…

“I’m learning that God doesn’t care about your physical features, He sees through that and loves you for you.”

“In light of this story, I think God might be inviting me to be loved by Him – even if I don’t feel like its true.”

“No matter how different or unloved by others, God accepts us and will always love us – He chooses us no matter how much we mess up.”

Thanks for the framework Travis. I loved being able to say … ‘There’s no right or wrong! We’re all different. God shows us different stuff based on what we need to see.’

I haven’t done this approach with this class before, and it’s definitely the most engaged in a God’s story they’ve been all year.

It’s pretty exciting to be a part of Kate’s story as she invests in the next generation through her role as a teacher.

If you’re reading this and want to explore AccessTheStory’s approach yourself you can:

- sign up to our regular update – StoryLine

- purchase our new pilot resource – StoryBites

- or send us an email and start a conversation!

“I feel more of His heart for us.  The call to see His creation through His eyes.” – Sarah

“VERGE helped me slow down and understand His beauty once again.” – Anon

“My experience of God has changed through looking at God with a new sense of wonder.” – Jeremy

“I’ve been filled with a sense of wonder for the story of God!” – Mollie

“I have asked/answered questions I never thought of before.” – Tori

“I’d love to see this happen again!  I really stand by the vision and heart.” – Hayley

Thanks YWAM Toowoomba, your hospitality and participation in our first ever VERGE event in Queensland was exceptional – here’s to exploring the next step together!