Well, we are finally there.  This Sunday is our final day of reading through The Story.  We began this journey back in September 2014 with Genesis and now we are ending in May 2015 in Revelation.  I thought I’d reflect for a little this week on what I see as the benefits of The Story for our congregation.   When I’m out and about visiting with people from other congregations and they discover we are working through The Story I often get the question, “How is it going?”   My usual response revolves around two main points.

First of all, I believe The Story has been a great unifying program for our congregation.  Have you ever been to the pool during open swim time, when everybody is thrashing about going in different directions and doing different things?  Contrast that with a synchronized swimming, when all the swimmers are coordinated and working together according to a predetermined pattern and plan.   Both are valid types of swimming and have their place.   In the same way, often churches are gatherings of Christians doing their own thing for their spiritual health, some doing daily reading, others extended prayer, yet others connected with groups, and the list could go on.    But from time to time, something like The Story comes along to help us travel together on the spiritual journey a more synchronized manner.   Our journey through The Story has been a good time for our church to be synchronized in our reading and engaging with scripture.

Another great benefit of The Story is that I have the sense that there has been more family Bible reading in our church during the last 31 weeks than we have had in a while.  The children’s Story book, with its great illustrations, and the clearly defined parameters for reading each week have made it much easier for families to sit down and read large portions of the Bible together.  I realize that many families still may have struggled to get all the readings done each week due to life’s interruptions, but overall I have the feeling that the family units have gathered often around scripture through this program.  As I’ve visited in your homes it has been an encouragement to me to see a copy of The Story sitting out on coffee tables with a place marker in the chapter for the week.  Related to the family readings, I want to give a thank you to Kaye Swires who has consistently sent out an email each week with family devotional ideas related to the readings for the week. That was a great help to the families of our congregation.

One benefit of The Story is all the associated curriculum and resources that have developed for it, everything from small group discussion questions to Bible class curricula.   That has been a wonderful blessing of the program.   I think that the resource side of the program is a great reminder that we need more than just the desire to read God’s word together as a church and as families.   We also need a plan and the commitment to make it happen.  This combination came together this year at our congregation through the Story and I believe we are better off for it.  DTW