Faith Talk – Catherine Devins

We can walk the talk, but do we talk the walk? Yes, you read this right. Do we—mainline Protestant types—know how to talk? It’s not that we are without words for everyday conversation. I’m asking about sharing stories and experiences of faith. I think we are reluctant to speak about God in our lives and how God connects us with others. We’ve lost the practice of testimony. Maybe it’s time we reclaimed it.

Testimony is openly acknowledging our faith and sharing an experience of God. But talking about God can be risky. There are many faiths in our society and many flavors of the Christian faith, so it is risky to think about giving offense. And don’t we all have experience with the ecstatic Bible thumper, loudly proclaiming God with an embarrassing disdain for those who don’t ‘believe’ (and are obviously going to hell)? In this context, testimony can be heard as a bad word. Instead, we mainstream Christians tend to take our faith inward and make it private.

I think that most of us try to go about our lives acting out our faith. We prefer to let our actions speak for us. But in doing so, we have forgotten how to speak to each other about the common and often amazing ways that God’s grace pops up in our lives. We have lost the language of faith. When we stop talking, we soon that we forget the stories; we have no stories to tell and we become indistinguishable from other secular do-good organizations. If faith without works is dead, what about faith without words?

Sharing stories of faith is an invitation to share moments of meaning and to find connections to each other and to our shared belonging in the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul, quoting the prophet Isaiah, says this about those who speak the gospel: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom 10:15). Feet? It doesn’t say how beautiful are the mouths or the lips or the words of those who speak the gospel. Tom Long, in his book Testimony-Talking Ourselves into Being Christian, explains that before we can speak words of good news from God, “we usually have to burn a little shoe leather to journey to the people who need to hear these words of comfort” (p.15). Acting out our faith in kind and thoughtful deeds brings us onto a common path and shared journey with others. In that shared common space we have the opportunity to speak with others after the model of Jesus: to bless and not to curse, to build up and not to tear down, to point to the mystery of God around us (Jas 3:10-15).

So many beautiful stories go unspoken in our congregation. Maybe we don’t provide the space for sharing stories or maybe we don’t know how. Perhaps we need to learn to speak again—to find honest and authentic vocabulary. As we search for words, we also search for God in our lives in both exceptional and everyday experiences. Sharing stories makes us look and learn. In sharing we connect with others as we discover our common story and our connection to the larger Christian story. The words spoken can prompt a call to action. The impact is most dramatic in a community of faith where we risk being awakened to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit with a renewed, vital and living faith.
So how do we in the church go about renewing this long-held practice? Students of confirmation classes in my congregation are required/invited to write a statement of faith. Newly elected elders may also write one. For many, it is a terrifying experience.

This past year, I’ve had an interest in reintroducing this age-old practice to my congregation. With our confirmation class as a captive audience, I asked Dori Grinenko Baker to lead a workshop on sharing stories of faith. Dori outlines a simple but effective process for sharing stories in her book The Barefoot Way – a Faith Guide for Youth, Young Adults, and the People Who Walk With Them (John Knox Press). Participants are invited to write a simple short story—a slice of life, a memory, or an event. No God language is required; in fact, it is discouraged in the writing phase because that is the work of the small group that then gathers to listen deeply to the story, and together interpret its meaning and how it may point to something greater. The group looks for God’s presence in the story and explores what might be the take away from the shared experience. It’s a simple yet dramatic process. No special theological training is required—just a story, some willing listeners and an eagerness to connect to others and to God. It was remarkable to witness these young people eagerly sharing their experiences, their ideas and their yearning for God.

I am now on a mission to discover other ways to encourage youth and adults to open up to sharing stories. Lillian Daniel has a new book, When Spiritual but Not Religious is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even in the Church (Jericho). It’s a response to those who claim not to need organized religion. Daniel inspires with stories of finding God in the midst of the most common of everyday experiences. She celebrates the community of faith and all the weird and wonderful ways it makes the world a better place.

This spring, we’ve invited Daniel to our Lenten retreat. The congregation will use Lillian’s book as a discussion starter to discover our own weird and wonderful stories. We’ll set up a blog for others to join in the conversation. We’ll share experiences of ministry as devotions. Maybe the church newsletter will become more about what we are and have done than about a litany of announcements of future events. And we won’t forget the children who have their own stories to tell. We’ll look for opportunities to explore those sad, surprising, messy and often funny moments where we encounter God. We will practice the practice of giving expression to our faith.

Not everyone will want to participate right away, but many will. You see, I believe the New Testament stories about the early church with all their testifying about God’s power and presence in their lives as they carried on Christ’s ministry. Testimony—that’s what sharing a God story is—acknowledges how God works in and through us. Shared stories call us to renewed action and a more vital and passionate relationship with God. The more we speak about God’s transforming action in the world, the more we open ourselves to further transformation. And there just might be another story to tell about that.

Catherine Devins is the Church Educator for White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond.