Using storytelling to help people work out they don’t yet know Jesus

Tanya believed she was a Christian but showed no evidence of new life. If I had suggested to her that she didn’t understand salvation, she would have been highly insulted. So I asked if I might share a set of stories with her. She said, “Oh, those are for children. I’ve been a Christian for fifteen years!”

“Just listen to two stories,” I replied. “If you really don’t like them, we’ll stop.”

After the Genesis 3 story, we had a deep discussion about sin. She realized it wasn’t just doing ‘bad’ things but wanting to be like God in our hearts, wanting to be king instead of God. Suddenly she said, “I’ve just realized I’m not a Christian!” She had thought that being a Christian meant trying to be good and going to church meetings.

Even before we reached the New Testament stories it was obvious that Tanya had come to new life. The stories got in under the barriers of pride she’d erected without my having to say anything directly.

Taken from ‘Telling the Gospel Through Story’ (IVP), p 86.