Today I would like to introduce you to a new resource that I found on the Weaving Life Facebook page. If you haven’t been there it is a great source for many articles and other news. The article that I found was Steve Knight‘s review of Making Friends Among the Taliban by Jonathan Larson. Knight is the author of the blog call Missional Shift which focuses on the missional church conversation. He reviews different books and starts conversations on this topic. This may seem like just a promotional post, but there are a few key ideas that Knight has pointed out. One idea that I like that he pointed was when he said:
“I firmly believe the future will require greater interfaith dialogue and understanding, and the example of Dan Terry is deeply inspiring and challenging to me. Most of us will never experience the cross-cultural challenges of immersing ourselves in a “foreign” land, as Terry did, but this story has much to teach us here in the West, especially as we consider living missionaly in a North American context.”
Knight also talks about the idea of missional storytelling and then mentions several books; Chasing the Dragon, Bruchko, and Peace Child. I was pleasantly surprise as I recognized the one of those titles. When I was in 7th grade my Bible class read Bruchko. It is a story of a young man, Bruce Olson who was only 19 years old, that travels to South America to become a missionary to the indigenous Motilone Indians. He dedicates his life to learning the culture and language of the Motilones so he can teach them the Gospel of Christ. It is a fairly easy read, for I was only 13 when I read it. To this day I still remember the story that is told and I encourage you to give it a read when you finish Making Friends among the Taliban.
Do you have any other examples of missional storytelling?
