A Legacy of Storytellers

by Petey Crowder, Executive Pastor
April 19, 2019

God’s people have always been storytellers. From the beginning of the Bible story, generations passed down their stories of God’s faithfulness in the good and the bad of life. Before there were even written accounts of the Old Testament Scriptures, hundreds of years passed with God’s people primarily learning through their ancestors’ stories about who God is, what God has done, and what God desires.

There’s a passage in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 6, that Jesus refers to as the Greatest Commandment. Right alongside that commandment, the one to love God with all your life, it commands the people to regularly share stories with their families and neighbors about what God has done and what He desires. It seems that from the beginning of God’s relationship with His people, He never desired them to simply memorize a list of rules but hoped they would learn about who they were and what life was really about through stories of life transformation and faithfulness.

At CPC, we believe the same thing is true for us today. We will not learn why Jesus matters to our lives primarily through lists of rules or doctrinal statements, but through stories of how Jesus matters in the lives of ordinary people like you and me. In the coming weeks, we will be looking at the foundational truths of Christianity in our weekend worship services using some historic words that have given definition to the Christian faith. While these formulations of Biblical truth are essential guides in our relationship with God, we recognize they need to be welded to current stories about how God is active and near. This is what we believe God was doing with His Old Testament people, encouraging them to see their daily lives through the power of God to provide and guide.

We want you to know that while God has spoken in the past, He is also active today in powerful ways. We are committed to telling stories, big and small. We hope that these stories will encourage you. And we hope that you will see that God works through imperfect people with imperfect life situations.

In reminding ourselves what Jesus has done, and is doing, it emboldens us to trust that He will continue to do the same into the future. After all, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).