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I’ve spent most of my time since coming to Willoughby Church listening to stories. Stories communicate a wealth of information. They can offer a clear timeline of events, show one’s passion, share news about people, culture, places, and so much more. I expect to spend much more time listening to stories here at Willoughby. Some will be stories of radical transformation, others will be of the time a friend tripped and it was funny, others are of epic sports moments. Some may seem funny or trivial, but each story matters because you are sharing moments and passions in your life with others.

I love that church is a place where a passion (Jesus) unites us. Where people gather and share stories of joy, trials, sorrow and humour. This is commonplace, yet it is powerful. Sharing stories with one another helps us grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. When we offer bits and pieces of our life through our stories we are being vulnerable, allowing others to feel those emotions with us. It can be tough, but we all benefit by growing closer as a community. It frees us to be selfless and hold others needs above our own, because we are confident that others are doing the same. In that environment, we can safely disciple one another to become the men, women, youth and children that God created us to be. This idea of a close community is built upon a tradition of storytelling.

Some of us consider our own stories unworthy; they are not exciting enough. People will tell you that is not true, but sometimes it is hard to believe when you hear radical stories of transformation. Do not believe the lies of the enemy — each story we tell can be steeped in the grace of God. If you are not convinced then there is a solution: go out and write better stories.

I was travelling to speak at a conference several years ago. I was driving down a secondary Alberta highway near Prairie Bible College when I saw an old abandoned house in the distance. I slammed on the brakes and notified my colleague that we were going to walk to that house to take some cool photos of it. She balked, she scoffed, she had no desire to go on this adventure with me. This was February, in Alberta, on the prairies; it was cold, windy, and snowy. The field we trudged through had cow pies, packed snow, long grass, dead thistles and hidden ice. We traversed this landscape for 15 minutes jumping over a creek, slipping on the muddy slopes and eventually making it to the abandoned house. The pictures were awesome; the place was awesome. Was it worth the time and the pair of pants I ripped in the process? Or the wet shoes? Nope, not for the pictures, but for the story that was written in the process—definitely yes, worth all of it and more!

If you are unsure of your repertoire of stories, go and create some. It is as simple as slamming on the brakes to take a photo. You won’t regret it. If you want to create stories that are transformative, then you need to serve. You need to serve the church, serve others, and serve God. We`ve commissioned and blessed a group of adults to go and build homes and serve a community in Guatemala. For some this is a familiar trip, for others it will be new. This summer we will take a small group of youth from this church to First CRC in Vancouver to a week of service work with that community. Each person on these projects will come back with wonderful stories of how they saw God work through their hands, their words and their hearts. We can all be blessed by the sharing of these stories. They will be shared for years to come and will play an important role in the life of our church community.

To emphasize this idea of storytelling we will spend the next part of this season listening to personal testimonies from members of our church family at Youth on Sunday nights. These will be real stories of God’s grace, real stories of hardship and pain, real stories of Christ-centered servanthood. As we gather each Sunday evening for a time of fellowship and storytelling we have one hope and prayer: that these stories will grow us closer to God as we hear someone testify to His power and that this time of fellowship will grow our community closer together, building and strengthening relationships.