Connecting – Story Telling

My church’s staff recently attended the Connect Conference 2013. It was put on by the Assemblies of God’s Illinois District. The overall theme for this conference was how important it is for Pastors to connect with other Pastors.

The conference had three main speakers and they were all very good. However, for this post I am going to summarize the last speaker – Pastor Dick Foth.

Pastor Foth spoke on the four things you need to be in order to be in a relationship. These four being… you needed to be a story teller, you need to be an affirmer, you need to be a person who will make a covenant, and you need to be a dreamer.

Pastor Foth only spoke on the importance of being a story teller during his time, so that is what I will summarize here.

He is a HUGE advocate for relationships. In fact, Pastor Foth believes it is a fundamental desire of all of us to be in relationship with both our Heavenly Father and the people that fill our lives. He used the following scriptures to support his strong belief of the importance of relationships…

Matthew 22: 37-40 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Genesis 2:18 “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a
helper suitable for him.’”

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them.”

Pastor Foth stated that we fall in love (connect) with a person when we hear his story. The story offers us connection points. These connection points are similarities between our story and his. Games played as a child. Tragedies suffered. Schools attended. Songs that inspired. The possibilities are endless, but there can be something in his story that relates to ours.

We live in a very disconnected society. Busyness runs our lives. Causing us to have little to no time for relationships. However, the scriptures above tell us we are created to have relationships. And Pastor Foth has shared with us the impact telling our stories can have on connecting with those around us.

Take Home Point – In the midst of our busyness, stories must be shared for connection to occur. We must connect in order to form a relationship.

So next time you are given a chance, ask the person next to you “Where were brought up?” or “What games did you play as a child?” Then listen to her story, look for similarities and then share those similarities. You never know, she might become you new best friend.