One Couple Stirs a Church

I wanted to tell you how we use STS in our adult Sunday School class, and how it is impacting and blessing Chris and me as husband and wife.

Background: This church is 1/2 block down the street from our house, but it was not our home church. The 112 year old church was one of the only buildings standing after a tornado came through the center of town in 1927 and wiped out the town of Nevada.

In 2009 the Lord began stirring us to move churches. Never an easy decision, we prayed for some time about where God wanted us. Then one day we noticed that the regular church sign had been replaced by a new one indicating that this was now a satellite campus of a large Baptist church in Allen, TX.

Over the 10 years we have lived here, we watched the church parking lot go from overflowing, to barely populated, and the name of the pastor change many, many times. The congregation was now small (ages 45-80), many having attended for more than 40 years. However, that summer we sensed the Lord directing us to become involved in this church.  We felt very strongly that we were to come alongside the young staff to pray, help and encourage.

Chris had walked over to visit with the pastor several times and began to tell him about STS and how impacting this method of teaching God's Word is. Pastor Justin was very excited to hear more. As we told him about how God was leading us to come alongside of him, he tearfully exclaimed that he had been praying for that very thing, and that we were an answer to prayer for him.

We began to teach the adult Sunday School class. Prior to this, the class of about 6-7 would listen to a video lesson, and no one would say a word or discuss anything. So, the introduction of the STS method was quite a switch for them! We let them know that to achieve the greatest benefit from the lesson, we needed to “hear” their voices.

We wanted to know their thoughts, hear their answers, and we let them know that it was OK to speak up in this class to ask and discuss questions.

At first everyone opened their Bibles to the story passage and would follow along as we told the story. But we were encouraged to see their hearts that truly wanted to learn from God's Word. Gradually we encouraged them to step into a new dimension of oral learning. Many said that at their age 70+ they didn't think they could remember anything.

But now, after 8 months of STS, things have changed. We definitely have a designated Bible monitor who checks our told story for accuracy and content. But now, everyone else is fully engaged in learning the story orally and amazingly these seniors are able to repeat it with 85% + accuracy...and even remember it the next week!  

Before, as I said, many of our class members were convinced that they could no longer memorize the Bible ... that they were too old. But these class members have found that they not only can retell a story, they have been surprised to learn that they have just repeated 10-12 verses!!

Over and over we are told how much these members enjoy the class. Our class has more than doubled in size, and almost everyone talks and shares. After telling the "Jonah Runs" story, James came up afterward. He told me, “I have heard that story since I was a young boy, but up till now I've never applied it personally.”

One of our sweet widows (75+) told us that she often struggles to stay awake in church ... but she never falls asleep in SS.  It’s her favorite part of church. She is bright, alert, and actively involved in the discussion.

William and Brandie joined our church recently, and have come with their 4 young children. (Hooray, we're growing!!) William told me. I love this method of study. He said “I have attended Sunday School for years, in many churches. But most of the time it seemed like a race to look up as many verses as possible. And in the end, no one could answer the question, ‘What did you learn today?’ 

“But in this class,” he said, “I love the way we only stay in the story and don't jump all over the Bible. We take time to slowly go through the story and discover so many rich truths and lessons. I can easily remember what I learn, and can't wait to come to class each week.”

For over two months we have been teaching in Exodus, following Moses and Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Brandie shared with the class, “Now, after studying using STS, I am studying Exodus on my own, and it has so much more meaning. I can understand it.” She excitedly told us, “You have to stay and teach the whole Bible this way.”

Pastor Justin repeatedly tells us that he is constantly hearing from members how much they enjoy the class, and how much they are learning new and deeper truths from stories they have known for decades.

While at a pastors’ meeting at the main campus with the senior pastor and another pastor from a second satellite church, the pastor of the satellite church was saying how he wished he could find something that would ignite his adult Sunday School class. Pastor Justin said, ”Well, let me tell you about what's happening in Nevada.” He then proceeded to share with them how STS was impacting our church, and how excited members are to come to class. As a result of other inquiries, we are now praying about having an STS workshop at the main campus.

Teaching this way at church has impacted us as husband and wife. Chris and I co-lead our Sunday School class. We use the “tag-team” approach. Chris tells the story, does the retell and lead through. I then will ask the questions to discover spiritual observations and applications.

Preparing during the week has brought us closer together as we study together each morning before going to work. On Monday we select the next story, looking at how it might link to last week's lesson if doing a connect series of stories. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we learn the story, and look for the treasures. We have had so many blessed mornings together discovering truth and sharing as the Lord teaches us.

Thursday & Friday Chris works to perfect the story delivery, and together we come up with questions for the treasures found during the week. Saturday morning we put all the elements together, and finally Sunday morning before church we do a full run-through of the story, and hit the main questions we are going to ask in discussion.

I can't begin to tell you what a marvelous blessing and gift from God it has been to prepare and teach together. Many times we have to stop and spend time in prayer as God opens our hearts to his Word and changes us before we can lead others. We stand in amazement to watch the Holy Spirit touch lives by revealing God's truth from stories most of our members have heard for 60+ years. STS has brought the Bible back to life for everyone and they receive it with joy and expectation.

Our primary prayer now is for multiplication … being able to train others who will go out and use STS with their families, co-workers and neighbors. We are excited about the openness of the pastoral staff to hold a workshop, and Justin's desire to have his staff trained in STS and offer the workshop to others.

JoAn & Chris  TX, USA

Could God's Word Change a Marriage

Tom sat in the back of the STS (Simply The Story) training and shared very little. This big guy seemed shy. He watched and listened carefully. Eventually when we divided into smaller groups, Tom started sharing how he was being touched by the Word of God during the discussions. 

Later, Tom shared how he was in the process of getting a divorce. My heart broke because no one gets married and says, "I can't wait to get a divorce."  People marry to stay together forever. 

As a manager in a company, Tom certainly stayed busy, and yet he found time to learn more Bible stories and help with Simply The Story. We again, crossed paths about a year later, and he mentioned how wonderful it was to use the same questions we ask in STS to sort through problems at work.  Tom was literally helping people in his department fix their own problems by asking good questions. 

In this video you will here how Tom was diagnosed with cancer in late 2014. Thanks to the Lord and His Word changing two hearts, you will also hear of an even greater healing.

Hamlin Fistula Hospital STS

Hamlin Fistula hospital treats women with childbirth injuries and other related complications. Many tribal communities in Ethiopia practice forced marriages and girls are usually given to marriage at very tender ages.

When young married girls conceive after being married, they at times get injuries at childbirth and develop Fistula conditions and they can longer control bodily wastes- urine and feces.

When this happens, the injured girl's in-laws and husband reject her. These girls are considered as cursed, so their husbands leave and remarry. The families go through great shame and the poor women are held responsible for bringing the shame to their families.

Usually, these girls are hidden by their families from the public as those families try to cover the shame. The effects of these on the affected women are great shame, feeling of rejection and dejection. Fistula hospital takes such women from the villages and treats them.

We visited the Hamlin Fistula Hospital. While there we showed the God’s Story (Amharic version) to the patients. At first, the women looked very disturbed as they watched the scene where the Serpent deceives Eve. Later, when we asked the women why the looked disturbed when they saw the serpent, they said it reminded them of their condition as cursed women. As they watched the rest of the video, their faces lightened up and many of them shed tears as they were touched by God’s Word. They realized that Christ took their place, just as the ram died instead of Isaac.

Later we held an STS workshop for the hospital medical and assisting staff. The stories of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38) and the One Leper (Mark 1:40) became the hospital favorites. As the members of the staff practice these stories with the patients, the patients saw the shame in the Martha & Mary story. In the One Leper story, patients identified with the rejection the leper faced. Like the leper, each of them also had gone through rejection by their families and husbands because of their condition.

There was a great change to the women after the stories. The women said they wanted Jesus to touch them as He had touched the leper. The women said they were happy to know that God hasn’t cursed them; that He was providing a way out of their world of misery and shame. They were filled with joy and experienced new life and hope.

I've Never Seen Such Interest in Discipleship

Four people who learned STS in USA spent two wild weeks in Thailand running from one place to the next to train in cities and villages. Larry Dinkins who spent 20 years as a missionary in Thailand and 3 Thai leaders made up the team.

Larry wrote, "When we shared in a church in Bangkok, a 22 year old engineering student named “Juey” asked where I was teaching next. I told him we’d be in Phayao (12 hour bus ride away). Juey said, “I don’t care where it is, I want to tag along with you and learn this method!”

“Juey finished a final exam, got on a night bus and met me at Phayao. He slept in the same room with me for three nights and I had him do stories for the Bible College students as well as at a orphanage.

“I know storytelling is powerful, because in my 20 years in Thailand I never had anyone show such interest in being discipled in one of my teaching methods.

"Amazingly I got a similar reaction at Dallas Theological Seminary. After my workshop on orality some students asked if they could have an extra session to learn more of how it is done.

“I was also told that two DTS students decided to change their majors after my orality workshop which I gave last year at the seminary. This kind of response has encouraged me to start a class here at the US Center for World Missions as well."
Larry CA, USA

Discipleship in Retirement Homes

Pat, who ministers in retirement homes, reported, "We did four weeks in the book of Jonah. Even those with Alzheimer's remembered the stories each week and participated in the discussion. They all love this way of learning Bible."

"God Touched Me to the Core"

The numbers of reports of people using 5-minute STS stories in the market place of life are astounding. This phone story detailed below gives you an idea of how God uses His Word to touch people when they most need Him.  

Phone Story Travels

A heart-warming example of what we LOVE to see God do through conversational use of His Word occurred at our headquarters.  

About a year ago, one of our US staff met a Christian businessman over the phone. He is a friend of an STS lead instructor, and had heard some STS stories done in a family setting by that instructor. Based on that experience, and what the businessman read on our STS site, he decided to help host a workshop.  

Because of this, he and our staff member were getting to know one another during various phone calls as he arranged to host. Interestingly, as they planned the workshop, this man had been very slow to get back to us. On one call, he finally spilled out why. It seems this very committed Christian had been hit with multiple family deaths and a series of personal disasters in that past year, each enough to bring a person down.

His most recent disaster was due to a negligent landlord who had not paid taxes on the building he rented to this businessman. As a result, this business man was losing one of his best stores. What's more, a business partner had embezzled a large sum of money from this struggling businessman. Bank auditors were due in 5 days; everything was likely to be shut down! 

After this battle-weary believer shared all of his past year's struggles, including the most recent financial challenges, our staff member was stunned. Certainly, she had no solutions, but she knew God did. She told the man a few verses of a story from Mark 4.

“What you just told about reminds me of the time when Jesus asked the disciples to take Him and their boat over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Then a bad storm came up, the boat was filling with water and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat with His head on a pillow! Then the disciples came and woke up Jesus.

“And the Bible story goes exactly like this. The disciples asked, ‘Master, don't you care that we are dying?’ Then Jesus got up, reprimanded the storm, and said to the sea, ‘Peace be still.’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  Then Jesus asked the disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?’ Then the terrified disciples talked among themselves asking, 'What kind of a man is this that even the wind and sea obey him?’”

She then asked this businessman multiple questions, to which he responded each time. These are questions she asked:  

"You remember in this story, when the boat was filling with water, how Jesus questioned the disciples saying, 'How is it you have no faith?'  Wait, I have a question. How dangerous is this situation?  

“So, if you say it is life threatening, I am just wondering. What are the disciples supposed to have faith in?  

“Jesus,’ you say?

“So do they know Jesus can't drown? Or could Jesus have drowned? Come to think of it, was Jesus capable of dying?   

“Right. Agreed. I guess we can even see in the story that it wasn’t God’s plan for Jesus to die then, because Jesus didn’t die then. I am thinking that the disciples wouldn't have known that. Well, that is really strange. The disciples are about ready to drown! What in the world were they supposed to have faith in?

“Yes, I see that too. This is unusual.

“By the way, did you see the disciples viewing Jesus as any kind of a resource when the storm came up? I mean, do you see them acting like Jesus can do anything to help them?  

“Yes, I would agree with you on that, when you say they didn't call on Jesus to help sail or bail. But then, did they call on Jesus to do some miracle, like lifting the boat up and putting it at the shore or stopping the storm?  

“No?  Right, I see that too. So Jesus commands the wind to stop, and the waves to be calm. Okay, here’s a thought. Maybe we can figure something from what the disciples said after Jesus stops the storm. Remember how they asked each other, 'What kind of man is this, that the wind and sea obey him?'  Do you think that might indicate what they do and don't think of Jesus? Do you see something there?

“Hey, that’s good. You say that the disciples didn’t think of Jesus as someone who could help as a seaman, but then when Jesus stopped the storm, they were surprised and terrified.

“In the story, with Jesus being asleep with His head on a pillow in the back of the boat when they were in trouble, could that sort of show how much He was helping?

“Yes, I see that too. It sure doesn't look like Jesus is doing anything.

“When the disciples asked, 'Master, don't you care that we are going to die?' does that indicate what the disciples thought Jesus was doing by sleeping?  

“Well once again, I agree. They seem to be thinking that because Jesus wasn’t doing anything, that it seems like Jesus is not caring. So are we getting a feeling about what the disciples think of Jesus?  

“Yes, I see that. It seems like they are followers of Jesus, but they are not sure about His care and what He can do. But, wait a minute, by the end of the story, what kind of concern, and what kind of power does Jesus show?  

“Oh wow. You are right! That is good! Jesus did help, and in a way that showed power beyond what the disciples could comprehend. I am just thinking. The crossing of the sea in this story began when Jesus said to the disciples, 'Let's go to the other side.' So, I am wondering. Could that statement have anything to do with other ways the disciples could have approached Jesus when they woke him and asked, ‘Don't you care?’ And said, 'We are going to die.'   

“Totally. I see that! The disciples could have remembered that Jesus had said they were headed to the other side. So they could have asked, and as you said, could have asked sooner and not been so sure they were going to die. Oh by the way, had Jesus abandoned the disciples? I mean were they alone?"  

Up to this point, the businessman had been easily talking about the story and seeing a lot in it about the disciples. But all of a sudden, there was silence on the phone. Notice, our staff member had only been talking about the story. No personal applications had been suggested. But she sensed that God was delivering His message to the businessman.  

The man spoke. “Just because I do not see what God is doing, does not mean I am alone. Jesus told the disciples, 'Let's go to the other side.’ They had something to go on, Jesus’ Word!  He’s gonna take me through this. I may lose the business, but I will make it, and He is with me."   

She responded, "Well that was around a 5-minute STS. It is amazing how God gave you something from the story and I didn't really say that application. It’s like that with God's Word. They talked a few more minutes and that was the end of the call.”

Afterwards, all of the office staff prayed about the upcoming audit. We couldn't stand it. Two days after the scheduled audit, our staff member phoned the man to see what had happened.

“No results yet,” he said. But he shared how during the audit, the wife of the bank president came into the store and made a huge purchase, and it was done in the sight line of the auditor and bank officer! "But that’s not the miracle,” he explained. ”It’s that the five days before the audit have been the most peaceful days of my life. Jesus is with me. He will take me to the other side, whatever that is."

We did hear later that the audit was favorable, and the man is still in business.

Two months later, the businessman gave us an update. "You don't have to convince me on STS. Through that little bit of a story, God touched me to the core. You don't know how many times I have told that story like it was told to me, and then I told people what happened to me. I know I do not know how to do STS; I am looking forward to that.

“But I have told that overseas, and to my family, and in church, and to everyone I could.

“Just last week I told it to a pastor on the phone and he started crying and said 'I have to hang up now. I have to talk to God.’”  

Our staff member commented, “If God spoke and the world came into existence, then we need not be surprised that just a few verses from God's recorded Word, listened to well, can touch the lives of many today.”