Why Don't Progressive White Christians Talk About Their Faith?

What’s Your Story?

“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
--Deuteronomy 11:18-19 NIV

This past Sunday I preached on the power of telling our stories to change our lives and others’ lives.  I shared how growing up as a Southern Baptist we regularly had testimony times in services when church members would share about their faith journeys.  Usually it was the same handful of people who seemed to be trying to outdo one another with who could tell a bigger story of what a sinner they had been before God saved them.  I don’t want to sound too critical of that tradition of testimony, because at heart I think it is a good practice.

Over the years as I have served in progressive churches, I have been dismayed at how rarely more liberal Christians are willing to talk about their own faith journeys.  Perhaps they resist the idea of God having more control over their lives than they do.  Perhaps it is a resistance to being vulnerable at church and acting like those “Pentecostals” or “charismatics” they see on TV.  Maybe it is skepticism about just how much God really intervenes in the natural order of things.  This is sad, because I’ve learned that everyone suffers when nobody tells their stories.

Sitting in the pews of every church are people who have survived extraordinary things—addictions, abuse, illness, abandonment, grief and disappointment.  The heroic and courageous activity of surviving and learning from struggle is worth sharing.  Even more so, the stories of how God helped people to survive and heal over time are essential to any community of faith.

In Deuteronomy, the Israelites are soon to enter the Promised Land after generations wandering in the wilderness.  The writer (or writers) of Deuteronomy depicts Moses retelling Israel’s story and rehearsing the covenant and laws God has made with them.  He instructs them to “fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds” and tie these words to your hands and foreheads.  (This is why observant Jews pray with a phylactery or little box containing sacred Jewish texts wrapped around their arms.)  He also says to teach them to their children and share the stories wherever you go.  In other words, Moses tells Israel to remember the stories of where they come from, because those stories will strengthen them in future times of trouble.

That’s good advice for us.  The stories of our lives and the stories of how God has impacted our lives are necessary for a healthy life.  This time during the quarantine is a great time to pick up a phone or a webcam to tell a loved one some of your story.  Tell your kids and grandkids, because during this time of struggle they need to be encouraged by your stories of making it through other struggles.  Share those stories with your friends and ask your parents and grandparents to share their stories.  Strengthen one another with the saving activity of stories demonstrating God’s presence during hard times.

Frederick Buechner in his book Wishful Thinking has this to say about our sacred storytelling:

“The truth that Christianity claims to be true is ultimately to be found, if it's to be found at all, not in the Bible, or the church, or theology — the best they can do is point to the truth — but in our own stories.

“If the God you believe in as an idea doesn't start showing up in what happens to you in your own life, you have as much cause for concern as if the God you don't believe in as an idea does start showing up.

“It is absolutely crucial, therefore, to keep in constant touch with what is going on in your own life's story and to pay close attention to what is going on in the stories of others' lives. If God is present anywhere, it is in those stories that God is present. If God is not present in those stories, then they are scarcely worth telling.”