My friend Dr. George Robinson put me onto this back in February, and I am really encouraged to see it get a lot of traction in recent months. The Story is a tool focused on the big picture of the Bible–Scripture’s metanarrative–the story of Scripture laid out in creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. For a long time, gospel presentations were exclusively categorical and based on systematic theology (God, man, sin, Christ, response), such as in the Roman Road, Evangelism Explosion, and Four Spiritual Laws. What are finding today, however, is that the starting point has changed with an ever-increasing disconnect between the church and post-Christian society.
I recall one time David Wells saying in a conference that we cannot start with John 3:16 in sharing the gospel today; instead, we must start with Genesis 1:1. And that is what The Story does. Taking the approach of biblical theology, The Story doesn’t just talk about God, sin, and Christ, but it helps answer the questions of why and how things came to be the way they are today. A postmodern culture with fewer and fewer people understanding the nature of God and sin due to their pluralistic worldview need a new grid or framework through which the gospel can be rightly understood, and biblical theology through the story of redemptive history explains that.
That is why I am encouraged to see gospel literature like 2 Ways 2 Live and The Story come out in recent years. They are helping to connect the story of the gospel to the stories of people’s lives by showing them the overarching story of God in Scripture. Take a moment and read The Story for yourself and watch the video below where men like David Platt, Alvin Reid, J.D. Greear, Ed Stetzer, Scott Thomas, Elliot Grudem, and George Robinson share why they are encouraged by this new evangelistic tool.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/14569895]