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A New Chapter: Putting Old Tools To New Use

 I've begun a new chapter in my life.  A few months ago my family moved to Cherry Hill, NJ after living in Norfolk, VA for over sixteen years.  My wife got a great call in Philadelphia, and I'm currently looking for my next call.  In the mean time I'm keeping busy.

I decided to take my skills in Congregational Development and bring them to the online world.  I launched a Facebook page called Ministry Development, and I'm following Russell Brunson's model in Expert Secrets to reach as wide an audience as possible.

My goal for this phase is to dedicate 2024 to learning, developing, and teaching the art of storytelling as a vehicle for sharing faith.  This is remarkably different from the idea that many people have in their heads.  In some quick Facebook polls, I found that many people fear sharing their faith for one of two reasons.  The first is that they have had bad experiences with evangelists in the past - the kind where someone would get in your face and tell you to believe what they believe - or else ...  The other fear is that they just don't know enough about theology, or don't know how to share effectively.

What I'm proposing though, is that instead of those distasteful ideas of sharing, simply share stories from your own life.  There is the Good News with a capital "G" - and there is a time and place for that.  But for most people, they are in a much better position to share their own unique good news, with a small "g."  These stories are the particular moments of grace that happen to us in our every day lives.  One story from my life is from Ash Wednesday in 1998.  I tried walking past the Chapel where The Episcopal Church at Cornell was having its Ash Wednesday service.  Suddenly my legs felt like concrete and I couldn't move past it.  This was very distressing because it was lunch time and I was hungry.  But something told me I needed to be in that service.  And now here I am almost 24 years later as an ordained priest.

My goals for the Facebook Page are to share stories like this one, along with the frameworks I use to create them.  Then I would like to teach these frameworks in live settings to parishes that will have me, and possibly even develop a 12 month program to create a culture of storytelling in your congregation.  I'm excited for the possibilities that this project holds.

Again this is a new chapter in my life.  I'm grateful for all the people who are a part of it, and I look forward to those moments when our stories overlap.  But in the meantime, tell your stories.

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