November 19th, 2020

Over the last four weeks, CoMission's three house groups have gone over the four consecutive parts of the Gospel story; the stories of Creation, Rebellion, Rescue and Restoration. In fact, the way we went about this is very similar to how our staff share the Story in Four with college students when meeting up for Gospel Appointments.

Each week, our house group gatherings talked about a different part of the Gospel story, beginning with Creation and ending with Restoration. The basis for conversations and discussion questions was started by watching a portion of an animated narrative video made by the Bible Project which covered the overview of Genesis chapters 1 through 11. Invaluable conversations were exchanged during this series about how our lives are different now than they were before Christ and how we can continue to live purposefully because of what He’s done for us. 

For the second week of the series, my group did an exercise where we paired off and each took turns sharing what our lives were like before Christ (leaving off there as the third part of the story, Rescue was to be discussed next week). Although this activity might have been somewhat uncomfortable, it was great practice for when we ever find ourselves in a situation where there might be potential for sharing the Gospel story with someone else. After all, God wrote our small and insignificant stories into His large, overarching one for a purpose so that other life stories might be impacted for His glory. Who knows, maybe we'll equip some potential future CoMission staff leaders through this practice. 

Now, for a brief overview of how our CoMission staff share the Gospel story with students during a Gospel Appointment. When we meet with students, the intent is to be genuine and get to know their life stories. After they get done sharing, we ask them if we can share a story with them, which is actually THE story. When sharing the Gospel story with students, we use a document called The Story in Four. Each part of the Gospel story (Creation, Rebellion, Rescue and Restoration) includes a few short, yet challenging life questions that we have the students answer to the best of their knowledge/understanding and ability. Once we finish going through this, we ask the students where they think they see themselves in the story (i.e. are they saved or do they reject God?) Regardless of their answers, we usually conclude the meeting by asking them if they would like to keep meeting up and start reading the Bible together and then we go from there.

Being an English Major, I have a love for stories that enables me to never tire of seeing how God the Author of each and every one of our stories knows everything about us. The fact that He even knows us better than we know ourselves is absolutely mind-blowing. Shoot, He knows what we're going to do before we even think about doing it. He knows how long each of our lives will be, how they'll end and when. He's literally the Great Author of real life stories (no fictional ideals included). Now, a concluding question for all of us to think about. How can I share my story in a way that will encourage those around me to seek Him?