Storytelling on the Beach
My assignment this week is six talks at a youth conference in Florida on What Would Jesus Twitter? Finding Real Life in the Virtually Real World.
How do we connect with God in an age that is hyperlinked to everything? How do we follow the way of Jesus in the world of MySpace, YouTube and Twitter? Where do we find the kind of fulfillment that is more than just one more Google search word? What is the “good life” in a world of more and more consumer goods? How can we integrate our lives in a fragmented world? What does it mean to be fully human, gloriously alive, in a world of avatars, vanity pages and second-life personas? How do we love God and love our neighbor when we have five hundred Facebook friends?
Using the Bible as our “cheat code”, we’ll try to hack our way through some of these questions as we seek to discover life at its best. While centering our search in the stories and wisdom sayings of Jesus, we’ll also dabble in the stories that come to us in song and poetry and film and art.
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All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy:
I will open my mouth and tell stories;
I will bring out into the open
things hidden since the world’s first day.
(Matthew 13:34, The Message)
