Stewards of Story

In The Power of Words and the Wonder of God, Daniel Taylor submits that a leader is primarily the steward of a story.

As I was reading the book of Joshua last night, I found this fascinating: "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel." (Joshua 24:31). In the following book, Judges, we read that later, "there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel, And the people of Israel did what was evil in the site of the Lord..."

They forgot the story. Joshua and the elders remembered the story and told the story. And as long as they did that, the people followed God. Once the story was lost, the passion for God was lost along with it.

As leaders, one of our primary responsibilities is to be stewards of the story. And not only that-- but to pass the story on to the next generation. How can we be better stewards of the story of God in Scripture and the story that God is writing in our communities? How do we incorporate this into our disciple-making process? How do we pass the story on to the leaders coming behind us and teach them to steward the story well?