Stories of the King

In 2015 Springwater Church of the Nazarene in Gresham, Oregon put together a "story camp."

"Stories of the King" had four goals. 1. Develop our coherent, comprehensible, and engaging presentation of the Lordship of God in Jesus. 2. Equip members of the Springwater Church body to announce the good news and to confidently and intentionally speak about the Lordship of Jesus. 3. Make positive contacts with at least 10 neighborhood children. 4. The children who attend will be able to tell the story of the Lordship of God in Christ, understanding what it means practically as they make choices.

It was a five day camp. Each day had seven elements. 1. Game 2. Teaching Introduction 3. Storying: bible story and simple questions that allow the children to find truths and treasures in the biblical story themselves 4. an exercise or game to practice a practical choice in response to the good news 5. a craft that helps as a memory marker for the story,  teaching, or response 6. snack 7. responding to the good news with songs.

Our rationale could be summarized in three statements. Our focus will be on Stories of the King because our faith is a response to the good news that Jesus is Lord. Our focus will be on Stories of the King because God has called us to represent him in creation—to rule under God’s authority. Our focus will be on stories of the King because it is in this good news that we find salvation from our sin and in this good news that we are reconciled to God.

We took up a big challenge assuming that we could "story" our selection of five passages that conveyed this story: 1 Chronicles 17:3b, 7-14; Daniel 7:1, 11-14; Luke 4:14-21; Romans 1:2-4; 1 Corinthians 15:23b-28. We adapted the method we learned from Bible Trekking/Tell the Story and gave a context to the stories with “backstory” teaching on several topics: God, King David, Prophets, and Covenants; Exile, Apocalyptic Dreams, and the Ancient One; Jesus and the Holy Spirit; The Holy Scriptures; Authority, the Kingdom of God, and the Enemy: Death. We repeated a summary of the overarching storyline by reading a children's book each of the five days:  The Story of King Jesus by Ben Irwin. The story selection was a difficult "storying" assignment but we were amazed at (1) how well the children internalized the scriptures and (2) how they comprehended the big picture. I think we were, as “grown-ups,” also surprised at how much we grew in our understanding of the reality that Jesus is Lord is our hearts and lives because of the experiences of the story camp.

The whole church was along for the ride. The scriptures, practices, and music of the story camp shaped an extended corresponding series that guided our worship gatherings in the months around the camp. Our children’s Sunday morning community groups were also shaped by those scriptures, practices, and music. In retrospect, I think we would have been well served if the adult and young groups had been as well.