READING & REELS: Reimagining a Return to Story

I have a problem. 

I no longer like to read. 

I can’t seem to focus. 

Every time I try to read my eyes skip across sentences like a frantic squirrel. I can barely stop a moment to collect those dang nuts. 

I blame my phone. Though I didn’t have smart phone until my early 30’s. I loved being off grid. Unreachable. Unfindable. But then kids, job, ‘adulting’ - etc. - and an iPhone was ‘mandatory for life.’ And now my eyes are tired at 10:30AM and my head is filled with useless knowledge (mostly expired pro-salary contracts) and flashes of reels.

The reels. 

Oh, the reels. 

The seconds-long micro-mimesis-mini films, single frame/single shot/overdubbed rando audio clipped reels. 

(The death of our civilization in 2 minutes or less...)

Reels are all the rage. Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter - social media is filled with these mini-vids. And I get it. People love reels. Who doesn’t want to see someone sitting in their car talking on camera? I’ve probably offended many of you with my critique. (Apologies to my darling wife -she loves them.) But I can’t help but feel that the growing popularity of reels is a symptom of a larger problem, a further indicator of our inability to collectively graft ourselves into larger narrative. 

The church has her own version of the ‘reel.’ Our own version of condensed micro-clip-messaging. It goes by another name. 

The sermon. The preach. The sharing of the Word. 

*Except sermons are about 4000% times longer*

For years Church Inc. has preached about preaching while preaching. Myself included. Pastors lay out monthly themes and topics and tracks for our congregations to follow. Kids’ ministries teach kids how to be good and how to behave and what rules to follow. Youth groups teach teens on the up-to-date relevant ‘teen’ topics in hip (not so hip) ‘teenspeak’. Adults huddle up to discuss their feelings and regrets and dissect the theology walls that divide us. Preachers preach to preach, offering distilled micro-clips of content. Condensed messaging in pill-sized capsules. Sermonizing reels. Sermons are efficient. To the point. Purposeful.

But where is the story?

Behind all that Big C preaching and sermonizing, bureaucracy, theology, and ideology - laying underneath the proverbial pew - is one giant, beautiful, long, complicated, nuanced story. 

The most compelling story of human civilization. 

A story that has literally reshaped and reformed the course of human history over and over and over again. 

And no, I am not talking about the Bible. 

It is the story behind the Bible - the story of the Bible! 

The story of the creator God’s slow-drip revelation to humanity. God revealed through history. God showing up. Meeting people personally. In places. Doing things. Acting and feeling and working and moving in and through decisions, choices, mistakes. God breathing life into stale ethics. Crafting character through conviction and challenge and chastisement. God showing up NOT as an idol, statue, or figure to be held and possessed. But God alive. God invisible-made-visible. God offering his invisibility as a gift; as a possibility of His non-existence. And in doing so, God inspiring faith through doubt and giving space for our relatedness. Relationship over feudal lordship. 

Finally, this story culminates to its climactic point - God revealed in and through the person of Jesus. God on display. Incarnate. Flesh and blood. Breathing, laughing, sobbing, eating. Loving. Leading. Teaching. Dying. Defeating the mortal enemy of death and offering the Spirit as His gift to us. 

To see the face of Jesus in His story - is to see God Himself. To know Him.

The scriptures are witness to His story. The ongoing, centuries-crafted, written testimony of God-showed-up. An intricate weaving of story upon story upon story written by God inspired believers and questers. A curated history; a narrative masterpiece. 

When I think of a reimagined church - I imagine a church that returns to story. God’s story as story first. The ‘preach’ clocked in at a long distanced second. Efficiency and purpose take the back seat. ‘The point’ isn’t so much of a point but a savouring feast.

And a slow digestion.

I imagine a kids’ ministry that trusts kids with the messiness of the scriptures. The tangled disasters of failed humans redeemed by a loving Creator. I trust in a child’s ability to feel. To learn through formation. I trust the breath of the scriptures to shape their hearts and minds. 

I imagine a youth ministry where teens find relevance in the triumphs and failings of the living past because the story is simply that compelling. 

I imagine adults engaged in childlike wonder, curiously basking in the brilliance of the tale and themselves as players in the unfolding narrative.

Most of all, I imagine kids, teens, adults - young and old alike - gathered under the boughs of the pines, eyes wide and together, engrossed in the story of God. 

Sharing in God’s story is to accept an invitation to His formation. 

There’s no time for reels - not even 30 seconds worth - when God’s story unfolds in all its wonder.

Just a quick thought.

CLICK HERE to subscribe to Let’s Talk: Honest - with amos. My personal reflections on the reimagine.church journey!