WHAT’S MY POINT?

What’s my point?

My point is that all of these are to some extent true. My point is all “history” is selective—we pick the stories we tell to slant the story toward some end. The history we pick to tell tells us more about who we are (or want to be) than what the actual truth is. I have heard all of these explanations of my denomination’s history telling us who we are—and though they are “all true” but they are not “all the truth.” I best it is the same in your denomination—or your family. Which stories do you tell? If you are Nazarene do you tell the Pilot Point Texas story or the California one? If you are Free Methodist—how do you explain the word “free?” How do you explain your own denomination to a neighbor—do you always say the same thing or do you “spin” the history to make your church sound closer to what that person “hopes you’ll be?” Or do you select and tell the stories that support your church becoming what you want it to be?

So, what do you think?

· What does the history your church tells reveal about what you are today—and what you want to be?

· What stories in your own church history do you inflate? Conceal?

· Is this the primary use of history—to tell us what we are and want to be?

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