Equal Time

I received a call this past week from Annie Nonomous inquiring as to whether I was willing to give the Women’s Seminar equal time since last week’s article addressed the Men’s Seminar. This was not an egalitarian plea fueled by a feminist spirit of equal rights but rather a desire to share the spiritual feast that Jeanette Rodriguez had passionately shared. Annie was particularly moved by the story of John and Hope Chen of Nandong China. This couple developed an evangelism strategy (Training for Trainers) where they taught a simple farming community to share their faith. They recognized that this handful of hard working common folk didn’t know what to say so they had them write out the answer to three questions: 1) what you were like before Jesus, 2) how you met Jesus, and 3) what your life has been like since Jesus. John instructed them to tell “their story” out loud five times until it was comfortable. Reportedly this resulted in an evangelism explosion that developed into one of the largest churches in China.

I think Annie not only felt challenged to tell her story but realized that the good news of Jesus is not a stagnate dusty tale confined to the ancient text but a living, growing story of people connected by the cross. Jesus body is a living church! We have a story to tell… we have our stories to tell. So Annie meet Arabella…

Arabella Katherine Hankey was the daughter of a prosperous London banker. She belonged to a group who sought to apply the ethics of Christ to personal, social, political and national affairs, and, showed great interest in people who were less fortunate than herself, she devoted much time to Bible teaching, especially among the factory girls of that day, and her efforts were rewarded in that many of her students became leaders in Christian work. In 1866 Katherine, or Kate as she was better known, suffered a serious illness that required a lengthy convalescence. As she laid thinking of the story of redemption, she longed for someone to come in and tell her the old, old story. As a result she wrote a two-part, 50-verse poem on the life and work of our Lord. Part One was called "The Story Wanted" and contained the words of the hymn "Tell Me The Old, Old Story." Part Two entitled "The Story Told" included a companion song, "I Love To Tell The Story."

Listen to Kate’s words Rita (oops! I mean Annie): “I love to tell the story: It did so much for me; and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.” Preach on Sisters! -DAN