Story is not just important. It is also powerful. Story is such a powerful force in our lives. What is the story that our lives are telling? What are the images and words that define our wanderings. We are all poets and at the same time poetry. We are all storytellers and at the same time the stories themselves.
My friend Mike is in a new place, with a very different story. The Church is supposed to be the community that represents God's story. Yet in a foreign culture without much of a church, how will that new place hear and see the story of God. What whispers will my friend Mike be able to bring? What echoes of the voice of God will be able to resound off of him?
As I write this, I think of how much the American church, with all of its riches and resources, has found itself in a new place with a very different story. Can the church in North America even find a way to whisper, or have we lost our voice. Indeed, where are our prophets?