Monday, November 02, 2009

Pendulum Swinging?

I continue to process all I heard at STORY. As I look back at my notes, think about them and share with my husband, I thank God that I was able to be there! Love all the thoughts and wisdom that I heard. The idea of telling our stories was everywhere ... which it should have been given the name of the conference. I love stories, whether hearing one in person or reading one. And I love the attention being given to the importance of each person's story.

Why is a favorite word of mine - and I'm now asking why about one aspect of the conference. I'm wondering if the pendulum is going to swing too far in the story direction now. I'm looking forward to an explosion of good stories being written and/or spoken, but I'm wondering if we should strive for a balance of good stories, along with direct teaching, etc. Will we all get sick of hearing about stories and the value of them? Right now, I'm not interested in reading a book or hearing a teaching with 3 or 5 or 7 bullet points - been there, done that, too many times. But having said that,  can everything be taught in story form or are there certain things that are still best taught with a few good points? 

The teaching at the conference was excellent, some of the best communicators I've ever heard - entertaining, real, inspiring, eloquent and a joy to listen to. STORY was all about communicating stories, yet only a few of the teachings were done in story form. Could they have taught the good stuff they did about telling stories in story form? Pondering that tonight ... 
Your thoughts?

History has always been a series of pendulum swings, 
but the individual doesn't have to get caught in that. ~Robert Johnson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good question. i wonder if they thougt about that at all.