We’ve got a story to tell!

Caitlyn Clark. Until recently, I had no idea who she was. Who is she?, you may ask. She is the all-time high scorer for both men’s and women’s collegiate basketball. She’s played guard for the University of Iowa. This season she helped significantly expand interest in women’s collegiate basketball and women’s sports in general. This week she entered the WNBA’s draft as the first pick for the Indianapolis Fever.

Some of you may be wondering how I could not have known of her until recently. The answer is that I typically don’t follow sports (other than Purdue’s men’s basketball). I leave that to my wife and three sons. So how is it I know about Caitlyn Clark? How is it that the average ticket cost for the final NCAA women’s tournament topped $2,000 a seat, higher than for the men? The sportscasters say it’s for two reasons: One, Caitlyn has given the WNBA and women’s sports a story to tell, and two, they have told the story effectively.

I’m thinking that those should be just as true for us Christians, right? We’ve got the greatest story ever told, the Easter story!  And we need to do what Peter did at Pentecost and tell that story, not just for the present generation but for the generations to come. In Acts 2:38-39, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’”

And now we are the stewards of that story.  The baton of faith is in our hands and it’s our turn to pass it on.  Yet, as Bishop Bob Farr, Resident Bishop of the Missouri Conference, said recently at an Indiana Conference leadership event, “We offered the church to our children, and they didn’t want it.”  Maybe we need to focus on sharing the story and less on the church.  What is your God story? Who are you telling it to? How are you telling it?

Just as there are a lot of people, like me, who didn’t know Caitlyn Clark, but do now, there are a lot of people who don’t really know the God that we know and the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The baton of faith is in our hands.  We get the privilege of sharing the story. So let’s do it and pass the faith on, so future generations can share the greatest story too.

— Ed Fenstermacher, Associate Director of Church Development