parables

i was at a conference this weekend that i thought went pretty well. it seemed like the students had a great time, the main sessions flowed well, and everyone was pleased, me included. as i listened to our main session speaker finish up his second message, a question was posed by a friend of what i thought about the speaking style. my friend felt like it may not have been faithful to the word of God because we never really opened our bibles and dug in. at the time i didn't have a good response; his concerns sounded valid yet in my heart, i thought the Truth was spoken.
i've been thinking about it ever since. what should i have said? was there anything wrong with the message? am i missing something?
Andreew, our speaker is a gifted story teller obviously loves the Lord and loves communicating the story of God to students. as i sit here, i realize that i think he's following the model of Christ. Metaphors/parables keep the Truth of the message alive in people's hearts in a way that i just don't think a three point sermon can. the speaker told stories that bled the truth of God's word. my friend was right, we didn't really open up our bibles and unpack a text and then apply it to our lives. I think we opened up the Word in a much more meaningful way.
i was in a seminar after the first message and was thrilled to hear the group spell out what they heard from that first message and how real the Truth was. i asked them what made it so powerful? the story allowed us to think through the point (is that the right word?) that needed to be made. this came from jr high and high school students. they got it. they heard the Truth of God's word the light of their given situations. that rawks!
it's easy to get caught up in "telling" what the Bible says. i don't find it hard to stand up and tell someone exactly what they should be doing, in fact, i could make a really great list of points right now.
instead, i am realizing that i want my every word to spew God's word. i may not overtly say that this verse says such and such, but what if my life told the story of God everyday? what if, when i got up to speak, i had put the work into praying and studying through God's word that His truth was a part of my life that simply needed shared in the context of life? i don't want to be a teller, i want to be a thought provoker. i want to be a tool that the Spirit uses to spark the thoughts of those around me toward bigger things.
Jesus was amazing at allowing people to think through what He said. if i'm honest with myself, i wouldn't have understood much of His sermon on the mount for a long time. but i can bet that i would have been thinking about words like "blessed are the poor in spirit" everyday.
i'm thinking maybe the time has passed where a traditional "sermon" is what i need to be speaking. that's good news for me because i really suck at three point sermons.
Jesus spoke the language of the listener in every situation. every word of His was so rich, because He spoke to the heart. maybe that's where the attention needs to be. how can the message be conveyed in a manner that speaks to hearts? how can i, as a faithful servant, faithfully convey the transforming power of God's word? the story of God through the truth of life is so powerful, why not start there?
if only all this came to mind earlier. my conclusion, bring on the stories, as long as they're telling the Story. looking back, the first message of the highway is truly one of the greatest messages i've heard in a long time. Truth wrapped in the fabric of life, isn't that how it's supposed to be?