Randy C. Davis
I don’t know a stranger, or at least that’s what my oldest granddaughter believes. She says I can’t be anywhere for two minutes before I start talking with someone I’ve never met.
She’s not wrong.
It’s not that I intentionally think about engaging people; I just find people interesting. Everybody has a story — is a story — and I believe people want to tell their stories, mostly because they want to be seen and acknowledged. They want their lives to matter, and I believe they are encouraged when they can share their story with someone who takes an interest in them.
But the stories I love the most are when people share their “God story,” the story of their journey with the Lord, and how He’s worked in their lives. The Old Testament repeatedly calls on us to “remember the Lord our God.” Our circumstances change, but God never does. Hearing others tell their stories is a great encouragement to me to keep pressing forward in faith.
We need to collectively be encouraged by hearing God at work in the lives of other believers so that we are reminded of God’s faithfulness to us as a people — His people. It helps us press forward together in faith.
That’s why you’ll have the opportunity to share your God story at this year’s Summit when we gather in Murfreesboro in a little more than a week. This year we celebrate our sesquicentennial, and the theme of our annual meeting is “150 Years of God’s Story.” One major reason for gathering in Murfreesboro is to remember, to look back to when our forebearers came together at First Baptist Church, Murfreesboro, to officially form a network of churches called the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Please stop by the TBMB display in the exhibit hall to write your “God story” on one of the paper leaves we’ll have available and drop it in the basket. A TBMB staffer will be there to help. Or, you can scan the QR code in this column (or while at Summit from one of the available poster boards) and type your story into the form. Someone will transfer your story to a leaf. We need as many leaves as possible.
A word of caution, when scanning QR codes, always scan them with your phone’s camera and not a QR reader app, as many of those apps are fraudulent and designed to harvest personal information.
Once we have your story on a leaf, it will become a part of our story as we celebrate Tennessee Baptists on Tuesday. We will also be capturing your stories on video so someone from TBMB staff may ask for your help with that on Monday.
Obviously, I love stories, maybe because I love The Story we read about in John 3:16. Short, sweet and profoundly life-transformative. Now that’s a great story!
It’s also communicated in one of my favorite hymns: “I love to tell the story; ’twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.”
By the way, its author, Kate Hankey, has a fantastic story herself. Hankey was British and penned the hymn in 1866. She was part of a group of evangelical Anglicans who helped establish the British and Foreign Bible Society, promoted the abolition of slavery, and was involved in improving the lot of England’s working classes.
Hankey taught Bible classes for shop girls in London, visited the sick in local hospitals, and used the proceeds of her writings to support various mission causes.
So what’s your story? I am personally inviting you to Summit 2024 to celebrate 150 years of God writing the story of Tennessee Baptists. While there, share your God story and be a part of what God is doing now through Tennessee Baptists and what He plans to do in the future as we extend the legacy we’ve inherited.
It truly is a joy to be with you on this journey. B&R
