Stewarding the Story

Local churches have many roles to fill such as pastors, treasurers, teachers, and custodians. Some churches have recreation ministers or plant managers. Each role serves an important function in the life of the church. Some churches have more roles than people and constantly struggle to fill those roles. Leaders do not want someone to propose one more role for the local church. Nevertheless, this role may be a means by which the Spirit breathes new life into the Body.

West African cultures, to this day, honor the role of Griot in public life. A Griot is part-historian, part-storyteller, and part-poet. The title (of French origin) means servant. While Griots serve ceremonial functions in their cultures, the Griot’s primary responsibility is to be keeper of the stories

The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene begins, not with doctrine or conduct, but with our Historical Statement. We did not arrive here from nowhere. We got here from the past. There is a real sense in which the past is not dead. It is alive, feeding and nourishing us in these very days. Whether it is Church history in general, denominational history, or the history of a local church, our stories tell the truth about our journey with God. Like the people of Israel, our great sin could be the sin of forgetfulness, attempting to detach our present life from our past story. The prophets’ call to Israel, and to the church across the ages, is a call to remember. That is where Griots come in.

The Griot is the custodian of collective memory, but not merely for sentimentality’s sake. The Griot stewards our stories, realizing that the past is a present means of grace. She/he curates history as a spiritual discipline on behalf of the Body. What God has done gives signs of what God is doing and will do. As local churches struggle to find a way forward, what if leaning backward could be the Spirit’s way of propelling us forward?

My church began with a tent revival in 1946 and was then incorporated in 1950. Eight decades later, we are losing our senior saints who have connections with our beginnings. In the coming years, we will lose all direct ties to our beginnings. Losing the saints into everlasting life is good, natural, and even necessary. What is unnecessary is losing the story of the church along with them.

We may not need churches to bestow the title of Griot—doing the work may be formal or informal, but it requires a team of people across generations. It makes sense for the preservation of collective memory to be collective work. My local church has taken steps in this direction. I offer some possibilities to generate creative ways to keep your church’s story alive:

• Get oral history in writing. This is what the gospel writers did as the first generation of the early church died. Where would we be if Luke (the historian) did not write down the oral stories of Jesus and the Spirit in the life of the early church?

• Record the saints. Get them on video, telling the stories of the church. Preserve their voices. Allow their own words to speak to future generations.

• Post a timeline. Use butcher-block paper along the walls. Mark noteworthy events on the timeline. Have people sign their names on the year they connected with the church.

• Perform the story. Find ways to creatively carry the story forward. Host story-telling nights, quiz shows about the church’s history, or dramas that re-enact what matters most. Church stories can be told and retold through preaching, but are there other artistic forms that can share the story as well? For centuries, stained glass windows have served this function.

• Use identity-enrichment items. Be intentional about what you post on walls. Instead of decor, let your aim be iconography or identity enrichment. Hang pictures, framed quotes, and other items that tell the story well.

Griots have one rule: As you steward the story, remember that God is always the hero of the story. May the pulse of the past invigorate our future for the glory of God.

Rev. Daron Brown lives and pastors in Waverly, Tennessee, with his wife, Katie, and children, Kendall, Parker, and Macy.