My First Ghost Story

We live in a world of experience consumers who always want to “feel things”. That makes it very hard for the ministries in local churches. And it makes things especially hard for those pastors who preach sermons every Sunday. After all, we are supposed to preach God's truth so that people will change, not give them a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Those ministries who make getting an emotional response from people their goal are destined to fail. In time those people will not be entertained anymore and start searching for a church that makes them “feel” better. Is it possible to connect with people emotionally through a sermon without watering down the message? I believe that it is possible through one of the oldest methods known to man, the art of story telling.

When I think of story telling it takes me back to an experience that happened many years ago. I was a young boy and the church my father pastored sent a group of people on a missions trip to Canada. Since my mom and dad where going I along with my brother got to go as well. The only problem was we were driving to Canada instead of flying. And for a little boy riding in a van for most of the day isn't fun at all.

After a few days on the road I was getting pretty bored. But then one of the men in my van started to tell some stories. I am not sure why he started telling them, maybe he saw that I was bored, but I will never forget those stories. See these were not just any stories. They were ghost stories. For what seemed like hours he told me stories about ghosts who haunted people at night. And after each one I begged him to tell me another.

The next day I made sure that I got on the same van as that man. Not only that but I had my younger brother with me! We both sat and listened as he told us one story after another. Today so many years later I still remember feeling excited, nervous, and a little bit scared at the same time. Every feeling came from those stories.

I can remember on another occasion camping out with my class mates in the fifth grade. While we were going to sleep I asked my teacher Mr. Detant to tell us a story. So as I laid in my sleeping bag he told the story of a little boy named John who was sent by his mother to buy some chicken liver for supper.

John found some meat with a sign that said liver which the butcher was selling cheaply so he bought it. Later that night he heard a voice far away saying, “John I want my liver”. The voice came up the street and through John's front door asking for his liver the whole time. Suddenly John realised that he had eaten a human liver instead of a chicken liver!

John escapes the house and is chased by the ghost only to fall into an open grave. And the last thing he heard was, “John I have my liver now”. I can't remember anything else from that camping trip but I can remember every word of the story. And I also vaguely remember having a hard time sleeping that night.

Stories have a way of connecting with us and staying in our minds. They also many times bring an emotional response. Christ himself even used stories in the forms of parables in his teachings. It is hard to keep the balance between allowing people to “experience truth” while at the same teaching truth correctly. But using stories that illustrate the truth of God's Word is a wonderful way to keep that balance. And many times years after the truth has faded from our minds the story will remain.