We Are Storytellers

We are all stories. We are all storytellers. It is important to remind ourselves that we have stories to share. It matters a great deal that our stories are heard and shared with others. The power of hearing and sharing our stories can transform generations. Youth ministry often functions as a silo, disconnected from other generations. This disconnect between generations harms not only youth but also older generations who age in isolation, without becoming elders to the next generation. Both youth and elders carry stories, knowledge, and wisdom that long to live on in other generations. Younger generations benefit in body, mind, and spirit from the contemplative practice of storytelling as an art form.  

I often ask the youth I serve why they think the stories in the Bible are so profound. Why are these stories, in particular, worth wrestling with, engaging with, and using for spiritual lessons? They matter because they were important enough to be spoken aloud, passed from mouth to ear, generation to generation, long before they were ever written down.  

Do you want your life story to matter so much that both young and old alike want to hear it, ask questions, wrestle with its meaning, and find life-giving lessons within it? Is there something that you know that others should know, and you could teach them? 

How often do any one of us sit and listen to the stories of those around us? Perhaps a parent, or a grandparent, offers us wisdom and legacy, not as instruction but as lived experience. We encounter the beauty of a story shared. A life remembered out loud, together in communion of community.  

In our youth ministry, we are intentionally moving out of generational silos. We are seeing youth thrive in intergenerational gatherings centered on food, prayer, storytelling, and skill-sharing. It is beautiful to watch traditions, skills, and knowledge move back and forth between generations. This is happening not only through blood family, but through chosen family. They are connecting through shared art, stories, makerspaces, food, and games. 

Our youth are sharing their ideas on faith, life, friendship, and technology through stories and by co-creating food together. Our elders are sharing professional skills such as project management, conflict negotiation, budgeting and investing, and much more.  

This, too, is a contemplative practice. A contemplative experience. One where presence is felt, both the presence of one another and the presence of God. This is part of living contemplative practices through the embodiment of faith in sacred time together, sharing ideas, stories, skills, and living legacies.