The Story Zone

The Story Zone describes the second position on The Journey Map — a framework for individuals and communities to locate themselves on journey with Jesus. This position is part of The Land of Belonging. In order for people to belong, they must feel seen and heard by Jesus and his people. They must also feel like they can see, hear, and relate to the story of Jesus and as revealed in the true life dreams and struggles of his followers. This opens up the relational possibility of participation — the root of true belonging: “maybe these people can participate in my life in a meaningful way, and maybe there is room for me to do the same.”

Activity in this position can often be informal though intentional — employing focused relational skills. This can be done, while “hanging out”, networking, or working together. Organized activities are also possible as long as they are designed as safe space for talking about aspiration and situation, pain and potential. By safe, we mean that the space — whether informal or formal — doesn’t collapse the tension between potential and pain through easy answers, judgmentalism, or superiority. Because this position can be either informal or formal, it doesn’t require exclusive space — you can do it embedded in other life rhythms by practicing a “way of being”.

Core Dynamics

The Story Zone is based on the following dynamics distilled from Scripture:

• Creative Tension: tension — between heaven and earth, what we want and what we have, our aspiration and our situation, the potential and pain of our stories — creates space in our lives the anticipates the participation of God and others.
• Origin and Synthesis: tension is maintained by connecting to a common origin or a future possible synthesis. For example, responding “I can really relate to that” connects emotionally to a common origin of experience without collapsing creative tension with advice giving.

Supporting Skills: Outfit This Equipment

• Listening and Seeing People: A essential part of the proceeding Mercy Mission position is the cultivation of space in our lives for others. This allows us to listen to everyone with radical hospitality — as if we are entertaining angels. We don’t listen at this point in order to speak, to cure, or to judge, but in order to know who we are listening to. When a person is listened to on this level, they begin to believe God and his people see them like no one else could.
• Seeing Everything as Kingdom Quests: When we see every aspiration as reaching for heaven and every situation as a cry for God to be manifest on earth, we are in a position of readiness for God to reveal his Kingdom in presence and power (we’re ready for Revelation Rhythm). This is a skill set that requires imagination, Biblical literacy, and generosity of heart and speech.
• Holding Space (Peaceful Presence): Tension creates space for God to do something. But it’s uncomfortable, so people are tempted to collapse tension through idolatry and self-deception. People need capacity and support from us to hold space open in that discomfort. We can bring them this peace (beyond intuitive understanding) because we have complete thankfulness towards our common origin and faith in God’s inevitable synthesis of all things.

The Story Zone Content and Resources

Forum Posts: Our community members can share stories, insights, and resources anywhere on our forums and use the Tag The Story Zone to connect their post to this position. When you visit a post tagged like this, ask yourself what does this have to do with creating space to hear and see people and their story.