Understanding the Story behind the stories God’s Big Story Understanding the Story behind the stories Teachers’ Training Session

What is the metanarrative? God’s Big Story: One Storyteller, one tone, one heart Creation – Fall – Redemption – Restoration – Consummation Distinction between the narrative approach and the metanarrative approach The Bible is not a collection of unrelated, neutral stories The stories have been selected by God to form a part of the much larger metanarrative of redemption The metanarrative gives meaning and significance to each story The whole is greater than the sum of its parts The metanarrative is the Story which interprets and gives meaning to each story

Why this approach? Since God is the author of Scripture, we need to understand His intent If we isolate statements or books of the Bible from the rest, we could produce distorted interpretations and we could be headed towards idolatry How do we do this? Take the Bible as a whole and understand each book and story as part of the whole, one Story – God’s redemptive story The metanarrative is the Story which interprets and gives meaning to each story Every story whispers Jesus’ name Resources: Jesus Storybook Bible; Big Picture Story Bible; Rain for Roots music