The Story of Redemption is an eight part evangelistic Bible study that I have written to help lead unchurched, postmodern people to faith in Jesus Christ. This story is largely narrative in form, which is appropriate for many reasons. [1]

• Humans are storytellers, and they make sense of their lives through narrative.[2]
• Most of Scripture is narrative, and the Christian faith was presented in this form through much of the history of Christianity. Early Christians shared the gospel story orally, and the medieval church kept an emphasis upon narrative by telling these stories in art form. The Enlightenment, the issues involved in the Reformation (such as grace versus works), and the invention of the printing press pushed Christian thinkers and writers into an emphasis upon Paul and his presentation of the gospel, which is mainly non-narrative in form, for centuries. In contrast, postmoderns resist appeals to universal reason, and are moved more by emotion, image, and personal testimony—elements made much more possible in narrative than syllogisms.[3]
• The current interest in story is also a phenomenon intensified through the invention of pervasive new media that is often used for story telling, such as television and video;[4] however, human beings seem to by their very nature use narrative to interpret their past and guide their ongoing behavior and morality. Therefore, when people hear biblical stories, they compare their own lives to these stories and use them to pull together their fragmented selves and form a new narrative for their lives.[5]

For these reasons, The Story of Redemption does not begin by seeking to prove the authority of the Bible, which would be resisted by postmoderns. Instead, the narrative begins in Genesis, inviting seekers to listen and interact with the story, suspending disbelief and seeing if the story “rings true.”[6] A narrative will be “compelling if it represents a world, or part of a world, in a way that supports imaginative entrance into that world, irrespective of how things actually are.”[7] By inviting seekers to enter into the world of Scripture, even if they are skeptical or disbelieving, a pathway for is opened.