III. Recognize the Four Components Necessary for Illustrating From the Present
Rather than complicate this process by adding too much texture and nuance to the art of storytelling (since this isn’t a course in writing fiction or character development), let’s simplify the process down to its irreducible minimum. To create a scenario to perfectly illustrate the point you’re making, you need just four things.
1. You need to be clear on what the point of the passage is and how you think your people could or should apply it.
2. You need to know your people inside out. You need to know what they do, what their lives are like, what their needs, wants, desires, problems, pains, obstacles, dreams, frustrations, fears, etc. are because you want to design scenarios that fit them where they’re thinking, “That’s me. I do that.”
3. You need to create characters that fit the point and application—and give them names.
4. You need to create a problem.
So, let’s take a typical biblical text and flesh this out. The passage I’m choosing is Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.”
The point is pretty obvious, and the target market for a church I’m currently consulting is young families. (Note: Adjust to your target market/congregation.) So, I’m going to use a husband and wife who have one infant-aged child as the characters. I’m going to call the husband Andre and the wife Jennifer. And let’s call their baby Angela.
Like many young couples who are trying to minimize child care costs while maximizing their time with their child(ren), Andre and Jen have different work schedules during the week. Let’s say Andre works a typical day shift job from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., M-F, and Jennifer works the evening shift from 3:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m., MWF. That means they only need a sitter three days per week from 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Andre is the main breadwinner, but Jennifer’s supplemental income is what allows them, as a family, to have some margin. The main conflict is going to be over dishes still in the sink when Jen gets home one Friday evening after Andre has gone to bed. You now have everything you need to create your scenario.
Note: All of the above is usually done in your head and takes just a few moments to conjure up.
IV. Create an Illustration That Perfectly Fits the Passage, the Point and Your People
After you make your point about what it means to put other people’s needs before your own, you then might say something like this.
“So here’s what it might look like. Let’s take a couple. We’ll call them Andre and Jennifer, and let’s say they have an infant-aged daughter called Angela. Andre’s a frontline manager at ABC Company and the main breadwinner for the family. However, he barely makes enough to pay their mortgage and other expenses.
“In order to help the family out, Jen has decided to take a job as a nurse at a local hospital to add some supplemental income to their family budget so they can enjoy a few of life’s little pleasures during this stage of life—and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. As such, she only works half-time, three days one week and two days the next.
“And, because they want to minimize their child care costs while maximizing their time with Angela, Jen has chosen to work the evening shift at the hospital so that they only need a childcare provider a few hours per week from 2:30 p.m. when Jennifer drops Angela off until 5:30 p.m. when Andre is able to pick her up. Generally the system works.
