Coaching Tip 1 - Telling Our Story From A Gospel Perspective

Telling our story from a Gospel perspective is a huge part of being in a Triad, particularly in the first few weeks in a new group. We want to get to a place where we can tell our stories in such a way that showcases how God has redeemed us, how he is the hero. We want listeners to see how the story of God intersects with our own smaller story. Really, telling our story is just an excuse to highlight the grace, power, and glory of God. Our whole lives are really about him. So I don't want to tell a story that holds me up as the hero who has overcome hardships and obstacles. If that is my story, then I am simply disconnected from reality. I want to tell it in such a way that it exalts Christ as the hero without whom nothing can truly be overcome.

The problem is that many of us may not yet fully understand our own stories from a Gospel perspective. We can take people through the list of past events we call our lives starting on our birth date and ending at present day. But we may not understand how sin has effected us and how God, through the Gospel of Jesus, can not only reconcile us to himself but free us from the power of sin in this life.

The place to start is simply to retell our lives as we remember it from start to finish in our Triads with the other members listening carefully for clues and signs pointing to the lies and idols which have driven us to commit sins along the way. You'll want to highlight events and people in your life who have been particularly influential - for good or bad - throughout the course of your life and how these events and people were effective in shaping you.

The listeners will want to help you think through what your particular lies and idols might be. For example, some of us may have grown up in a family where love was conditional. From an early age we may have learned that "if I do well, things are great, but if I mess up - it's over - they will not love me." This gets projected onto God and becomes "God cannot love me if I fail him." There's a lie. (Truth - God has loved us perfectly through Jesus in spite of our inability to come through for him) This may help us in understanding why all our lives we've worked hard to earn the approval of others. There's an idol. (The false god approval says "work hard if you want to be loved" - the One True God says "You are my son or daughter whom I love, in whom I am well pleased") It could also shed some light on why we may have sought out sexual experience again and again - it is the experience in which we sense the most profound affirmation from another human being. (Gospel application - God is better than sex. In Christ, who gave up his life for us, there is a deeper intimacy of which sex is a mere shadow)

Identifying these things will help us then learn how to tell our story from the perspective of God. Rather than just reciting the consecutive events leading up to present day, we can tell our story with special emphasis on how we have been damaged by sin and rebelled against God, and how God has worked / is working to bring about redemption in us. Now it is not a story that is primarily about us, but a story that is primarily about him. Try it out.