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Normalizing Imperfect Stories
What I love about cheesy Hallmark movies is that they are completely predictable. The pattern of each story is pretty much the same. In my own life, things seldom seem to go as planned. So it can feel good to spend a couple of hours in a world with no surprises, and a guaranteed happy ending. We love happy endings in stories told by nonprofit organizations or ministries, too. It feels great to read a story like, “This person was hungry, and you gave money to feed him, and now he is not hungry anymore,” or “This person was struggling, and you prayed for her, and she’s found freedom.” But…
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Questions to Ask Before Posting/ Sharing a Missions Story
Looking to share a story from your short-term mission trip, or long-term mission work? Here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself before posting or speaking. Whom do I help by telling this story? (Is the purpose of this story or photo to make me look good, or does it benefit others?) Whose perspective is highlighted? (Am I the center of the story, or is someone else’s perspective highlighted?) Am I correcting stereotypes and myths or contributing to them? Should I be telling this story or should someone else? (Can the person featured in the story tell their own story?) Am I reducing people to their problems,…
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Sharing Words and Pictures as Though Humans are Made in the Image of God
I think a lot about words, and how to use them well. This can be challenging, and I’m still learning a lot. But I think my starting point is this: I must remember that all humans are made in the image of God. Genesis 1: 26-27 tells us: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Before anything else,…
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Challenging Perceptions
Today I want to share some humorous videos that have helped me think more deeply about cross-cultural communication. These videos are part of a campaign called “Radi-Aid,” created by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ Assistance fund (SAIH). The goal “is to challenge the perceptions around issues of poverty and development, to change the way fundraising campaigns communicate, and to break down dominating stereotypical representations.” The Radi-Aid website has lots of great resources and tips for how we can do a better job communicating in a more ethical way. This first video turns the “celebrity charity single” on its head. This time, instead of Europe (or America) asking for money to…
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Digging Deeper: Narrative Identity Theory
In my previous post I shared a little about how stories can have impact in the real world. Today I want to go a little deeper into that idea. While working on a paper for one of my seminary classes, I was introduced to something called narrative identity theory. This theory says that stories are “among the most important means by which people articulate and clarify their sense of [the world].”i We connect events together to form stories to help our lives make sense, stringing memories together in the way that a novelist arranges chapters.ii On the individual level, narrative identity theory is the identity we construct through the stories…
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Do the Stories we Tell Actually Matter?
Last week I talked about a few of the differences between ethical and unethical storytelling. But does how we tell stories, and the kinds of stories we tell actually matter? Can the images and words we use actually cause harm or cultivate good? Yes, they can! The stories we tell have real impact in the real world. Maybe you’ve encountered the impact of stories, perhaps without even realizing it. For example, have you ever heard stories about someone before you met them? Maybe someone new is moving into your neighborhood, or joining your class at school, or starting at your workplace. Perhaps you’ve only heard negative things about this person:…
