Get Your Pretense On!

34 • Get Your Pretense On!

In this Story, all who believe that Jesus is the Christ can be transformed from frogs to princes and princesses, through the power of the Spirit and faith in the Gospel. In a world that is dizzy with dozens of contradictory, competing stories, we who believe must now rediscover the Story of God in Christ as the final story of all things, the center of our lives, and the heart of our mission. TUMI’s Singular Passion: Raising Up God-storytellers From the very founding of The Urban Ministry Institute, we have dedicated ourselves in all our curriculum and training to raise up a generation of storytellers and story-indwellers who can preach, teach, sing, and embody the Story with power before their family members, neighbors, associates, and strangers. Our entire enterprise in our Sacred Roots motif is to help urban dwellers learn and be transformed by the simple Story of God’s love, the tale of a caring, sovereign Lord who became one of us, who took on our nature and entered our human history to redeem creation and a people for himself. This striking, awesome, and true Story can bring revival to our weak and struggling churches. If we hold on to the Story as it is told in the Bible, summarized in the Creeds, and embodied in the Great Tradition 7 we will multiply disciples. You see, the Story is true, powerful, and it is ours. No communion or tradition owns it – it belongs to the entire Church, and will transform all who are willing to give themselves over to its wonder and glory. I believe that if you really get our Story (or rather, if our Story really gets you!), you’ll be inclined to go hunt for some frogs to kiss, or some ugly ducklings to raise, or even a few Cinderellas to liberate. In the Kingdom Story, as in all great stories, you simply can never know who it is you have encountered, or what is truly happening. Things are more than what they appear to be. Dead