Wanna Give a Report? Or Tell a Story?
- Posted by Steve K. on May 16th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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Abraham Piper, the Web Content Editor for Desiring God Ministries, has a brilliant little blog, and by “little” I mean, literally—every post is 22 words in length or shorter. (OK sometimes he fudges and posts a list of 22 things, but those are rare.) One of his recent posts asked the question, “What is the difference between giving a report and telling a story?” His answer:
Reports comprise indiscriminate detail without any purposeful meaning.Whereas stories are select details that intentionally influence how you respond.
He then shared this cartoon—from one of my favorite online comics “Garfield Minus Garfield”—as an example of a report …
I wanted to pass this along here with a reminder: Next time you’re asked by a church or small group to give a report on your ministry work, remember ol’ Jon Arbuckle tying his shoes and standing up … and choose to tell a compelling story instead!



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