Leaders who tell the gospel story and their personal life story are off to a great start with becoming impactful storytellers. But there’s one more story type that’s worth keeping in your back pocket: the symbolic story.
Photo by Carter Canedy on Upslash
What’s a symbolic story? A symbolic story uses simple language to convey a complex point. A few examples of these are Jesus’s parables, personal word pictures, legends, or historical anecdotes. In a previous post, we looked at the way Nathan the prophet used a symbolic story to gently confront David about his sin. Using a symbolic story that represented David’s situation (rather than exposing it explicitly from the get-go) softened David’s heart and brought him to a place of repentance. Symbolic stories are powerful!
Let’s look at this parable from Luke 18 to unpack the key components of a symbolic story:
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Jesus tells his disciples this simple story about a widow getting justice from an unjust judge simply by persisting hard enough to symbolize the larger importance of prayer. By framing his point about faithful prayer in a story his disciples could easily understand, Jesus was able to communicate the point more memorably.
BUILDING A SYMBOLIC STORY
1) Choose your goal
In the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus’ goal was to show his disciples that they should always pray and not give up. With this goal in mind, he chose to make up a story that represented the importance of prayer. You can follow Jesus’ lead when you come up with your own symbolic stories. Decide what the point you want to make will be, and then go from there.
2) Pick familiar symbols
Jesus chose symbols his disciples would understand by talking about the justice system. This was strategic. His disciples were familiar with oppressive justice systems and the stigmas associated with those seeking and “giving” justice. Widows were marginalized members of society; their lives were full of unending hardship. And unjust judges were a common plague—everyone knew what a pain it was to navigate them. Familiarity with these things made it easy for the disciples to emotionally connect with the story.
When you choose symbols for your own story, pick the ones your audience will emotionally connect with the most. Your symbols should be familiar to your audience so they will be invested when you tie the story to your main point.
3) Connect the story to your goal
Jesus often explained the “hidden” meanings of his parables to his disciples so they could understand for themselves what he meant. At the end of the persistent widow story, Jesus revealed that it wasn’t just a story about a widow and a bad judge. The story pointed to the only good judge—God—who wants to give justice abundantly to everyone who has faith to ask. Likewise, when you connect your story back to your main point, you should reveal what the symbols represent so your audience can work through the implications for themselves.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for leaders to guide young people to the Gospel and to grow in their faith. I hope these tools help in your practice and confidence in storytelling!