The Stories That Shape Us
A Summer Sunday School Experience of Listening, Telling, and Belonging
Sundays, May 31 through August 9
10:10AM | Fellowship Hall
Contact: Rev. Dr. Chris Shorow, Senior Minister
cshorow@fccedmond.org | 405.341.3544
What stories have shaped the way you see yourself, others, God, or the world? What stories have helped you heal, reconnect, begin again, or feel more fully alive?
This summer at First Christian Church Edmond, we’ll gather each week for a shared experience of storytelling, reflection, and conversation rooted in the belief that stories matter. Together, we’ll explore the memories, relationships, losses, places, and moments that shape who we are.
Through memoirs, spiritual reflections, storytelling practices, mission stories, and honest conversation, we’ll listen more deeply to ourselves, one another, and the movement of God in everyday life.
As Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama reminds us, “We need stories of belonging that move us towards each other, not from each other.” Join us as we explore the stories of our faith.
What We’re Exploring Together
May 31 | Where Every Good Story Begins
Mark Yaconelli says every story begins with someone willing to listen. We begin our summer of storytelling with an identity exercise from Between the Listening and the Telling: What stories do we tell about ourselves, and what do they reveal? Together, we’ll explore how honest storytelling helps us make a home within ourselves and with one another.
June 7 | Heroic Stories
We all carry stories we don't think of as remarkable. But stories of perseverance, survival, and faithfulness have the power to heal and inspire others. This week we'll explore the courage it takes to claim our own stories as heroic, and hear from someone who knows that firsthand. Our own Barry Black, praise band member and newly published author, has some stories to tell! His 31-year FBI career took him to Waco, the Murrah Building, and Ground Zero. His memoir, Hazardous Devices, is proof you never know if the person next to you in the pew has a few heroic stories of their own.
June 14 | Telling Your Story
Maya Angelou said telling your story requires something to say, the ability to say it, and the courage to say it at all. Drawing on Sue Monk Kidd’s The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and Writing, Creativity and Soul, we’ll explore storytelling as an act of courage and faith.
June 21 | Stories of Loss
Grief has its own story. Drawing on Mirabai Starr’s Caravan of No Despair and Danielle Crittenden’s Dispatches from Grief, we’ll explore how naming our losses can become an act of healing. Lori Dickenson-Black will share part of her own journey through grief.
June 28 | Where Are You From?
Our stories live in us, often in ways we can’t fully articulate. Rev. Mark Taylor will lead us through a powerful storytelling exercise, helping us notice how the stories we carry in memory, body, and place shape our sense of identity and belonging.
July 5 | Telling Our Stories in Community
As our country marks 250 years, we’ll ask: How do the stories we tell together shape who we become as a people? Drawing on Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze’s Heroes of 1776, we’ll reflect on how foundational stories can help create community, identity, and a shared sense of purpose.
July 12 | The Body Remembers
Ellie Roscher writes, “My body has a story, and it’s part of God’s story.” Drawing on Roscher’s The Embodied Path and Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, Shelley Regan will explore how our stories live not only in our minds, but in our bodies too, and what it means to practice faith while honoring mind, body, and spirit together.
July 19 | Stories of Healing and Redemption
Drawing on Sara Miles’s Take This Bread and Lara Love Hardin’s The Many Lives of Mama Love, we’ll explore how stories of healing and redemption can transform the way we see ourselves, one another, and the grace of God.
July 26 | Stories from Puerto Rico
Nearly a decade after Hurricane Maria, many families in Puerto Rico are still waiting for safe, stable roofs over their heads. This spring, a team from our church traveled with Week of Compassion to work alongside Techos Pa’ Mi Gente in San Juan. Rev. John Regan and members of the mission team will share what they witnessed, what they learned, and the stories of resilience and hope they carried home.
August 2 | A Story Worth Sharing
Details coming soon.
August 9 | Here for Good: Stories of This Place
Every community has a story about why it exists and who it exists for. We’ll close the summer by coming back to ours, with an update on our Here for Good 3.0 Capital Campaign projects woven together with stories of why this place matters and what we believe we are here to do in the world. For more than 125 years, we’ve been here. For good, and for the good of all.
Join us Sunday mornings, May 31 through August 9, at 10:10AM for this 50-minute story experience at First Christian Church Edmond.