Stacy Spencer is the pastor of New Direction Christian Church in Memphis, which has grown to over 14,000 members in eight years. Stacy leads numerous efforts to revitalize the Memphis community, including a charter school, restaurant, beauty salon, and car wash, where young people can learn relevant skills and trades. Stacy is the author of Naked and Unashamed, a guide for Christian married couples. He and his wife Rhonda are the parents of four sons.

• We all have a story.
• We communicate and find out about one another through our stories.
• People learn about us by our stories.
• The walls of caves have stories inscribed on them.
• We have stories of our ancestors.
• The Hebrews had the amazing stories of their deliverance.
• If you hear the stories of your past, you too have a story to share.
• The Gospel is the story of Jesus Christ.
• Preaching is a way to get the old, old story of the Gospel to a group of people who may have not heard it.
• Preaching allows people to get into the story and experience the Gospel afresh and renew.
• Preaching is a way to get the Story out.

5 Different Types of Preachers

1 – The Comfort Dispenser

• Tell you everything will be alright. Minister of mercy.

2 – The Scholar

3 – The Social Prophet

• The one who looks at the unraveling of culture and calls it out.
• We need people to cry out for justice, but we also need people who can help you with personal crisis.

4 – The Bible Repository

• One who seeks to be an expert of the content.
• Knowing the content is great but knowing the God of the content is more important.
• People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.

5 – All of the above.

• We all need to help people with their pain; empower and help them understand; who care for what matters; and who know how to help…
• It’s not what you have on paper, its what the Holy Spirit leads you to do.
• Sometimes you have to throw your manuscript out the window.
• You don’t know where God is going to lead you.
• Keep a sermon in your pocket and a sermon in your heart.
• You’ve got to have your Bible in one hand and the iPhone in your other hand… you have to know the culture to know how to speak to it.
• You have to have a hand in God’s word and a finger on the pulse of society.
• We live in a society where everyone has a story… but are we listening to them?
• There are sermons on Twitter, blogs, etc., but we have to listen for them.
• Jesus drew people right in without them even knowing.
• People don’t want to be hit on the head, they need to be invited in.

Story as Movie

5 Ways to Tell the Story as a Movie

1 – Why should they listen?

• Why should they give us their time/attention?
• When you go to a good movie, they will show you a compelling scene that will capture your attention.
• There’s an iPhone app to let you know when to go to the bathroom in movies.
• He recently preached a message called “Christ for Clunkers.”

2 – Introduce the text to the dilemma.

• Preaching is showing a postmodern audience that the Bible still has relevance has today.
• That’s what Hollywood is doing with Superman, Spiderman, etc.
• The story still has relevance.

3 – Put them in the movie.

• When Jesus told parables it was an open parable for the listeners to get in and be a part of what He was talking about.
• We have to allow people to get into the story.

4 – Have a twist.

5 – Have redemption.

• I don’t need a horror movie, I’ve got the news.
• I need some drama that leads to redemption.
• There needs to be hope.
• We need to offer redemption.
• Hope is a dangerous thing.
• One day the movie is going to be over [ i.e. Michael Jackson’s “This is It” ].
• One day it will be over.