Everybody's got a Story - The STORY Project with Les Fairfield
In the fall of 2005, Les Fairfield was beginning his last year of full time teaching at Trinity. Mark Stevenson was just beginning his new job in Extension Ministries. Stevenson was eager to “preserve” the teaching of his mentor for the future, and Fairfield was eager to explore the question, “What could we offer that could make contact with people of a non-Christian background with no familiarity whatsoever with the biblical story?” The two began to meet regularly and very quickly the idea for a new teaching series began to take shape that brought together their two goals: STORY with Les Fairfield. “While I know Les is uncomfortable with his name being in the title, the whole project evolved out of his astonishing gifts as a storyteller and his distinctive perspective on how to tell the Christian Story in ways that are both compelling and entertaining,” said Stevenson.
The two started by sharing stories about the growing number of people they encountered every day who were simply unable to connect with “churchy” or biblical language. They agreed there is growing frustration in churches over how to reach those who have no experience of the church or the Bible. There are a number of useful church-based programs to help lead people into a deeper appreciation of Christianity and Scripture, but even these programs assume a willingness to step inside a church. What of those for whom the notion of church and the Bible are completely foreign? “When you come to a foreign story,” said Fairfield, “you don’t know what to look for. You don’t know what is significant. You can get hung up on details that may be inconsequential and can be explained once you know the story as a whole.”
They saw a need to bridge the gap between individual, non-churched experience and the Bible as a means to introduce the Christian worldview. So the question was, where to begin?
“We started with stories. Everybody’s got a story. We began to build a bridge from the point of those individual stories to the biblical story,” according to Fairfield. There was also agreement that each episode of the program would contain a 10-12 minute video segment for those viewers who gather most of their information through that medium. It was also decided that the program needed to be flexible, suitable for anyplace there was a DVD player, someone eager to share the Story, and someone at least open to hearing it. STORY with Les Fairfield might be used one-on-one at a Starbucks, in a home group or church cell setting, or a Christian formation class for teens through adult. The DVD will also come with a study guide. “The deeper we got into the project,” said Stevenson, “the more we realized that this was something that could be valuable for virtually anyone: intergenerational, interdenominational, and even those whose faith is mature could use it as a means to reconnect with the Christian Story.”
With the idea taking shape, the two completed their production team by hiring Ward Hobbs, a cameraman for a Pittsburgh TV station and independent contractor for special video projects. Hobbs would serve as director, cameraman and editor; Fairfield as script writer; and Stevenson as producer. The team began filming the first of what would be five episodes on a cold March morning, 2006. Episode One focuses on individual stories, stories that are funny and sad, dramatic and everyday. “We met some amazing people,” said Stevenson, “from a 92-year old African-American woman who built landing craft at American Bridge during World War II, to a young man critically burned in a tragic act of violence against him.” The first episode was completed as a pilot to be shown at the Les Fairfield Symposium in April 2006. The showing elicited a great deal of interest and some funding from alumni who were eager to see the program proceed.
The next four episodes were filmed over the course of the next year in a variety of locations and drawing on a large cross-section of fascinating people. Episode Two connects people’s individual stories with the big, sweeping national and international events that change history and impact lives, such as immigration, wars, and terrorism in a post-9/11 world. “These big stories show us that we are all connected by these events and that our individual stories become a part of something much bigger,” noted Fairfield. Episode Three then shows the impact of “manufactured” stories, such as children’s stories, myths, and “metanarratives” that contain whole worldviews, such as C.S. Lewis’ Narnia. The intent of the series is that the episodes be progressive, by showing how individual stories tie into larger realities and are then reflected in made-up stories, such as Lewis’ Narnia, that sometimes reflect basic truths.
It is not until Episode Four that the Christian Story is introduced, with Fairfield retelling the resurrection story as only he can. “This is an apologetic for the resurrection,” he said, “because the resurrection is true, historical, and huge in its worldview implications.” The final episode answers the inevitable question: “So what? What difference does it make living in the Christian Story?” This episode ties the series together by re-interviewing people seen earlier in the series, who now talk about how their Christian faith has helped them to shape a new life for themselves, to overcome, in some cases, overwhelming odds. One interviewee summarizes it: “I have learned to leave it with the Lord, just leave it with the Lord.”
Reserve your copy of STORY with Les Fairfield today! Send your name, mailing address and phone number to: STORY@tesm.edu. We will inform you when it is in stock. Send no money – you will be invoiced $20 when the DVD and study guide are shipped.
