Encountering God and His Story

This article is based on a master’s level capstone project to design, deliver, and evaluate a week of teaching to engage students of a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Discipleship Training School (DTS) with biblical imagery of God and his story, to promote dynamic participation in the life of God, his people and kingdom. Through interviews and having students draw pictures of how they view God when they pray, worship etc., the author identified gaps between what students articulate that they believe and how they live their Christian lives. The teaching was conducted in a multi-cultural group and consisted of students primarily between the ages of 18 and 25. Analysis of results suggests spiritual growth is hindered both by the lack of a Christian metanarrative to make sense of living in a “now but not yet” kingdom, and by the absence of biblical imagery. A congruent metanarrative and biblical imagery was found to aid in understanding and experience of participation in the life and fellowship of God, his Church, kingdom and creation.