I just read a blog post that advocates that we abandon the term story in connection with our teaching of the Bible's truths. I share the author's concern that the word story has a strong connotation for fictional writing, material that is not intended to be taken literally. Those of us on the conservative end of the spectrum regarding biblical inerrancy do not desire, and certainly do not intend, that our students doubt the truth of Scripture or the authentic nature of the events the Bible describes.
For that reason, I generally avoid the term Bible story in favor of less ambiguous terms like narrative or account. And the readers' version of the Bible called The Story and the curriculum marketed by that name make me uneasy (though not just because of their titles).
But, let's not go overboard. We can use the term story and still communicate truth rather than fiction. We might ask a person to tell us their story. We listen daily to the news stories that are broadcast on radio, television, and Web news services, expecting that they are not fiction. There are a dozen other ways we use the word in an obviously nonfiction sense. It makes sense, however, to pay attention to how our listeners or readers might be understanding that word when we use it.
We don't need to banish the word from our vocabularies. We just need to use it with awareness.
God's blessing as you teach God's children His Story!
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