I often share that as Christian storytellers we’re fighting fire with fire. This means a couple of things.

FIRST, it means that we’ve chosen to respond to Hollywood’s movies and Broadway’s musicals. We recognize how influential these industries are and that they are shaping our hearts and minds.

SECOND, the way we’re responding to these industries is by staging our own stories. You might say we’ve chosen to join Hollywood and Broadway in their own game. Now, they have professional actors and directors, we don’t. They have budgets of millions of dollars, and we don’t.

And yet, at LifeHouse, I see God changing lives all the time. I hear about them. I watch them.

But I don’t want you to think that you must have a theater or film company to fight fire with fire. Here are a couple ways that you can do it yourself.

#1: SHARE YOUR STORY

I recently stumbled upon a local pastor’s sermon, “Sharing Our Story: Our Stories Have Power.” Can you imagine how that title grabbed my attention?!

In this engaging talk, the pastor explains how we can share our own stories of redemption. And more often than not, we don’t have to go looking for an audience. One audience that’s just about always longing to hear our stories is our children and grandchildren. No mics or lights are needed.

Share how Jesus has rescued you from your sin and wiped away your guilt. Share how Jesus has given you hope in this broken world.

These messages — from your own story — will go a long way in combating the messages we hear again and again. Man is ignorant, but basically good. The world has no meaning, so we must provide our own meaning.

That doesn’t mean we should only share our stories with our children and grandchildren, we can share them wherever we are. God has called some to Broadway, others to Hollywood, me to LifeHouse, and you to your workplace, or wherever your sphere of influence is.

#2: SHARE THE STORIES OF THE SAINTS

And there’s no reason why you can’t share the stories of other saints as well. A little over a month ago one of our veteran performers shared with the cast of “My Fair Lady” that the first LifeHouse play he ever saw was “The Hiding Place”: the true story of Corrie Ten Boom. The story so impacted him that he thought about it all the way home…and he kept returning again and again to audition at LifeHouse.

This reminds me that wherever God works, there will be a story, and that story is ours to use in service of Christ! When Paul is addressing the Corinthians about their unhealthy preoccupation with the dramatic and powerful speakers of the day (ancient Broadway), he tells them, “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

Throughout all of human history God has been weaving brilliant stories of redemption, some captured in Scripture and some not. But, they are ours! They are stories we can use to make God’s power and beauty known.

So, tell your story. Tell the stories of the saints. When you do, you will be joining us in the mission of fighting fire with fire.

Wayne R. Scott is founder and president of LifeHouse Theater in Redlands, CA.

Dane Bundy is president of Stage & Story and cast chaplain at LifeHouse Theater.

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