The importance of stories

Several months ago, somebody told me that when she became a Christian, she stopped reading fiction. My first thought was: “That’s a shame”, but then I realised that actually she’s been missing out on an awful lot. So you may be pleased to hear that I recommended some good novels to her!

This year is the UK’s National Year of Reading, which is described as “a UK-wide campaign designed to inspire more people to make reading a regular part of their lives”. This can’t come too soon, as statistics about declining literacy rates are alarming. We obviously want to encourage strong literacy amongst our children, the benefits being multifaceted: improved focus, better mental health, increased vocabulary (statistics: literarytrust.org.uk). As Christians, the implications of this are clear: improved literacy will help with Bible reading, study and discussion. But it goes deeper. Stories for the sake of stories are important too. Statistics show that facts presented within stories are remembered up to 22 times more easily than facts alone (johnmillen.com). Our brains were designed for stories.

God uses stories

We can’t dismiss the fact that God chose words as His primary means for communicating with humanity. Jesus is the Word of God who came into the world. The Bible is comprised of stories, which were of course first shared in an oral tradition. This is about so much more than literacy. All of the Bible is true, but some of it is fictional as well as true: think of the parables Jesus told, for example. He knew his listeners would grasp truths more easily through stories.