by Brian Williams

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Over the past three months, BGAV’s field strategists sponsored six Leader Lab sessions with Craig Harwood, leadership coach and master storyteller. BGAV pastors and ministry leaders gathered for six zoom sessions around the theme of Discovering the Carpenter Within Us. Each of the sessions featured captivating stories from Craig’s own life experience woven masterfully into tapestries of faith, grace, failure, brokenness, and renewal. Apart from the stories themselves, Craig demonstrated the power of communicating through story. Here are some reflections we gleaned just by watching him practice the art of storytelling.

Telling great stories in a great way is an art. The grandest narratives of human history are right in the Bible. If our approach to the Bible is strictly to analyze the stories and dissect the words, we could easily miss the sheer grandeur of the art of narrative. When we reduce the biblical narrative to principles, propositions, and points, we will likely miss out on what the carpenter within us desires for us to see and experience.  

Drawing wisdom from stories is an art. Insights and wisdom that come to us through stories are more meaningful and memorable than through any other means. Wisdom flows like a river through the many narratives of the Bible. There is even an entire section of scripture referred to as wisdom literature. At the very heart of wisdom literature is none other than the story of Job. The carpenter within us draws out the wisdom that flows through the narratives of scripture and of our own lives.  

Revealing ourselves to others is an art. We typically don’t mind sharing our name or vocation with others, but this is not the same as revealing ourselves to others. Revealing who we are requires us to draw from wells of humility and grace. The greatest fear for many people is that of being vulnerable. Vulnerability and transparency frees us to more fully follow Jesus and lead others along the way. The carpenter within us is revealed to others as we freely make ourselves known in the world.

Asking meaningful questions is an art. In an age of easy access to information, the art of asking meaningful questions can be easily lost. Our obsession with the right answers can unwittingly deprive us of the journey that a well-conceived question can take us on. At a time in which we are overinformed, we may end up paying the price of being underformed. Questions that lead us to formation may prove more valuable than questions that seek to provide information. The carpenter within us is the master of
showering us with questions that lead to new formation.

Although Craig never made any of these particular statements himself through the Leader Lab journey, we experienced the sheer art of story and how the carpenter within us shapes our story into the image of his story.

Rev. Dr. Brian Williams is BGAV’s field strategist for the Tidewater region.

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