Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''
An astonishing ‘story’ gives us the direction for our lives
“Once upon a time, a long time ago…..”
The ‘stories’ that we heard from grandmothers when we were young were a source of great entertainment that stimulated our limitless imagination, and at the same time, they were astonishing ‘lessons’ that enlightened us with wisdom about ‘how to live our lives.’
These astonishing ‘stories’ gave us the direction for our lives while we were listening to them with interest and led us to live according to that direction. No matter what kind of stories they were, they all had certain patterns that were very similar. If we look at them in greater detail, we can see that these stories consist of ‘seven’ plot elements, and the number ‘seven’ was the number that caught our attention because of this week’s message.
The pattern consists of seven plot elements: the back story, the catalyst, the big event, the midpoint, the crisis, the climax, and the realization.
The Back Story: Once upon a time, in a certain country, there lived a beautiful princess called Snow White.
The Catalyst: Her mother passes away and a witch moves into the palace.
The Big Event: Due to the witch’s persecution, Snow White faces the danger of death.
The Midpoint: With the help of the seven dwarves, she lives with them happily.
The Crisis: The stepmother kills Snow White with a poisoned apple.
The Climax: A prince from a neighboring country saves the princess.
The realization: Snow White lives happily ever after.
While the story maintains interest with this kind of structure, it makes us think, “Right. We have to be good, and if we endure and hang on even though there are difficulties, good things will surely happen.” In this way, it changes our ‘attitude’ and helps us to form a strong motivation.
These seven plot elements arouse strong interest at the beginning and also maintain continuous ‘interest.’ Then at the end, they indicate a solution with hints on ‘how to live our lives.’. The reason that we endure and overcome difficulties and continuously choose to ‘live in a right way’ may originate from the power of the stories that we have heard since our childhood. It might be the case that ‘comfort’ and ‘strength’ came from these seven plot elements.
A great storyteller of the stories of Heaven
If we take a look at Pastor Jung Myeong Seok’s message from this week...
The Back Story: While Pastor Jung was praying, the Holy Son spoke about success and failure in life.
The Catalyst: The Holy Son talked about human being’s sin, related with success and failure. (Sin could be cleansed by taking action.)
The Big Event: ‘The sin of the time period’ cannot be resolved by one individual so it is difficult for the world to become heaven.
The Midpoint: The world cannot be changed all at once. ‘Individuals’ have to come out first from the world of death.
The Crisis: Individuals have to go to the new world by taking action. They will gain the best things when you do your best.
The Climax: Those who do not forget that they are in the process and who keep going until the destination and gain new things are achieving a successful life.
The Realization: A person who is made completely by taking action upon the Word lives a life of heaven by gaining things and using and enjoying what they have gained.
We can see that the message mainly consists of these seven plot elements, like his other messages. The reason why his long sermons--which are way longer than the other average churches’--feels short might be because the person who delivers the Word is a great storyteller of Heaven’s stories. He loved the Heavens first and lived taking action upon the love of the Heavens with dedication. His great action is the foundation for him to become the great storyteller of the stories of Heaven. In this way, a great storyteller is a great person of action.