Stories That Shape What We Build

       I recently read a fascinating interview with Debbie Sterling.
       You may not be familiar with her name. I wasn’t either.
       Sterling is the founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, a company that creates interactive toys and shows to introduce girls to science, technology, engineering, and math.
       An engineer herself, Sterling began her company by producing building kits designed for girls ages 4-9. Each kit came with a storybook about a kid inventor named Goldie and her friends and gave a reason for building what was in the box.
       “We found in testing that boys enjoyed building just for the sake of building, then knocking it against the wall and building it up again,” said Sterling, “whereas girls were more interested in the story: Why are we building this thing? Who it is for, and how is it going to help?”
       It was Sterling’s comment about the importance of story that caught my attention.

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       Think about the various things we spend time and energy attempting to “build”—our families, our congregations, our legacies, and/or our denomination.
       What if before we move ahead with our building efforts, we really think about the story we hope to tell? How might those efforts be different if we asked:

• Why are we building this thing?
• For whom are we building it?
• How is building it going to help?

       As our region, a number of our congregations, and many of our lives are in a time of transition, I hope we’ll think about the story we hope to tell as we attempt to build something new. My sense is that by telling new stories that are creative and compelling, we’ll be able to build things we might never have imagined otherwise.
                                                                                                             KP