Ashley Huizenga writes from Byron Bay, Australia, where she and a group of friends creatively shared the redemptive message of Jesus through cardboard signs:

 

I was thinking about the Bible and how to communicate it a bit more effectively. A few years ago they reissued different bits of the Bible and they invited famous authors to write introductions to each separate book. But I reckon that's not enough.

 

An introduction with someone's opinions and thoughts about a Biblical book are okay but that won't really help people understand what is in the book. It won't help them to experience the laughter, the shock, the pathos and humanity.

The essential nature of stories invites us to become immersed in them, in order that we might learn from them. Myth, story, legend-the various forms of narrative are all comprehensive in that they not only seek to inform, but transform, their participants. No matter the preferred medium-cinema, poetry, canvas, speech-stories are always told. The danger never lies in what stories are told, but how we react to them.

Shane Claiborne recently wrote an article for Esquire Magazine about the love of Jesus and directed it specifically to non-Christians. In the article, he speaks about the love of a Christ who may not always be on the side of the religion that represents his name. He suggests that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong -- that God, indeed, is love, not judgment and condemnation and even hatred. Furthermore, he apologizes to those who have been hurt by the church and pleads with them to reconsider their thoughts about God.