The Power of Parables in Nonprofit Storytelling

Parables have a way of getting around our defenses, short-circuiting our stereotypes, and making us think in new ways. In this episode, we're looking at the role of parables in Jesus' ministry, and how you can use stories to break through walls in your nonprofit's messaging.

Check out Jesus' parable in Matthew 13, and his answer to the disciples when they ask why he tells so many stories.

Things to think about:
What misconceptions, bad information, political twists, outdated approaches, prejudices, and stereotypes show up around the work you do?
How do those things affect your nonprofit?
What stories could you tell to nudge people toward a better understanding of the issues and the work that you do?

Resources:
Tell it Slant, by Eugene Peterson (affiliate link)
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Transcript

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0:00  
Welcome to the Life and Mission Podcast. I'm Kay Helm, and on the Life and Mission podcast, we are always looking at storytelling and writing and how developing your skills in this area can help you raise funds for your ministry or your nonprofit. And you've heard me talk about the essential stories that form the core of your storytelling. But today, I want to look at a different kind of story. 

0:30  
I've been reading this book here, Eugene Peterson's, Tell it Slant. And it's about the parables of Jesus. And in particular, the ones that he told as he journeyed through Samaria, and it's just fascinating. I'm not even very far in it. So buckle up, because I'm sure I'm going to come back for the next few episodes, I'll be mentioning different things that I'm finding in this book, I'm absolutely loving it. It's not a new book. But it's full of good stuff. And it and it just really is. It's rich. And I highly recommend it. So I've been reading that book. And I've also been spending time in Jesus's parables and looking at the way that Jesus tells stories, and but today, I just want to look at the parable. It's not something that we teach in fundraising. But I keep thinking, you know, I'm always thinking about it from how can how can this help my nonprofit storytellers? How can this help you? And and I wanted to come at it, just examining what does a parable do? And think about then how that applies to us in the work that we do as nonprofit communicators? 

1:52  
So as as we look at parables, you know, a lot of times I think, as as kids, and we're in Sunday school, I don't know about you, but I always, you know, was kind of taught that the parables were stories that illustrated a lesson, or stories that taught us how to live. And kind of, kind of they do. But But Jesus, really, you know, when when he came, when he turned over the tables in the temple, like he actually turned over his appearance, turned over all the tables everywhere. You changed history, right? And he changed the paradigm, people were expecting one thing. And then the person that they were hoping for the person that they were expecting, came and didn't look like they expected him to look, he didn't do the things they expected him to do. He didn't take the position that they thought he should take, you know, all of these, these things. And we do this all the time. We see things all the time that are just, we see them from our angle, from our point of view, with our limited knowledge, when you first started in the work that you're doing when you first formed your nonprofit, you probably had some ideas, and then you try those ideas out. And I'm speaking from my own experience, right? We try the ideas out. And then we go, Whoa, that was wrong. Let's try something else. Or wow, I really didn't see that or I didn't realize that part of it. And you're constantly learning right? And so that's why humility is such a big part of the work that we do. So parables are not morality tales, they're not explanations, and they're not any of the essential stories that I typically teach on for fundraising. Okay. 

3:51  
So I want to tell you the share this one quote I absolutely love from Eugene Peterson. He says Jesus circles his listeners defenses. He tells parables. A parable keeps the message at a distance. He says it slows down comprehension. It blocks automatic prejudice, prejudicial reactions. It dismantles stereotypes, a parable comes up on the listener obliquely on the slant. Now, that's the opposite of a lot of what I teach you to do when you're communicating for a nonprofit, right? I say, just be upfront, be simple to understand. Be quick, get to the point, right? Be clear on what you're saying. And here we have Jesus circling around telling this story, keeping the message at a distance and slowing it down, slowing down comprehension. But here's the key blocks automatic prejudicial reactions. dismantles stereotypes. Now, some of you in the work that you do, and probably all of us, really, there's some facet of what you do that is really misunderstood. Maybe even controversial, maybe you've even got people that teach flat out opposite of what you know to be true. And so there's a lot of information out there, some of it is good, some of it is bad. And a lot of times we choose what we're going to accept as true, according to who the messenger is, are they on my side? Or the right? Are they us? Or are they them? And the truth is, that the facts are probably gonna lie somewhere in between. 

5:56  
And so think about not even the big issues, not even the issues that are just always in the news. But in your ministry, and in the the work that you do. What, what are the stories that people are hearing outside of your organization? What are the stories being told around this issue, that color, the perceptions that create prejudices that foster stereotypes? And how can you use stories to block those automatic prejudiced reactions to dismantle stereotypes and to bring people at least a little closer to the truth? Okay, so this is this is what I'm thinking about. Now, stories? Don't they're not like arguments, they can contain arguments. They can carry a message. But I'm not talking about an overtly teaching story. Does that make sense? Not something that overtly teaches, right. So the parable goes around it. And the reason it goes around it is because the minute we think something's coming against whatever our our belief around something is, we put a wall up. And so we reject that message outright. And don't give me that nonsense. Right. 

7:33  
That's what happens. And that's why we have a lot of them in us going on right now. Anyway, so what Peterson calls the parable, He calls it a pebble in your shoe, which I love, because you know how that gets in there. And, you know, you really don't want to go through all the trouble of taking off your shoe, even though you know, that's the only way you're gonna get that out, you're gonna have to operate, right? So but but that thing, it's gonna bug you and you're gonna you're trying to walk and you're kind of wiggling your foot around to try and get a little more comfortable. And you're walking. And it's just there. And it's just bugging you know, you don't want to slow down, you're just trying to keep walking on it. But it's bugging you. And the only thing if you have a pebble in your shoe, the only thing you can think about is this is that pebble in your shoe. And so a parable, we'll do that, right, this is a story that kind of leaves you going, huh. And you kind of knock on it a little bit right in your mind, that thing just keeps kind of running through. And it bumps up against those things that don't fit with what you just heard in the story. And you kind of wonder, you know, now you gotta be careful with this in the nonprofit world, because you're also showing that you're trustworthy, right? 

8:44  
So also know your audience, but the parable, that the story, I'm just gonna widen this out to stories, because sometimes when we say parable, we start getting into a certain style of storytelling, but I'm just saying stories in general, as you tell them and the way that you tell them can put pebbles in our shoes, to begin to kind of just poke at these these things, these stereotypes, these misconceptions, these untruths that we have that we kind of need to chip away at a little by little. It's interesting, because Peterson calls it a pebble in your shoe, but he also quotes John Dominic croissant, who says the parable is an earthquake opening up the ground at your feet. Whew, okay, so it's a pebble in your shoe and an earthquake opening up the ground at your feet. So they're earthquake opening. The ground at your feet is kind of like

9:46  
I'm walking along, nothing's wrong. I'm minding my own business, right and then boom, and I have to stop right there and go whoa, and reconsider the direction that I am going, maybe run the other way a little bit. But, you know, it gets That's my attention. So both the pebble in your shoe and the ground opening up at your feet, they get your attention and they force you to look at things a little bit differently. Okay, so that's what those two definitions, not definitions, but descriptions have to do with the way we're going to tell our stories. Okay? Now parables require a little bit of that listener participation. So let's look at Jesus's story about the traveler who gets beaten, and left for dead on the side of the road. The ones the people that the audience he was telling this to the people that that audience saw as righteous, they walked right past the guy, they left him laying on the road, they didn't try to help him. They didn't go over to look and see, maybe he's alive, you know, one of them crossed the street, I'm not getting around that. And the person that Jesus's audience saw as a heretic, that the person that they hated, helped the man. Now, which one of these asks Jesus became a neighbor to this man? Boom, ground opens in front of our feet here. Because we have to add seats participatory, right? I have to answer him now. He just asked me which one was the neighbor? 

11:33  
Well, his listeners then had to say, the Samaritan was good. The one who had like the guy couldn't even bring himself to say, Samaritan, we know this as the story of the Good Samaritan. But, but this was this was a mind blowing story for this audience at this time. And so the the, the man who had asked the questions as well, the one who helped the guy, he's the neighbor. And and here's the little pebble in your shoe from Jesus, is that this story shows us that it's not who is my neighbor, right? We're not looking at people and saying, Oh, is it one of us? Or is it one of them? We're not, we're not deciding who who is our neighbor, according to who they are. But the the question is, Who am I a neighbor to? And so he flips it on us to where it's, it's up to us to be a neighbor. And this is where the kingdom that he's bringing in is different from the kingdom, the kingdoms of this world and know the way that the world thinks right? And go, says Jesus, and do likewise. So he just lays that on his audience there, he opens the ground in front of their feet, gives them this big paradigm shift, and then puts the pebble in their shoe, as they go try to walk on from that little earthquake. And they're like, Oh, wow. That's what a parable does. 

13:09  
So he told parables all over the place. And these were not like the parables weren't part of his like preaching and teaching type of stuff. These were stories he told along the way somebody would ask a question, and he would explain he would, he would use a parable to answer. It often ended in another question, right? But when when Jesus, when Jesus's disciples asked him, Why do you do that? Why do you tell stories? 

13:35  
He answers, he says, and I'm going to read this from this is from the NIV, says, the disciples came to Him, and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables? And he replied, Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance, whoever does not have even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables. And then he quotes from Isaiah and he says, Those seeing they do not see the hearing. They do not hear or understand in them as fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah and then he did he quotes this, this whole prophecy. And that's, that's in Matthew 13, by the way. I like how the message puts it says, the disciples came up and asked, Why do you tell stories? And he replied, you've been given great insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight, it hasn't been given to them. Whenever somebody has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely, but if there is no readiness, any trace of reset tivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories to create readiness to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening in their present state, they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. Now, here's your context for that those two translations seemed like they might be a little far apart, right? 

15:25  
So the NIV seems more like I tell stories to confuse people. Right? Whereas the message says, No, I, I'm trying to make things more clear. But actually, if you look at the parable that he told right before this discussion about why he tells stories, that's the parable of the sower, where he tells the story of a man, flinging the seed around in the field, right, and some of it falls on really fertile soil, and it grows and produces an abundant crop. Some of it goes on the rocky ground, right, and the sun burns things up. And then the thorns and it shakes it, right, and the birds come and eat some of the seeds. And it's all about the soil. Right? So the condition of the soil, in that story is the difference between fruitfulness and death. And that's basically what he's saying here. In, in his explanation of why he tells stories, parables, why he he hides his meaning in, in these stories, and, and so the people that are ready, the people that have ears to hear, they'll get it. The people that are longing for it, the people that that are ready to hear His message will hear it. And the people that are not ready, the people with heart hearts, that are people that are are looking to find fault, or not, they don't get it. They just don't get it. They go, why is he telling all these stories? Like I don't get it? 

17:01  
So we have this thing called cognitive bias where it this is an error in thinking that affects our decision making. And one form of cognitive bias is confirmation bias. Okay, we process new information in a way that is really heavily influenced by our existing beliefs and our expectations of how things work in the world. And what's what's the kingdom like? And who's a good person who's a bad person? What are we, you know, all of these things? What's the best way to do this? What's the best approach for whatever you know? And those things affect how the people see your ministry and your nonprofit and the work that you do? Right? Especially if you're kind of in some of these hot button issues type of work, you know, if you're working with immigration, if you're working in in conflict areas, or you're working around issues that are in the news a lot or issues that have become political footballs, right? So you have things where people think really strongly on one side or another, and you've got to figure out how do I work? How do I help people in the midst, like if my goal is to help people and I got all this noise around me? What's going on? So anything that doesn't match up with what people already believe to be true? In their view, right, it doesn't line up with their existing beliefs, then, then they write it off, right? We disbelieve new information or or that information, the new information becomes suspect. And even when you you back it up, like you come at it and you go, well, here's all the facts. And here's the reasons this is true. And then then the listener with the bias. When we receive information that doesn't match up with or we have somebody we don't trust or somebody who's you know, them giving us information, we start bending that stuff to a shape that fits our existing bias, right? Or, like with conspiracy theories, we'll make up stories to explain the new information away and often, that's at great harm to ourselves and to others. So what I'm seeing in this is that parables are not so much about the story, but about the soil.

19:29  
It's about our listeners, it's about and I'm not saying if people don't get your message, you write them off. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the parables are a package, a story package that helps overcome this cognitive bias, confirmation bias, and the defense's that we build up stories can chip away at that right now this fits in to with what you've already heard me teach about telling the right story for your audience's level of awareness. And then no, we're not talking about, you know, you're not trying to deceive people or twist people's arms, you're just saying this person is at this point, and I want to help them move from there to a new point. So the every copywriter studies, the levels of awareness, which are somebody is unaware that there's even a need, right? Then they become problem aware, then they become solution aware, than brand aware, and then that's when they know your organization. And then they become most aware, that's their insider. They know all the stuff, they're part of what you do. Now, Jesus told stories, and he taught according to the soil, does that make sense? You might say, He taught according to the soil or according to the readiness of the soil or the readiness of the listeners heart. And in the case of these parables, he hid the meaning within a story, so that the good soil could receive it and the bad soil remained barren. In fitting with as a as prophecy, though seeing they do not see though hearing, they do not hear or understands any stand. And he would, you know, he says this a lot. He says, Let those who have ears hear and understand. So some people's hearts were hardened. And some though were soft and fertile and ready to hear what Jesus had to say. Now, at this point, you might be going well, well, what in the world does this have to do with my nonprofit? And my communications that I'm doing to try and raise funds or support? Well, sometimes you have to deliver hard messages. Sometimes people come to you, because they want to be involved in what you do, but they have certain ideas about your work, or about the issue that are not true, and are not helpful. And if they're going to come in and be an insider with you and and work with you and volunteer with you and have a voice with you join with you, right? You do all want to kind of be on the same page, right? That's really helpful, but because they're passionate about it, these ideas are entrenched. So how do you talk to those people? How do you talk to them, and help them see maybe something in a new way, right? 

22:33  
Stories have that way of change, helping us change, right, we change the way that we think about an issue, we come at it slant from an angle, we're not having a direct confrontation, we're not arguing them in we're not teaching or preaching at them. But the stories can get past the defenses, they get past the pushback the walls that we build up in our mind. So just here's my challenge to you today. What are those areas where misconceptions bad information, political twists, outdated approaches, prejudices, stereotypes? What what are those things? How did those things affect your nonprofit? And how did how did you learn to see those things differently?

23:24  
So if you just pull out a piece of paper and brainstorm that what are what's the bad information people have around your work? What's the political implications are things that people are being being steered towards that and how does that affect your work? Right? What's what is some old or outdated information or approaches that people have about the issue that you work in? What are some prejudices people have maybe about the people you work with the people that you're serving? What are some stereotypes that people have? So what are those things for you? And you write those down? And then look at your own story, because this might be a story that you use, how did you learn to see those things differently? How did you come about your paradigm shift? And that's a story that you can tell how other look, ask your board members and other people that are with you in this? How did they learn to see those things differently? Now, this isn't easy, but what stories could you tell to begin to break down those walls to, as Jesus said, to create readiness to nudge the people towards a welcome awakening? Think that through it's going to take time to come up with this type of story. This is not a story that you're going to use a lot. Okay? 

24:57  
But I just think if you're running up in a against walls. If you're running into walls and you're in your organization in your nonprofit storytelling, if you're, if you've got these walls and pushback, and maybe some ideas coming in, that are threatening to take you off course, or to block you in some way, or that were just that are hurting your constituents, the people that you're working for or with, you've got to address those things at some point. Now what how can you do it with stories? So that's my challenge to you today to identify a place in your work where stories can begin to overcome myths. So I'm Kay Helm. This is the life and mission podcast until next time, find your voice, tell your story, and change the world.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai