Record Live Podcast

Authenticity
[00:00:00] Hi there everyone. I'm Jared. And I'm Sunita. We are your hosts of Record Live, a podcast where we talk about church faith and living well. We believe as followers of Jesus faith is more than just a set of beliefs. It's a way of life, something we'd put into practice. Let's go live.
Zanita Fletcher: Welcome to another week of record live. We excitedly are recording in the same place today.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We are together. It's, it's a rare
Zanita Fletcher: occurrence, but it's always, it's big fun. Yeah, it is for sure. , we actually saw each other not long ago at Digital Cyber Ship,
Zanita Fletcher: but, something that we spoke about quite a lot, digital discipleship, that was a common theme, was this idea of building trust within our church communities. And I really liked, I don't know if you were aware of that overall thing, you perhaps were, but I [00:01:00] really liked your presentation and it really stuck with me.
Zanita Fletcher: , particularly the stories you share. So I don't know if you wanna share a little bit about what you spoke about digital discipleship, and we can go from there.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah. I did know Jared flagged with me, Jared Madden, , we had him on a couple of weeks ago.
Both: Mm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , on record live. And he said his big thing was gonna be trust.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And I said, that's awesome. 'cause I'm, my whole thing is the power of stories. And I talk about that a bit. I do some workshops and I encourage people, to share their testimonies, share their stories. And when he said that the theme was trust, I really. My thinking went well actually stories can build trust.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It seems weird, but it's a really important thing. And you mentioned trust in the church and stuff, but it's also trust in the community and the people outside the church, like just to build relationships. It helps to trust someone. So Jared started the weekend, , with some stats about the trust index.
Jarrod Stackelroth: There's actually a trust index. Yeah. Fascinating. And trust has gone [00:02:00] down. Trust in the media, especially
Both: trust in
Jarrod Stackelroth: government. Let's not go, , the media, the government, the business leaders, a lot of. There's trends where trust has pivoted to some of those groups, and now it's been lost by some of those groups.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And the highest group is actually peers.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. Which was specifically people who have similar interests, similar opinion to you. Which
Jarrod Stackelroth: circles? Which is good because Yeah, that's how. Media is being driven by the smartphone. , everyone's on getting their 15 minutes of fame. , but it's,, got the effect of making echo chambers like polarizing the society and we're really seeing that.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Mm-hmm. So Jared opened the weekend with that, and then on Saturday morning I, , did talk about the power of authentic storytelling and authenticity is something that I think, I've always tried to have in my writing. [00:03:00] At first it was a bit subconscious, and then I think, , through continuing to exercise that muscle, and learning new things and the things that God taught me and the ways that he led me, I think I discovered that it was one of my strengths to, mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Make storytelling vulnerable to make it authentic is something that I find
Both: yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Easy is not the right words, Anita. Sure. It's not easy to do, but it's , I understand the power of it for myself 'cause I've seen it change my life and so I try and model it because I think you can't do it if no one's ever shared how or demonstrated it for you.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Sure. So for me, that's been my journey actually. I. Having it modeled in some senses to myself and then finding ways to become more intentional and to really understand the why of doing that. And that's a little bit of what I shared, I'd say at Digital Discipleship. Yeah.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, we're [00:04:00] talking a lot about authenticity to build community in this conversation.
Both: Yeah.
Zanita Fletcher: , but just to clarify so we're all on the same page. When you say authenticity, , what do you mean? Like when you try to be authentic in your writing. What does that look like? ,
Jarrod Stackelroth: It's somewhat stripping back the masks.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Not being, keeping up appearances. Yeah. If you remember that old show.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So in other words, being real, being raw. And yes, authenticity has become a bit of a buzzword in a sense, , or I've heard it more, you know, transparency, be authentic, be transparent. Yeah. And people try to do that and they can do that. They can try to do that using a formula or some kind of, but it doesn't always work because you can also sense authenticity , in a sense.
Jarrod Stackelroth: But yeah, really in a nutshell, it's about being real. Yeah. , and trying to, for me, I look at, okay, if I want to be authentic, I ask myself, well, what am I [00:05:00] dealing with that I think other people will be able to relate to? Mm. And then going from that, one of the things when you write, it's like, no, your audience Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Know who you're talking to.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And so if you can. Have a perception of someone might need something, someone might be going through something similar to what I'm going through. You can share on that from a place of not lifting yourself up, but being like, I. I'm struggling with this. Mm-hmm. You guys who are reading this or listening to this or doing this, you might be able to find value in this as well.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. Yeah. So good. I think it's funny when we talk about, , yourself as a writer, but also people, I think they do this in multiple circles. Whatever circles they find themselves in, whether it's , at work or whether it's at church. I think a lot of people feel like they have to. They can only speak when they know the answer or they can only write when they have the answer, when they've come to the other side of whatever they're going through.
Zanita Fletcher: But mm-hmm. , [00:06:00] I think probably when we are our most authentic selves is when we are still in the middle of that and can share how we really are. And that's something that you shared in your presentation was you shared a story about you and your wife were looking for community and looking for a church and you.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, you went to a church and someone was really honest and open and that really helped you guys. , so I think there is a lot of power in being authentic when we are still in the middle of things. A
Jarrod Stackelroth: hundred percent
Zanita Fletcher: On the other side.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah. Because if we're sharing from the other side, it can often feel discouraging or depressing for people that are in the middle of it because it feels so far away.
Both: Like,
Jarrod Stackelroth: . When you are, you know, stuck down a, a big pit, you know, in a hole, and you see the birds flying across the sky, you're like, Ugh. Or a plane even like, ugh. I'll never get to that point. You know, I can't get out of the whole little line. Yeah. , and so when we say, oh, I've been through this experience, here's the miracle that happened.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Here's where I am [00:07:00] right now. And it's amazing, it is wonderful. Yeah. Good. That's great. That might be relevant to someone and they can relate to your experience and they've also been lifted up out of the pit. They're also in a good space. But for someone who's in the pit at the time, they might really struggle with that because it's actually, .
Jarrod Stackelroth: Discouraging to them. Mm-hmm. Because it feels so unattainable at that point. So you've gotta be conscious of that. Does that mean you shouldn't tell the story? No, not necessarily. Yeah. Because different people are in different places and they might need that. But yes, , it's about not being afraid to tell the story, your story.
Jarrod Stackelroth: A story even though you can't see the end of the story. Mm-hmm.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. I remember hearing a friend once he was, going through a period of grief, I suppose. Mm-hmm. And he was really struggling to come to church because he found it really frustrating to hear people go out the front and share testimonies of how they had lost their keys and prayed.
Zanita Fletcher: And then God had revealed their keys right. Holiday, , fallen pregnant [00:08:00] after a long period. But basically what he was saying is like all of these stories of people going up the front. Sharing their answered prayers, which is good, but it's like how often do you get someone kind of go at the front end church and be like, I'm really struggling.
Zanita Fletcher: Like but I'm still here. Or this is how I'm finding hope. And so I think, yeah, it's just interesting 'cause he stopped gonna church for a period 'cause he just found that too difficult to constantly be reminded of only the breakthroughs and only, and so I think, yeah, that's where vulnerability, I suppose, or authenticity.
Zanita Fletcher: It can help people in the middle of things. Yeah. When it's just like relatable and not necessarily
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yep. Yep. And you might share from a place of breakthrough, but acknowledging that you're not quite there yet. Mm. Like we're all on journeys and, , there's a spectrum of where you're sitting, , and some people might have closure and fully healed from something and be really,, everything's great.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , other people might be like, well. The Lord helped me with this week. Help me get out of bed this week. You [00:09:00] know that
Both: Yeah. That's
Jarrod Stackelroth: a victory. , praise God for that. But I'm still struggling with these other things. Mm. And so, yeah, it's important to recognize that. , Sometimes when we wait to tell the full story, it's not, we're diminishing the testimony that we have because we're not actually sharing how God is working.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We're not as. Aware of it either. 'cause we forget by the time when we were full victory, everything's great. We've forgotten some of the mm-hmm. The victories, the little victories that it took to get us to the, the big one. Does that make sense?
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I wonder if you could, , I know you shared a story in your presentation.
Zanita Fletcher: I wonder if you could share that, because I think it's a really cool story in terms of like, when we're talking about authenticity and community and what that actually
Jarrod Stackelroth: looks like. Yeah. Because well, stories, , are 22 times more memorable than facts.
Zanita Fletcher: It's true, and I really liked your presentation, but when you asked me what it was [00:10:00] about, I, I remembered , the story.
Zanita Fletcher: You had the story, yeah. And the gist of it, but I didn't remember because the
Jarrod Stackelroth: story encapsulates like the heart of it.
Both: Yeah,
Jarrod Stackelroth: so that's the point, like, , but yeah, my wife and I, we had moved, , we weren't married yet at the time, but we were living in Victoria. I was up in Warton, she was in, , Melbourne.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And then my job moved me to Sydney. So we both made the decision. She moved some months after I did back in with her parents, and we were like, we had not really connected with the church in. Melbourne. So we attended a lot of churches. We bumped in for the service and bumped out before, before anyone could talk to us.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You know, we're in that phase of our lives and we were struggling to get connected.
Both: Mm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , A friend of my wife's actually, that she had gone to Avondale with was like, you should come to our church camp. You have to come. And we're like, so what's it about? You always want to get
Both: suss it out.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: What's, what's [00:11:00] gonna happen there? And they're like, ah. It is too hard to explain. Just come and we're like, oh, this sounds a bit suss. I dunno, what have we got to lose? Let's just go for it. So we attended this weekend and honestly from the Friday night we had tea in our eyes. Like we were, ,basically it was a weekend of, it's evangelistic, but it was.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Gospel presentations, but they weren't like evangelists. They weren't high, , profile preachers. They were people from the church, this
Zanita Fletcher: church members,
Jarrod Stackelroth: and they were giving their testimony and using their story to weave into stories like I. Zeu or Yeah, Jesus on the cross and , the trials and stuff that he went through.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And, and so we walked through this weekend and we really got the gospel presented to us, which was amazing. But the powerful thing that stood out to me was the stories, the personal stories, and my wife, as a shit on the. The weekend. My wife had some trauma in her life. She'd had some, , [00:12:00] really difficult dark seasons.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and then that had led to mental health things, which we'd tried to help her to deal with. But these people were just openly talking about some of this stuff , and she could relate and I could relate to some of it, , or was just even at that point, was just moved by it, even if I couldn't relate, like.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Directly. And then , the neat thing, I didn't have a lot of time to go into it, but after the presentation, the story and , the word, we would have small group time after that. True. And so we would unpack like our own stuff. We had a safe space with. , for me, two or three other men, it was gender specific.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So , the women went with the women, the men went with the men , and the group leaders. If we weren't talking, because , if you've grown up in the Adventist church, you're like, we don't share this sort of stuff at Sabbath school. You know, , it's not a safe space necessarily to just do some of that.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And yet this weekend, , by [00:13:00] the end, I, I could share my struggles and my difficulties, my sin, because. It was modeled to me and these group leaders that were facilitating, that were leading us through after the word, we would unpack our own lives and went through some exercises and different things. It was a really powerful time and it gave me a lasting like.
Jarrod Stackelroth: My wife and I drove home and we were talking and , we were like, we've gotta go to this church.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: This is like, what have we got to lose transformative. , it was transformative. The power of those stories especially is what hooked us in. , they were good people. We had fun at the church and whatever later, but it was like that introduction was just too powerful because we saw people who were rest, wrestling and struggling like we were, but they had found a sense of a safe space where they could actually share some of that.
Both: Mm. And
Jarrod Stackelroth: so we, we attended that church for many years. We, we got very involved. [00:14:00] We went from church hopping, inactive sort of members to missional members, like really. Hmm. We did a discipleship training course. We did, , some outreach stuff. We were doing prison ministries. We, we were involved, we were loving it because of those stories.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I would, I would like, yeah, link them as a key. That was the difference. , to what, why it made sense, why it made us passionate, because those stories transformed us. And after that, since then. Actually did my master's, , research in trauma narratives and stuff. And so,, I was just looking for evidence that backed up what I had experienced in that transformative life changing story.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Like,
Both: yeah,
Jarrod Stackelroth: hey, this power in this stuff, these stories can actually heal. They can help, they can encourage, they can uplift and I need to understand. More and better about how that works. So yeah, I started, , [00:15:00] that program and, and went through that and yeah, I, I truly believe that I. One of the most powerful weapons that God has given us is our own personal journey, our own personal story.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Because that when used in community can actually break down walls, it can help people connect it. It's a really powerful tool.
Zanita Fletcher: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I really love that. 'cause I think. Often we go into churches like we only go once a week.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Zanita Fletcher: And a lot of the times we're so busy that we don't have a lot to do with each other throughout the rest of our lives.
Zanita Fletcher: Mm-hmm. I know some churches are definitely different and are definitely modeling that a lot better, but a lot of the times we just go to church on Saturday, we dunno what's happening in each other's lives. And then we have these deep like theological Bible studies, which at their root, uh. Really important and personal, but we just don't go there.
Zanita Fletcher: We just touch on the theological like
Both: Yes, yes.
Zanita Fletcher: Depth, I suppose, and we just never get to learn [00:16:00] about like what each other is struggling with. Mm-hmm. I think it's a real missed opportunity a lot of the time, because I. , we could help each other so much more and could encourage each other so much more and pray for each other so much more.
Zanita Fletcher: Yes. If we let down some of those guards, but I think that's really hard to do when you, all of a sudden come into something like a Bible study group with 20 people. 'cause it's like that can be really hard to Yes. , let those walls down. Right there and then. So it's something that has to happen to bit more gradually.
Zanita Fletcher: But I really love that day
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and modeling it. And this group, , at one point it, it is gonna sound weird 'cause it's a bit out of context and you don't understand the journey, but, , at one point we were writing down our sins on a piece of butcher's paper. Mm. And like, that's a really, really hard exercise to do with people you've never met before.
Jarrod Stackelroth: For sure. Yeah. It's very awkward. But you very, very quickly. I, I was, after that time, we were involved in that church for a number of years. We ran, like helped. We were part of the team then [00:17:00] telling our story, we were doing, , leading out, facilitating the small groups, et cetera. And. You very quickly realize that everyone's writing the same things down on the piece of paper.
Both: Hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Right. So people might write like, little, all sin is equal in that it separates us from God, but people write little things that like pride and,. Yeah.
Both: Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And people are like, , until someone writes, you know, something a bit more
Both: Risa risque.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And then all of a sudden everyone's like, oh, but there's not judge.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You have to create a non-judgmental, safe space to, to be able to do that. And then you see people writing and they're getting a bit more game and, and everyone's writing. And, , symbolically we, destroy that paper at the end of the, at the end of the program. And it's like,, we wanna be freed from some of those things, but like, it was a,, powerful moment for me in that it was like modeling that actually we've all got the same sense or we've got different [00:18:00] variations, but we're all struggling with stuff.
Both: Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and when you haven't modeled, it's important, but on the flip side of that, it's dangerous to just open up to everyone and anyone, like it's not necessarily. Wise, what do you think are some of the drawbacks of vulnerability?
Zanita Fletcher: When you're being vulnerable, you're definitely putting yourself at risk.
Zanita Fletcher: Not everyone is safe to trust and not everyone is going to, , keep what you've shared within those gates. Like some people are gonna talk about it, some people are gonna gossip, some people are gonna criticize you, like some people are just gonna be harsh. And I think you have to. I don't know if test is the right word, but I think you do have to be wise and discerning about who you share with.
Both: Mm mm-hmm. And not
Zanita Fletcher: necessarily for vulnerability. I think some of us think of vulnerability as just like an emotional vomit. Right. But I don't think it's necessarily that, like I think it's vulnerability can look like a lot of things. It can look like. Complimenting someone, or it can look like sharing what I actually think about an idea with [00:19:00] someone.
Zanita Fletcher: Mm-hmm. Like it can of course look like sharing our struggles and our stories as well, but it doesn't just look like a, this is everything that's happening in my life. Yeah. And so I think when you, , yeah, you have to be, I think if you are just starting out with being vulnerable, I think it's probably wise to just like do it with one person and just share something smaller.
Zanita Fletcher: And if they respond well, if they reciprocate, well then. Maybe share something else or like take away another wall. Mm-hmm.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah. I think within church communities it can be hard because we're often just like thrown into a massive circle or a massive number of people. But I think starting small and so is good, but it doesn't mean like, to be honest, I've.
Zanita Fletcher: , a few years ago I was really vulnerable with a friend that I was struggling and it, it did backfire on me pretty bad, and that person wasn't trustworthy. And wow. I either had the choice then to be like, well, do I just never share with anyone? Mm-hmm. What I'm struggling with again, or how I'm feeling?
Zanita Fletcher: Or [00:20:00] do I just like learn? I guess that not everyone can be trusted and. heal from that hurt because that is like hurtful and it can be hard to do that again. But I think if you just choose to never be vulnerable again, you are never gonna have these close, intimate relationships that you desire,
Jarrod Stackelroth: put up the walls and don't share with anyone.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And then you are actually cutting yourself off from potentially even love. Because I think at the heart of, , intimacy and love is. Transparency.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Which, you know, if you're not willing to be vulnerable with anyone, you find it very hard to be transparent with say your partner and then you don't go down that road, you know, because you put these walls up and that can be also very dangerous.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Mm-hmm. I think churches, the challenge for us as a church though, is to create places. And this church did it really well,, whether it's Sabbath school, whether that's two big a group. So maybe you have to split into twos and threes at times, or maybe you have to develop, , cell groups outside of the weekly, [00:21:00] Sabbath programs.
Jarrod Stackelroth: There's gotta be spaces and places for our churches to develop that. 'cause I think really true love. Can come through that connection, that authentic connection, , the disciples in acts that they're spoken about of having everything in common, , many of them were living in common sort of these houses where everyone was just looking out for each other and you don't think they knew each other's business, I think, do you know what I mean?
Jarrod Stackelroth: And, but that was part of it. There weren't lies and walls and different things between them. So that was an. Opportunity for sort of true love to flourish and , to go well in that community.
Zanita Fletcher: Hmm. Yeah. I had a quote once and it was saying something like, you can't hate someone unless you, , I'm gonna totally butcher this.
Zanita Fletcher: You can't hate someone unless you know their story. Like if you dunno their story., because basically it's like right, if you, I think a lot of the times when we are critical of people, it's when we don't really [00:22:00] understand. What's going on or understand the reason or understand their past or , we don't have that like bigger picture and we just see one thing and we just like cast criticism more.
Zanita Fletcher: , Yeah, I don't know. And I think it's so often we don't really know those people. , I think, like I have, picked on cyber school quite a bit in this, but I do think people, uh, particularly people who are leading cyber school groups can do things to ma make it a space where people are more.
Zanita Fletcher: Likely to be authentic and vulnerable. Mm-hmm. Like I think just asking, like even just one question in the Bible study that creates more like open conversational.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It was interesting at this church, , in the facilitation training that we did, because it's quite hard to. Make those small groups vulnerable and opening.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And so we did do a little bit of, , pre-work before we would run a camp like that. It would be like, well, how do we actually facilitate some of this? Well, and it was like, sometimes you'll get people in your groups that are really overbearing and they'll want to talk all the [00:23:00] time. And you have to make space for other people to talk, and you have to mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You, , shut down. Certain conversations, certain opinions that aren't leading anywhere, and I think, , even just a little bit of that kind of intentional training for some of our cyber school leaders would help with that because I think so often they're just volunteers thrown in the deep end and they haven't actually got a lot of experience doing some of that stuff.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So, yeah. Not that it's their fault, it's just, yeah, we could be better as a church at actually using cyber school as , a really intentional space to build our community instead of just, yeah, to
Zanita Fletcher: connect
Jarrod Stackelroth: us, oh, come here and score theological points. Yeah,
Zanita Fletcher: and it's probably, I would guess it's the people who put their hands up to take cyber school are probably usually the people who are confident with their theology.
Zanita Fletcher: And sometimes you get people who are confident with their theology and really aware of like the needs of connection and community and authenticity. But
Jarrod Stackelroth: probably not always. Probably not the same person.
Zanita Fletcher: I don't know. [00:24:00] Yeah, just a thought, but,
Jarrod Stackelroth: hmm.
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I am waiting for your next difficult que the last few weeks you've thrown out. Yeah. People
Zanita Fletcher: have been,
Jarrod Stackelroth: you've thrown out some really good fiery questions, challenging questions. I like it. I like it., so yeah, practically,, for me it's like something that I really, it's not that I always set out to be shocking or.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You really have to avoid the temptation to sensationalize a story, just to like
Both: get
Jarrod Stackelroth: an emotional reaction. I think, , we gotta make that point clear as well. It's not just about. Manipulating people into relationships with you. , but one interesting thing I saw, so at the weekend that you're referring to, I did a writing workshop on testimonies, making your testimony, , better.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It was a digital conference, but I was all about the writing because hey, if you're gonna run a channel, if you're gonna be digital,, [00:25:00] it's good to. Craft things. Well, communication skills are important and so I was looking more at the content of your story and how to tell your testimony.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Well, and so I've got some tips and some tricks, but I actually get my. My workshop,
Zanita Fletcher: where can people get this? My
Jarrod Stackelroth: workshop? Ease to write.
Zanita Fletcher: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Right. Give them five minutes, 10 minutes to actually write. And then I made them share with their seatmate, like whoever they were sitting next to. Mm-hmm. I don't know if I hadn't noticed it before.
Jarrod Stackelroth: It was just the context of the weekend and just how it came together. 'cause we were talking about building trust, breaking down big, , breaking down walls and building bridges, et cetera. I was watching them as they shared. 'cause if you don't practice the tips you've just been given, you'll forget Two days later you'll be gone from the conference.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You'll never do it again. And you'll maybe have the light. I can't write, I can't tell my story. So I make them do it there [00:26:00] on, on the theme. Nice. During the workshop, and they were sharing, like you and I would share, we would sit next to each other. We, I'd read my story, you'd read your story, and what I would see is this, here's my story,, this and this, and this happened to me.
Both: Mm-hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And then they would look at each other and they would give context, oh, well I didn't finish, but, yeah, this is where I'm thinking. , and you would see them interacting, engaging. And then the other person would read their story and then they had these conversations. They weren't looking at
Both: a piece of paper
Jarrod Stackelroth: what they'd written anymore, but they were having a conversation.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And my whole point was. If you're ready with your story, if you know the things that God's doing in your life and you're ready to share that with someone in an authentic way, that will break down walls and that will help them to relate to you because you've just shared your story. Mm-hmm. And I just saw these people, many of them didn't walk in together.
Jarrod Stackelroth: They were just sitting, and then they got paired up with someone they didn't know. They were connecting.
Both: Mm. They
Jarrod Stackelroth: were laughing, [00:27:00] smiling, enjoying the experience, and it was like, wow. A real world sort of example is not just theory.
Both: Yeah.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Telling your story to someone else actually makes them connect. Mm. It was, I was chuffed to see it happen like right in front of me.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Mm-hmm. It was just a simple exercise they wrote for 10 minutes and then they start talking and they just, they could have talked for another three hours. Like they were, the barriers were broken, they were ready to go. And I just think, , that's the power. It just reminded me again this weekend of.
Jarrod Stackelroth: The actual power of authentic stories and the way that we can actually use those stories to build community, to bring people together and to relate to other people in a way that will help them with their story, you know? Yeah. God uses our stories almost to enter other people's stories in that sense.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So, mm-hmm. Yeah, , it was a powerful reminder for me. , so that
Zanita Fletcher: can be a practical activity for our listeners is to. Write down some story. Alright. Workshop [00:28:00] with
Jarrod Stackelroth: Jared. All right, you ready? Spend 10 minutes or so. It's called a napkin testimony. Can you write your testimony on napkin? A small piece of paper.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , do it this week. Just write out something that God's done for you in your life recently or something that he's doing currently. And it's really good one, it helps you to process.
Both: Hmm.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And remember, so it means actually when you have a conversation with your hairdresser or the person at the shops that's serving you, et cetera, you're ready with that story.
Jarrod Stackelroth: If they say something, , it's always important to listen first., you don't just go around telling people your story, you listen to what they're sharing. Come. But if you've got something that's ready and you don't have to read it, then because, you've internalized it, because you've written it out, but you read, write your story down this week.
Jarrod Stackelroth: If you think, oh, this is actually good. I'd love to share it. Send it to us. , editor@record.net [00:29:00] au. If you send me an email, I'd love to read your story. We love getting testimonies at record. , and it may or may not ever be printed if you just do this exercise this week. You can just keep it for yourself and just know that, you've done that, but just engage with your own story and it might help you make a connection.
Jarrod Stackelroth: With someone this week, and we'd love to hear if that is actually the case. If you write your story out, then find someone in the shops that you tell that story to and then you're like, wow, this is a really cool connection. They're coming to church, or we just got to know each other better. I've seen this lady across the road for 15 years and never spoken to her.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We'd love to hear, , how it's working for you as well.
Zanita Fletcher: I'll share it with someone in your. Church community if you can't find someone across the street.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Zanita Fletcher: Oh yeah. Napkin testimonies. That should probably be the title of this week's podcast, I reckon.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You reckon?
Zanita Fletcher: I think it's interesting.
Zanita Fletcher: I'd be intrigued.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Let's do it.
Zanita Fletcher: Well thank you Jared for sharing. It's been great to hear about.. Your experience with sharing stories. Go out there, be [00:30:00] authentic, be transparent, and , build community.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah. We'll see you next week on record Live.
Jarrod Stackelroth: God bless.