Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book AwardsA Better Storyteller
Donald Miller is in a room of 500 or 600 people, all waiting for him to speak. But as he steps behind the podium and begins, his voice seems more suited to a small group of five or six.
"Okay," he starts, "what are some of your favorite movies?"
A murmur of response—"Come on!" Miller encourages—and then people start shouting out titles. The Matrix! A Beautiful Mind! The Straight Story! Finding Nemo! The audience oohs and aahs at each other's choices. Little Women! Napoleon Dynamite! It's a Wonderful Life! The shouting goes on for a while; they forget this is a workshop.
"Okay, great," Miller says, bringing attention front and center. "Now, call out your favorite parts of the Nicene Creed."
Awkward giggles throughout the room—they know they've been had. Then one man pipes up: "It's a wonderful life!"
Miller laughs along with, maybe louder than, everyone in the room. He's enjoying that his point was made for him: We know our movies better than we know our creeds. And now self-help banalities—Your life can be wonderful—compete for our attention with the classic truths of the Christian story.
In the next half hour, Miller delivers a variation on a theme ascendant in evangelical Christianity: Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. "The chief role of a Christian," he says, "is to tell a better story."
In keeping with the movie theme, Miller quotes at length from Robert McKee, the Hollywood screenwriting guru whose book Story (1997) is at once a detailed guide to the principles of narrative and a primer on the principles ...
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Karen
I felt like I had stepped into a new kind of faith when my sister told me about Donald Miller book, Blue Like Jazz. Right from the intro when he describes watching the jazz player play with eyes closed. That picture has long stuck in my mind and reminded me how I can best help people to love Jesus. I have teenager children and they were immediatley captivated with the cartoons in Blue. This interested them enough to read - and read several times over both Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God knows what. I can not tell you how that makes me as a mom feel. To know my kids are hearing the faith shared in such a practical way - a way that they can relate to and grasp and learn to call their own. Now my kids have shared the book with some friends of theirs - one girl who is a new Christian had it at home and her dad picked it up. He doesn't attend church or profess a Christian walk - but as a result he has gone out a bought his own copy of Blue Like Jazz. What a tool. Its speaks of reality.
Wanda
I must say I have never quite related to a writer like I have to Donald Miller in "Blue Like Jazz". His realness & honesty are refreshing & I always appreciate a sense of humor. Naturally, I do not agree with all his ideas or ways of thinking. I do not see him condoning getting drunk, or high, but acknowledging that there are real issues we battle with and will continue to do so till we are in glory. Jesus did come for the sick not the healthy and hung out with with the "bad crowd" from time to time. For the first time in my long battle with finding it hard to receive God's love, Donald shed light on what my dilemmas & false beliefs were. We should not be picking apart the book because of trivial differences. Any searching reader will sense & know God loves them, desires relationship with them & accepts them as they are. Any time sin was pointed out to Don, he acknowledged it, repented, & made the effort to change. God honors a contrite heart. Ps. 37
Mark
And you have no issue with the fact that Ms. Lamott is a universalist?