{"id":40353,"date":"2016-09-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-brains-are-wired-to-connect-via-stories\/"},"modified":"2016-09-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T00:00:00","slug":"our-brains-are-wired-to-connect-via-stories","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-brains-are-wired-to-connect-via-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Brains Are Wired to Connect Via Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The power of story is getting unlikely attention. In a fascinating collaboration, literary scholars and neuroscientists have teamed up to explore the impact that stories have on the human brain.<\/p>\n\n<p>A <em class=\"citation\">Wall Street Journal<\/em> article by Allison Gopnik entitled &quot;Want a Mind Meld? Tell a Compelling Story,&quot; described a variety of brain scan studies that show that stories not only shape one&#39;s thoughts, but also foster a connection between a storyteller and listener. The closer the connection, the greater the understanding of the story. Gopnik concluded that &quot;results suggest that we lowly humans are actually as good at mind-melding as [Star Trek&#39;s] Vulcans or the Borg. We just do it with stories.&quot; Other experiments have looked at how stories help develop neural pathways, and affect our relationships by altering how we order and understand information.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: The best story of all, the story that we need to hear above any other story, is the good news about Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3485,3487,3600,3726,3839,3869,4085,4215,4260,4293,4357,4444,4468,4561,4588,4688,4803,4893,5082,5123,5124,5157,5291],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40353","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bible","tax_ctp_tags-bible-reading","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-imagination","tax_ctp_tags-inspiration-of-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-learning","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-mind","tax_ctp_tags-old-testament","tax_ctp_tags-parables-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-renewing-the-mind","tax_ctp_tags-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-stories","tax_ctp_tags-teacher","tax_ctp_tags-teaching","tax_ctp_tags-thoughts","tax_ctp_tags-word-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Brains Are Wired to Connect Via Stories - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-brains-are-wired-to-connect-via-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Brains Are Wired to Connect Via Stories - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The power of story is getting unlikely attention. 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