3Story® is about relationships.  It is a way of seeing how the relationships we have with other people and God can be connected and grown.  We pray that the Lord will help us move into a way of living that seamlessly connects our relationships with others to a God who desires to be known and followed in every area of our lives.  No relationship is unaffected by a 3Story approach to life.

3Story is not an evangelism tool or method, it is who we want to be and how we want to live. In YFC, 3Story is our living operating system. Our hope is that it becomes our DNA. Knowing that if we seek to abide deeply with Jesus everyday and stay saturated in His word, we will be ready and aware of the opportunities He gives us in a lost world. We focus on the “being” and the “doing” flows from there.

The 3 rings represents how God's Story, My Story, and Their Story all connect, and gives a visual for how we describe 3Story®.
The 3 main elements are this:

Abiding ... My Story and God's Story
The connection between God’s Story and My Story is defined in abiding. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matt.22:37

Discover Their Story.  Disclose My Story.

The connection between MyStory and Their Story is defined in loving others and noticing them as we discover their story and share our own.  “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt.22:39

Introducing Their Story to God's Story.

The connection between Their Story and God’s Story is about introducing my friend Jesus to my friends who don’t know him yet.  “For Christ love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died.  And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died and was raised.” 2 Cor. 5:14-15

Ten shifts in faith-sharing that emerge from 3Story®     II Corinthians 5:14 – 21

1. It’s stories, more than steps.  Acts 17:27-28
It is about bringing 3 stories together in a natural way.  It is not taking people through a sequence of pre-determined steps. 

2. It’s honesty, more than perfection.  Phil. 3:9b,12-13
It asks the believer to be honest, not perfect.
 
3. It’s them, more than you. I Thessalonians 2:8
It allows our friends to be who they are as we discover Their Story.
 
4. It’s questions, more than answers.  John 4:1-30
It is more about asking questions than giving answers.  Christians often offer answers to questions that not-yet-followers of Christ aren’t even asking.
 
5. It’s listening, more than telling.  Colossians 4:6
It starts out with listening not preaching.  It’s built on the assumption that people listen to people who listen.
 
6. It’s hope, more than judgment.   I Peter 3:15-16a
It is primarily about me sharing my need for Jesus and my hope in Him rather than me judging others’ lifestyles, words or choices.
 
7. It’s the Holy Spirit, more than program.  Romans 8:26-30
It means being led by God’s Spirit in our relationships.  It’s not working through tips or techniques to maneuver God into a conversation. It’s about bringing Jesus’ Story into a relationship at just the right moment.
 
8. It’s circular, more than linear.  John 4:1-30
3Story invites people to discover parts of Jesus’ Story that are most relevant to them at that moment.  Jesus’ Story doesn’t come to everybody in the same order or with the same words.
 
9. It’s love, more than knowledge.  I Corinthians 13:1-2,13
Not only in a postmodern world, but also from a biblical worldview, love wins peoples hearts.  
 
10. It’s contributing, more than controlling. I Peter 3:16a
3Story is not about controlling.  Rather, it’s about allowing conversations to be free enough to flow and to bring Jesus naturally into those topics or discussions.

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