(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Constructing the Story." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Telling the Story.")

Constructing the Story

Exploring the many nooks and crannies of your congregation's past and present life is like going on a voyage. You embark at one place, stop for a while to look around at another, and then move on to yet another destination. As the historical voyage continues, you discover reasons to visit places that were not on the original itinerary.

Soon your neat map begins to look like a map of St. Paul's missionary journeys, as your searches and discoveries lead you on detours, back to sites visited earlier, and on to places you never knew existed. As you proceed, your historical knowledge expands, connections begin to emerge, pieces begin to fit into larger wholes. Unknown dimensions of your congregation's life come into view.

The discovery voyage, however, is only a part of the historian's task. You will be tempted to keep on traveling, to turn up one more fact, to examine one more pastoral letter or worship bulletin. But congregational historians do not fulfill their vocation until they have made a story out of their discoveries—and then told it. So you must, even in the early days of your investigation, prepare for the second part of the task: making a compelling history out of all the discoveries.

Before turning to specific suggestions that can help you shape your congregation's history, it is important for you to understand what is required for the final product. The kind of history we seek to offer our congregations is one that is truthful and fair, whole, human, and interesting.

Building dedication, Southwest church (c. 1940)