The Story

The "Greatest Story Ever Told" is more than just a cliché. God has gone to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. That is what The Story is all about: the story of the Bible, God's great love affair with humanity. Condensed into 31 accessible chapters, this book brings the biblical stories, poems, and teachings together in a single, compelling read. The Story sweeps you into the unfolding grand narrative of the Scriptures, and like any good story, it is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption.

The Story tells the grandest, most compelling story of all time: the story of a true God who loves his children and who provided a route to eternity. Each story in these 31 chapters reveals the God of grace - the God who speaks; the God who acts; the God who listens; the God whose love for his people culminated in his sacrifice of his only Son, Jesus, to atone for the sins of humanity.

As a church, XCC will read a chapter per week in The Story. Week by week, our classes, small groups, and sermons will help us understand and live God's grand truths. Through The Story, we will draw closer to God. His love, majesty, and sovereignty will become more and more evident. In awe, we will watch God direct his grand purpose.

In every Bible story that we go through, there will actually be two storylines going on: the Upper Story and the Lower Story. The Upper Story tells the big picture, the grand narrative of God seeking relationship with humans beings as it unfolds throughout history. Every stroy in the Bible is part of one bigger story...the Upper Story. Within the Upper Story are many smaller stories, which makes up the Lower Story. The Lower Story contains the details of particular people and the episodes we've become familiar with: Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah and the flood, and so on. As we journey through The Story, the Bible's people, places, and events found in the Lower Story will point us to hte larger purpose of the Upper Story: God's desire to restore and build a relationship with us.