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Telling people’s stories

Murray Pura

Rogues, Rascals and Rare Gems
Danny Unrau. Winnipeg: Kindred Productions, 1999.
119 pp.

Unrau is senior pastor of Fraserview MB Church in Richmond, B.C. As such, when he gives stories as sermons, he joins a long line of Christian ministers through the ages. I include Peter Marshall, Frederick Buechner and Jesus in such a genealogy. It is odd that the church has had a difficult time with stories of actual people and events. The only exceptions would be testimonies and brief anecdotes in sermons, especially dramatic or humorous ones.

Unrau’s stories are sometimes dramatic or humorous, but more often are gentle and steady, as if I were strolling along the banks of a slow stream, stopping occasionally to watch the current. Sometimes I felt like I was with an old Jewish storyteller who had the time to wait for people and their stories to come to him. These stories repay thoughtful reading. Unrau seems to be a man who listens to people, cares about others and watches them with interest, compassion and delight.

Unrau talks about a Jordanian who was his guide to Petra, about an Israeli he met on a flight to Tel Aviv, about his own family in Canada. It is a book about people, some with Christian faith, some without, some with religious belief, some with nothing like it. Most are wrestling with God. Unrau periodically interjects his own thoughts and interpretations. Like Aesop’s fables, Unrau ends each story with a lesson. The stories are not left to speak on their own, but the teacher speaks through them. The book is short but full. I enjoyed the stories. I wish they were longer.

I wish more pastors would bring not just anecdotes to the pulpit, but their own full-bodied stories. Expository and doctrinal sermons are not the only way to go, or God would not have given so many tales in the Bible. Unrau says in his introduction that the stories of people “when encountered prove again that truth is better than fiction.” I would put it another way: Truth is wonderful, especially when it is encountered through people’s stories. By this definition, Unrau’s book is full of wonder, a unique light that has been kindled for mind and spirit.

Murray Pura is a Pastor and a writer. He lives in Pincher Creek, Alta.

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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