Do you remember loving “story time” as a child? You got to put aside pencil and paper, gather together in a circle, and listen to an unfolding story about someone and somewhere else. Story time invited all of us to enter into the worlds of other people, to involve ourselves in their trials and triumphs, to encounter new cultures and challenges through others. Fairy tales gave us stories that included dragons and giants, noble knights and not-so-noble connivers and conspirators.

But for those raised in the church, there was another time, another “story time” that described the ongoing relationship between God and God’s creation, between God and all God’s children. The church had a different kind of “story time.” This “story time” was called “testimony time.” It was the open-ended, ongoing …