Pastor's Circle: Frazee on "The heart of the story..."

Randy Frazee is the senior minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, TX. He joined the Pastor's Circle to discuss his newest book, The Heart of the Story. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Tell us about your book.

I think that one of the biggest drives for me to write this book is that we've discovered that biblical illiteracy is a growing epidemic among Christians. As we've gone into the 21st century, research shows that Christians are more illiterate about their faith than agnostics or atheists.

Christians often see the Bible as a set of disconnected stories. This book tries to connect the dots, so everything is connected in one overarching love story of God.

Tell us about that "overarching" story.

There's two "stories" going on with the Bible, the upper story and the lower story.

For instance, in the story of Joseph, you may get a great lesson on forgiveness, or resisting temptation. But God uses Joseph in the upper story, to save his family from famine and continue to live the plan for God's people.

This is one of the greatest applications. We are characters in God's unfolding upper story. If we align our life to that upper story, everything will come out for good.

What is the "heart of the story"?

I would say that the heart of the story is what you see in Genesis 1 and 2. God coming down and doing life in community with Adam and Eve. If you fast-forward to the end of Revelation, you again see the Tree of Life, and God coming down to live among us.

God's upper story plan is going to happen. The only question is whether we will participate with blessing or without it.

A lot of the time, the lower story gives you practical advice for the day, while the upper story gives you the long view of God's vision for us.

 You can learn more about Randy Frazee and The Heart of the Story on his website.