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Throughout Bill's years of teaching Nothinsgonnastopit!, he reports that he has encountered very few people who have either read or heard the story of the Bible all the way through. He realized that many attempt, therefore, to critique a book that they don't really understand. Even seminary students are often not capable of evaluating texts in their "big picture" sequence since their education gives them no integrated medium between a general overview and atomistic interpretation.
Bill shares that this does not just apply to those studying for the ministry. Philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard in his book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge: Theory and History of Literature, Vol. 10. (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1984) writes that in the postmodern mind, "the grand narrative has lost its credibility" (p. 37). Does this spell disaster for the cause of Christ in the postmodern world? If the postmodernist's don't believe that there is one story that explains all others, what is the Church to do?
Based on the Bible's premise that God has left enough of the imago dei (God's image) within human beings that deep inside the soul something resonates when the story is told (e.g., Ecc. 3.11; Rom. 1.19), the answer must be that we must tell the story afresh — and better than ever before — to this generation. The apostle Paul explained that the power is in the gospel itself (Rom. 1.16); something deep within bears witness when encountering a simple presentation of God's redemptive events. This is exactly what Bill has observed. During the seminar he often sees the people's eyes light up when they begin to connect the dots of all the Bible stories they know and see how God has, and is continuing to do, one thing as he moves human history toward its appointed destiny. Even those who are not Christians often sense that the story of the Bible is somehow their story too.
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