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Into the Darkness
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The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
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Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
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Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
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Quest of Fire: Desperation, Brett Armstrong
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147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
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143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

142. What Christmas Gift ‘Tools, Not Toys’ Helped You Grow As a Person?
Fantastical Truth, Dec 20, 2022

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Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

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“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
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Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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109. How Should Local Churches Support Christian-Made Fantasy?

Christians learn through stories and music, so if churches already have music pastors, perhaps we could add “story pastors” to help us cultivate, shepherd, and create great fiction.
Fantastical Truth on Apr 26, 2022 · 2 comments

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If your church has a bookstore or lending library, you’ll probably find lots of nonfiction in there, such as Christian living resources, Bible studies, and discipleship material. But we know people also get their discipleship training through stories and songs. Almost every church has the songs covered, with singing in worship and maybe a whole ministry team devoted to music. But should church bookstores and libraries offer more fiction? We might even ask: should churches have “story pastors” to help disciple others through story, just like the “music minister” does this through music? What could this look like?

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Concession stand

  • Of course, many churches are short-staffed, and many ministries are volunteer-led.
  • So your real-life mileage may vary. This episode will explore a speculative church position.
  • We often focus on Christian fantasy, yet here we also focus on general Christian fiction.
  • Our concept isn’t primarily about harnessing secular popular culture for ministry use.
  • We do include this concept, yet focus on Christian-made stories, particularly books.

1. The Story Pastor as cultivator

  • Starts by utilizing the existing body of Christian fiction.
  • Finds trusted partners in cultivating great Christian fiction.
  • Finds and highlights classic stories with much to offer Christians.
  • Seeks great new stories in circulation, not chasing novelty, but keeping an open mind.
  • Finds great stories by creators within the denomination, church body, or city.
  • Puts all these stories in a church library, church bookstore, or church catalog.
  • Finds resource guides and commentaries for these stories.
  • Also finds commentaries and resources on stories from popular culture.

2. The Story Pastor as shepherd

  • Fosters a theology and love of fiction in the local church body.
  • Leads a book club or a group of leaders of book clubs.
  • Maintains a steady diet of fiction within the church.
  • Might find Christian writers in the local church and city.
  • Leads and nurtures a local group of writers.
  • Leads other (non-fiction) storytellers in the church.

Stephen’s questions

  • Must the story pastor be a pastor, especially in smaller churches?
  • Couldn’t the story pastor be a story steward, teaching yet not as an elder?
  • In this case, why couldn’t a church’s story steward “office” be held by a woman?

3. The Story Pastor as creator

This third role is optional; not every music pastor is a composer, so not every story pastor is an author. However, a few writers will take on this role. If so, the Story Pastor:

  • Creates his own content: short stories, novels, or screenplays.
  • Writes his own resource guides for other Christian stories.
  • Writes commentaries and resources on popular culture stories.
  • Connects with other Christian writers in the denomination, city, region, and genre.

Com station

One hero in the Lorehaven Guild enjoyed episode 108 about resurrection:

It’s challenging to think about how the fact of physical resurrection, both Christ’s and our own future renewed life, ought to impact how we live and think and imagine.

Readers appreciated Marian Jacobs’s article Sensual Scenes in Fiction Pose Unique Temptations to Women:

Thank you for this. I have struggled with lust for years, mainly aided by books and TV. I know to look at reviews before watching now, but books are a lot harder. Even books marketed as Christian get uncomfortable sometimes and it’s often hard to know which those are without stumbling into them. By then, my emotions are already engaged and it’s hard to stop.

Thanks for this, Marian. I always find your articles thoughtful, and this needed to be said.

Next on Fantastical Truth

We’re doing an informal sequel to this episode, based on a phrase that Zack has recently mentioned about a possible coming “golden age” of Christian fantastical fiction. Stephen believers we are not yet there and may not arrive at such an age until the New Heavens and New Earth. But if we did find a “golden age” on this present Earth, what would that look like, and what kinds of stories would we expect to see flying off the shelves into the hands of eager readers?

Fantastical Truth
Fantastical Truth
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Explore the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond, and apply these stories' meanings in the real world Jesus calls us to serve.

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    In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell explore fantastical stories for God's glory and apply their wonders to the real world Jesus calls us to serve.
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    1. Ticia says:
      April 26, 2022 at 10:32 am

      I volunteer as lay story pastor!

      Reply
    2. Emory Alexander says:
      April 28, 2022 at 12:32 pm

      I am the Pastor of a small church, and I have written several short stories. I recently began to consider how I could incorporate stories into my sermons. As preachers we often use illustrations, which are usually true stories, however I believe a “modern parable,” could be helpful as well.

      Reply

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