Long Story Short

The first thing that strikes you about Long Story Short is its almost leisurely approach. This is no Sunday-sermon-style presentation of rapid-fire points, followed by an emotive plea before the music team underscores the gravitas of the moment. Instead, simple but profound points are made slowly and clearly, with plenty of extended pauses.

The measured style is deliberate, explains series developer Torrey Hilton. ‘Evangelism is a process more than an event,’ he says, so it’s appropriate that Long Story Short honours people by giving them time to think for themselves about what they’re hearing. ‘Faith is built on information, not manipulation,’ continues Torrey. ‘I have enough information to trust that chair, so I’ll sit on it. I have enough information to trust Jesus, so I’ll make that decision.’

Put simply, Long Story Short allows the story of the Bible to speak for itself.

In the first of two introductory videos, presenter Graham Burt starts off precariously balanced on the side of a sand dune, then climbs aboard a helicopter to land on a South Island mountain, ahead of a visit to White Island. Viewers then encounter the sub-freezing conditions of Antarctica. The purpose of all these diverse environments is to help people appreciate how much more there is to the world than their human senses tell them.

Back on the beach, Graham follows up with some questions:

With so much of this world beyond human understanding, is it possible there’s more to life than we might have thought? Is it possible that God exists? More than that, is it possible that God is relevant to our lives?

Timid evangelist

Long Story Short had its genesis over 10 years ago, birthed out of the experiences of Torrey’s family, who Graham describes as ‘crazy evangelists—wired for this stuff’. Torrey’s dad, Ces, founded Kiwi Ranch Christian camps and planted two churches. ‘My father was a passionate evangelist,’ agrees Torrey, ‘every conversation he had always headed toward the cross.’

Despite also getting into church planting, Torrey describes himself as ‘very, very shy and timid’. Which is what led him to develop the Long Story Short resource—Torrey wanted a tool to help him feel more at ease in sharing the life-changing story of Jesus.

At Kiwi Ranch, a large wall mural told the entire story of the Bible in pictorial form. This, says Torrey, helped campers understand who Jesus was in the context of the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. Moving out of Christian camping into church planting, it became glaringly obvious to Torrey that most people didn’t have that context. ‘It’s like walking in half-way through a movie,’ he says, ‘if you don’t have the back story, what you’re seeing and hearing doesn’t make sense.’

Added to this, ‘It’s hard “selling” Christianity because it comes with all sorts of negative baggage,’ says Torrey. ‘Selling the Bible is much easier!’

At the same time, Torrey sensed an uncertainty and confusion in the church in New Zealand. ‘More and more churches are getting involved in humanitarian and community work,’ he notes, ‘and that’s absolutely wonderful, but it’s not the Great Commission. It’s the story of salvation through faith in Jesus that’s the heartbeat of the Bible.’

And so Torrey started developing what eventually became Long Story Short. His aim was to produce something that would ‘thrill people with the story of the Bible and help them grow deeper in their knowledge and understanding of who God is’.

In days gone by, much of this information would have been known by New Zealanders who’d grown up attending Sunday school or taken part in religious education classes at school. ‘But now we have a nominally Christian society and an influx of people coming into New Zealand of other religions, so we need to tell the story again —and we need to learn it for ourselves. These days, people in New Zealand are as ignorant of the gospel as those in the third world used to be—we’re post-Christian.

So many non-Christian immigrants gives Kiwis great opportunities for cross-cultural mission in their own backyard, says Geoff. ‘But it does call for a different approach. The nub of the issue is how we respectfully and lovingly engage people in conversation. And to do this, we have to embrace our own religion intelligently.’

One of the challenges Geoff needed to address was the challenge of relativism and pluralism, the view that religion is just a cultural thing, depending on the ‘accident’ of where someone is born.

‘I had dinner with someone who had just immigrated to New Zealand the other day. I noticed he prayed for quite a few minutes before eating, much longer than for a Christian grace. So I asked who he prayed to and he said, “The superior God”, explaining that it didn’t matter who you called that god; it could be Krishna, Allāh or Jesus, for instance.

‘So I asked, “How can this be the same god when one has a son and the other doesn’t?” As we talked, I could see the personal dilemma written on his face as he grasped the inconsistency of his reasoning. I didn’t press this, but I did sow the seed.’

It is important for Christians to interact intelligently and patiently with people from other faith backgrounds, says Geoff. ‘Their whole family and cultural identity is tied up in their religion, so to renounce that religion and come to faith in Christ requires us to show respect and love and patience. But we can’t interact at all if we don’t know our own story.’

Face to face with Jesus

The next step was for Torrey and Geoff to translate their material to screen. Torrey laughs sheepishly as he describes his initial vision: ‘I wanted something that was Lord of the Rings quality,’ he admits. ‘Something a bit quirky and easy to understand. Something a Christian could be absolutely unashamed of using, that people might watch for all sorts of reasons, but where, sooner or later, they would come face to face with the message of faith in Jesus.’

It was at this point, about three years ago, that Graham Burt became involved, writing scripts and scouting locations. Eventually, he was cast as presenter too.

Graham, who is also chair of Laidlaw Theological College, was attracted by the premise of the project: that Long Story Short wasn’t a classic apologetic approach of defending Christianity against attacks; instead, it was simply saying to people: ‘This is what the book says.’

The project impacted him in a deeply personal way. ‘I’m moved by even the smallest hint of people moving toward God and toward a relationship with Jesus, so I’d be typing and crying,’ he remembers. It gradually struck Graham that this was not just his story, but the story of all time.

Filming was similarly affecting. The crew was small, shooting the whole thing on DSLR cameras from July to November 2013 in locations like Australia, Cambodia, Rwanda, France, the United States, Egypt, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. They had privileged access in many locations.

‘In Jerusalem, the priest at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stopped this massive queue of people to let us go in on our own,’ says Graham. ‘And in the Garden of Gethsemane, we were allowed to walk in the Garden with the crew. Now, that never happens! So we took our shoes off because we were on holy ground. And we had a little cry—Christians and non-Christians—because we were at a totally legit site (unlike some others), and this is where the amazing Creator God, incarnate as Jesus, actually walked! And only the Trinity knew what would happen the next day; it caught everyone else by surprise.’

Torrey, Geoff and Graham all agree that humanity is ‘incurably religious’, and so they offer their best efforts to help people satisfy that innate longing to connect with the God who created them, who loves them, and who offers lasting peace to all who put their faith in Christ.

Summing up, Torrey quotes Romans 10:14, ‘Faith comes by hearing—and hearing by the word of God.’ Long story short: the Bible is still a story worth sharing.

What's in it for me?

Everyone loves a good story. Long Story Short brings to life—in an accessible and approachable way—the big picture story of the Bible in carefully constructed steps. It’s ideal for our postmodern age, where many people have little or no knowledge of what the Bible is actually about.

Long Story Short can be used one-on-one, in a small group, or as a church-wide activity where people invite friends and share a meal. It can run over either seven or 11 weeks.

Not just a very eff ective and easy-to-use evangelism tool, Long Story Short will inspire deeper confi dence in their faith for Christians.

Try Long Story Short for FREE at https://longstoryshort.co

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by Christina Tyson (c) 'War Cry' magazine, Christmas edition 2014, pp14-15.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.