Stories That Matter (feat. Tyler Burns)
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Welcome to Risky Business with Beau York, I’m your host… Beau York, and today we are talking about the challenge of crafting stories with meaning. Like a deeper meaning… When you layer stories on top stories with a purpose. Because you want to get a message across through the lens of a story and… ok trust me I'm not going to go full Inception but speaking of Inception. Let’s talk about movies for a minute.
We all love a good movie, and we all really hate a bad movie. If you think about how people will complain about a movie being a “soulless cash grab”, a lot of times what they are talking about is that it’s a movie that doesn't have that deep of meaning or really a story worth telling. It’s like a slot machine versus a AAA video game. You’ve got all the sensory elements there to stimulate the brain into pouring out cash but no actual substance to communicate something deeper.
By contrast early Pixar films are a fantastic example of stories that on the surface have very pleasant messages with well thought out characters that go on their own journeys, but each one also has a deeper meaning.
This layering of story, to know the truth that you want to communicate, wrapped it all up in the elements that connect with the audience; it takes many if not most of us years to create just one good story. But there's a group of people who do this on practically a weekly basis. Faith leaders across various religious traditions are constantly met with the weekly challenge of crafting narrative to connect their congregation to their holy texts.
I’m joined today by somebody who knows this challenge all too well. Rev. Tyler Burns is a pastor, podcaster, writer, and justice advocate. He currently serves as Lead Pastor of All Nations Worship Assembly in Pensacola, Florida and is the President of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective.
As a writer, he has been featured in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Religion News Service to name a few.
