Developing

Your
Life Story

What is Life Story ?

Life Story is a relational curriculum tool that facilitates both knowing others and being
known by others, both of which are critical to building effective, biblically-informed, Jesus-
centered, growth-focused Life Groups. Simply put, this tool helps each Life Group member to
be intentional about telling his/her story in a way that sets groups—and each Life Group
member—up for success in their pursuit of biblical community. Discipleship, nurture of group
members, encouragement, Christian fellowship, and biblical accountability all work best in
groups that have set knowing others and being known by others as a high priority.

1) Life Stages 2) Life Story 3) Clean Up &

4) Presenataion
Reflection Reflection Organization

Steps for the Life Story Teller

1. Life Division Reflection:

Identify Your Life’s “Chapters”: Think about your life & consider the logical ways in
which you could divide your life into logical stages. You might ask yourself, “If I was
writing a book about myself, what would the chapter headings be?” Your stages
might be divided according to age (i.e. 0-10, 10-20, etc.), school grade (i.e. K-8th
grade, High School, and College, etc.), by geography (i.e. when I lived in Florida,
when I lived in Nebraska, etc.), or any other breakdown of your life’s stages that
makes sense to you.
Plot the “Chapters” on Your Planning Worksheet: Once you have identified 2-5 life
stages to represent the “chapters” of your Life Story , plot them across the top of
the planning worksheet in the row entitled “Life Division Names”

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2. Story Reflection:

Now Plot your Life Story on Your Planning Worksheet: Consider the
circumstances, events, experiences and other influencing factors that have worked
together to “shape” you and your character in each chapter of your life so far.
Continue using the Life Story planning worksheet to complete this step. Directions
for the planning worksheet are found on the graphic below:

Take a risk! Telling your story is a confidential exercise; what’s said in your group
stays in your group. This means your Life Group is a safe place for you to share “the
whole truth”. You don’t have to get into every detail, but be open, be transparent,
share your struggles & victories—really share your Life Story! The more open and
transparent each person is when telling their story, the more everyone will benefit
from this exercise. Here’s a guideline: Stretch Yourself! In other words, go to the
edge of your “sharing comfort zone” and then take one step past it.

• How have your family relationships influenced your life?

Heritage • How have ethnic and geographical (local, regional, national)
influences shaped who you are?

• Heros in our lives can influence our character positievely or

Heros negitively.
• Who are the heros in your life, and how have they shaped
your character and life direction at each stage of life so far?

High • What experiences in your life have been especially

enjoyable and/or meaningful to you?
Points • How have these experiences shaped your character and
your direction in life so far?

Hard • What experiences in your life have been especially difficult

and/or painful, and why?
Times • How have these experiences shaped your character and
your direction in life so far?

Hand of • Looking back, how have you seen God's sovereign hand at
work in your life?
God • What circumstances in each stage of life did God use to
protect, guide, and draw you to Himself?

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3. Clean Up & Organization:

Organizing the Chaos: If you’ve completed the planning worksheet honestly, you
probably have a worksheet that is messy and overflowing by now. That’s a good
thing! Now spend some time considering which elements in each square of the
planning worksheet are most important to include when you present your Life
Story to your group.

“Pruning” for Clarity: You’ll have about an hour to tell your story—which also allows
time for your group to ask questions about your story and to encourage you. Believe
it or not, that time will go really fast so making sure you have the right number of
elements in each square of the planning worksheet will be key. This pruning process
will help your story flow and not feel rushed—which is important. Think of this
process as being similar to pruning overgrown shrubs in a garden—a little snip here,
little snip there, and suddenly what used to be unruly shrubs now look cleaned up
and have clear shape and structure.

4. Presentation:

Sharing Your Story Creatively: Now the fun part. How will you deliver your story?
Here’s where you get to be creative. If you want, you can just use the planning
worksheet, make some copies of it for the others in your group, and then talk them
through it a square at a time while they follow along. But you can also present the
material in dozens of other ways as well. For example:
o We’ve seen scrapbookers who use their scrapbooks as the raw materials to
help them tell & illustrate their stories.
o We’ve seen people bring in pictures and pass them around—each picture
representing a worksheet square, or a story within a square on their planning
worksheets, which they then talk through with the group.
o We’ve seen people use PowerPoint to create a computer-driven
presentation that includes text, pictures, and even movie clips that
correspond to different stories on their planning worksheet.
o We’ve seen people create a simple outline in their word processing program
of choice and then make copies of that so the group can follow along.
o Really, the sky’s the limit here, think outside the box!

Steps for the Life Story Listeners

Your job as a listener is just as important. Practice active listening while each person presents
their story. In one sense this is an opportunity for you to create a care and accountability “cheat
sheet” for each and every person in your group. If you listen and take note of their stories
you’re likely to come away with:

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 Hurts, Hang-Ups, & Areas for Healing: Knowledge of where each person has been
hurt in life, which in turn equips you to be an encourager for them and someone
who helps them continue to heal as they participate in biblical community.

Wisdom & Experiences We Can All Learn From: Knowledge of areas where you can
learn from each group member and where they can help you grow in your
relationship with Jesus because of things they’ve experienced in life.

How God “Wired” Us: Knowledge of one another’s spiritual gifts, God-given
passions, and personalities, which in turn equips each group member to encourage
and hold one another accountable to using those gifts and passions.

Who God Is, & How He’s At Work Transforming Us: Knowledge about God and how
He has been (and is today) at work in each group member’s life, which in turn equips
the group with plenty of reasons to celebrate together about who God is and what
He’s done, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Relational Capital” For Growing in Biblical Community & Christlikeness: As we each

share our story—knowing others and being known by others—we create within our
groups a safe place to pursue Jesus together with all the messiness, imperfections,
mistakes, and victories that pursuit entails. If this tool weren’t free, we’d offer you a
money-back guarantee that you will see Christ-centered growth, both personally
and as a group, as a result of having gone through this process together. After Life
Story every Bible study, service project, missions trip, and time of fellowship that
your group pursues will be different—and we mean that in a good way! Enjoy the
journey!

Question about Life Story ?

If you any questions about these steps, your Life Group leader. If they don’t know, tell them
to ask their Life Group Navigator. If they don’t know, then we’re in trouble 

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 Life Story
planning worksheet
Life Division 1 Life Division 2 Life Division 3 Life Division 4 Life Division 5
Life Division
Names
Heritage:

Heroes:

High Points:

Hard
Times:

Hand of
God:

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 Life Story
planning notes

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