The power of story

In view of the Allender book I'm reading, I thought this was an interesting quote from Rick Richardson's Reimagining Evangelism. It comes in his discussion of the power of story in evangelism and is a quote itself from Sarah Hinckley.

We have every little inconsequential thing, Nintendo 64s and homepages and cell phones, but not one important thing to believe in. What do you have left that will persuade us? One thing: the story. We are a story people. We know narratives, not ideas. Our surrogate parents were the TV and the VCR, and we can spew out entertainment trivia at the drop of a hat.... You're wondering why we're so self-destructive, but we're looking for the one story with staying power, the destruction and redemption of our own lives. That's to your advantage: You Christians have the best redemption story on the market.

My own anecdotal feeling is that people today are more interested in whether faith works that whether it is true. It isn't that truth doesn't matter, but that a series of propositions and proofs simply doesn't cut it with today's post-modern thinker. They want the story, and they want the whole story not just the success story.