Welcome to The Backstory episode featuring Metropolitan AME Church’s storytelling project. The team describes their “Come to the Table” approach built around three tables—Welcome (hospitality and church in the wild), Imagination (artists and creative expression), and Creation (climate justice). They emphasize research-driven, ethical, non-extractive storytelling aimed at engaging Black Gen Z “dones” through listening, focus groups, and collaborative production.

The conversation covers early planning, challenges with distribution and impact measurement, questions of compensation and ownership, and the hope that these experiments—supported by a grant—will amplify marginalized voices, strengthen community ties, and model new ways for faith communities to welcome and connect.

Welcome to The Backstory from Future of Faith — a behind-the-scenes look at storytelling work funded by the National Storytelling Initiative. This episode explores how organizations translate grant support into action, featuring Ross Allen of Christian Century on cohort training, community reading circles, and efforts to "reclaim the story" of American Christianity.

Hosts and guests discuss the challenges of narrative change, the tension between deconstruction and reconstruction, and the hope found in building public voices, belonging, and practical steps congregations can take to amplify stories that matter.

In this episode of The Backstory, Elizabeth interviews Melissa Wigginton from Austin Presbyterian Seminary about the Austin Story Project: a grant-funded effort training story guides to lead small, embodied "story circles" centered on Jesus moments. They discuss project design, early wins (training 50 guides), challenges with participation, distribution plans, and built-in evaluation with EffectX.

Guests also explore practical lessons about hiring for storytelling versus communications roles, the power of simple questions to draw out meaningful stories, and how local, community-based experiences can contribute to a wider shift in narratives about Christian faith and life.