This past April in Boston, Lecrae spoke at Q Ideas'
annual culture-making conference, which Slate has
called the Christian TED Talks.

In Lecrae's presentation, he highlighted the role
that stories play in how people understand the world
around them.

"The way we see the world, the way everyone sees the
world is through story," he said. "You can't derive
meaning from anything outside of a story."

Lecrae used several examples to support this.

"Jesus died," Lecrae said. "That's just a statement.
Where's the power in that statement if I don't
understand the story, if I don't understand why he
died or for whom he died or what he died for?"

He also broke down the different views toward the
Michael Brown tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri in August
2014, before explaining the story from a big-picture
perspective.

"If you have a Christian worldview, if you see life
through the Christian story line, you know you're not
the good guys," Lecrae said. "You're sinners. We're
all sinners. The cops are not the protagonists. The
black community's not the protagonist. They both
suffer from the affects of the fall and both need
Jesus as the ultimately hero, the ultimate
protagonist.

"But neither one are the bad guys either. They're
both made in God's image, full of dignity, and so we
can't ultimately vilify one particular God-created
person, place or thing. We can't ultimately glorify
one particular individual person, place or thing. The
problem in this world is sin. The solution is always
going to be the gospel."

Lecrae then used his song "Welcome to America," track
No. 2 on his latest album Anomaly, as an example. He
told a different story in each of the song's three
verses and explained to the Q crowd that none of the
characters' perspectives were from a Christian
worldview.

"All these stories in their own right are true.
They're just not ultimately true," Lecrae said. "They
attribute evil to the wrong antagonist and place the
ultimate hope in the wrong protagonist. And America's
not the source of our brokenness, nor is it the
source of our joy. The problem is always sin. The
solution is always the gospel."

The Grammy Award-winning artist and professional
storyteller concluded by encouraging Christian
artists to engage culture.

"The artist has the unique opportunity to show that
if we take a good thing and make it the ultimate
thing, we end up longing for more," Lecrae said. "We
can tell parts of the story. We can tell some of the
story. We can tell things that allude to the story,
but ultimately, we get the job of changing the way
people see the world through story because everyone
is looking at life through a story. Everyone has a
worldview.

"It's our job to learn the culture story and enter
into it and point them in different directions."

Source: Rapzilla.com

http://www.rapzilla.com/rz/news/38-backstage/12183-lecrae-speaks-on-how-stories-shape-worldviews-at-q-conference