In 2011, Shannon McCready- Lead Planter of Highland Christian Church, responded to his burden for his Church to know the Story of God. Research was showing that 45% of American College graduates would never read a book again. This is a challenge for a Pastor ministering to a culture that is choosing illiteracy. He researched places in the world where the Story was being communicated without the use of books- due to their unavailability. He was inspired by the techniques used in Oral story telling that were proving to be more effective than book learning. He led his co-pastors through a study to select the critical scenes needed to understand the overall Story, they chose 16 scenes- 8 from the Old Testament and 8 from the New Testament. He then challenged his ministry team to create an oral experience using the mediums of narration, drama, music, art, and media. Shannon's wife- Sherri McCready, serving as the Creative Arts Director of the Highland Christian Church, took the 16 scenes and wrote each of them into 16, 7-10 minute productions. In May of 2012, a cast of 40 plus performed 1 scene per Sunday for 4 months concluding in August with the finale scene of Revelation. Small group materials were created for weekly gatherings in homes to answer questions and dig deeper, and in this way the whole Church experienced the Story of God. While Directing the original production of Story of God, Sherri McCready began to sense to the true power in the Story telling and began to wonder what it would be like to experience it in a single setting. Wondering what it would be like to wander into a performance hall or theatre, take a seat, and find your self swept into the wonder of the Story for 90 minutes...how much more you would understand and even grow to love the hero of the Story and be impacted by His power and His deep love. It was Sherri's deep desire to create this for God, to give Him this tool to bring people to Himself. She waited for the right time. In May 2014, Sherri traveled to East Asia with a team of artists to minister through dance in homes, coffee shops, and villages. She witnessed again the immense power of art to tell a story and to transcend culture. It was there that God awakened Sherri in the middle of the night with specific instructions of how the build the Story of God into a 90 minute experience. It needed to be built with a cast of 7 or 8, and the sets and costumes needed to be folded into 5 or 6 large crates. It needed to be able to be performed anywhere; coffee shops, backyards, villages, churches, streets, and theatre's. She gave God her 'yes' that night in a hotel bathroom and stayed up writing the instructions down by the light of a cell phone. In June 2014, Sherri returned to Asheville and began to write again. She knew the music would be critical to the telling and that it had to be original. She approached her son, Isaac McCready, to see if he would write the music. He said, "Mom, that burden has my name on it." He and his best friend Eddy Chernois, (both from the band "Laughter"), quit their day jobs and began to work full time on writing the music. Sherri began raising money for the estimated $25,000 needed to build this experience and after her first letter-$10,000 was donated. Everyone knew that God was very interested in having this built and that He was making the way. In October 2014, the Story was well on its way to completion and the cast of 8 were recruited, when Shannon McCready told Sherri that he strongly sensed that God was calling him to resign from Highland Christian Church and to be ready for another assignment. He had no idea what that assignment was when he gathered his family around him on October 7th to tell him he was resigning. In God's miraculous timing, on October 10th Benny Proffitt (Founder and Director of First Priority Global) arrived in the McCready home to minister with them for the weekend. He didn't know Shannon was planning to resign when Benny told Shannon that he had been praying for 5 years for the right time to ask him to, "Build a creative experience of the Story of the Kingdom to take to the world." Benny invited Shannon and Sherri to assist him in identifying 300 training centers around the world to raise up teams of young people equipped to creatively tell the Story of the Kingdom for the next 12 years. What began as a burden in a pastor's heart became an answer for millions through out the world. The McCready family and Story of God cast all gave a resounding yes to Benny- and more, to God. The STORY is set to launch on Easter weekend 2015, in Asheville, NC at Highland Christian Church- and from there to the world that God so loved.
