What we can learn about storytelling from Marvel: Part 3

What we can learn about storytelling from Marvel: Part 3

Over the years, Marvel has learned how to contextualize decades-old stories, captivate audiences, and keep us coming back for more year after year. In my previous two posts, I discussed what the Church can learn from Marvel about contextualization and captivation. Today, I’ll be diving into what we can learn from them about keeping an audience.

In an age where our attention spans only continue to decrease, Marvel isn’t afraid to play the long game. When Iron Man premiered in 2008 as the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they knew that his story wouldn’t come to fruition until Avengers: End Game in 2019. They were able to keep audiences for 11 years to continue watching the story of Tony Stark, and they still have audiences captivated by the universe years later.

The Church often isn’t willing to risk this type of long-game storytelling. People may know popular Bible stories and characters without understanding how they all tie together to form the metanarrative of Scripture. Sure, there is a time and a place for quick, short-form content. But what would it look like to radically transform our discipleship process – moving from a quick-fix solution to a lifetime journey of spiritual growth and development with God’s Word?

Posted by

Rob Hoskins is the president of OneHope. Since taking leadership of OneHope in 2004, he has continued to advance the vision of God’s Word. Every Child. by partnering with local churches to help reach more than 2 BILLION children and youth worldwide with a contextualized presentation of God’s Word.

One thought on “What we can learn about storytelling from Marvel: Part 3

  1. This is a very powerful and positive observation Sir. Jesus said “the children of this world are wiser than the children of the kingdom”.
    The challenge here is to discover the clear cut steps to enable us to practise this wisdom of contextualization and captivation in a sustainable and effective way to impact the next generation, Sir? Someone said “it is not enough to know what to do but also how to do it”.
    Thanks so much and God bless you richly, Sir.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *