Story Chapel

In this episode, we explore what makes Harry Potter's magic different from magic in other fantasy stories, and why we think that framework has been widely misunderstood. We look at how the story begins in the ordinary, non-magical Dursley household before introducing the wizarding world, what it means for magic to make someone feel like they finally belong, and why the series captures a childlike sense of wonder that keeps readers coming back.Part of a new series at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In this episode, we explore the story of Snow White and what it reveals about beauty, envy, and the journey from girlhood to womanhood. We look at the mirror as a symbol of comparison and competition, the meaning behind the seven dwarves, and why the poisoned apple echoes the story of Eden. We also draw connections to Galatians 5 on envy and Paul's teaching on being equally yoked.Part of our series at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fairy tales, fantasy, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In this episode, we explore the story of Rumpelstiltskin and what it reveals about debt, inherited expectation, and generational cycles. We look at how the miller's lie plunges his daughter into an impossible bargain, why the imp's final price is always a child, and how discovering his true name breaks the cycle. We also trace the story's roots into Bronze Age mythology and the ancient belief in true names, and draw the connection to how Scripture treats naming as a form of transformation.Part of our series at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fairy tales, fantasy, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In this episode, we explore the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk beat by beat, and how each stage of the story maps onto a path out of poverty: fatherlessness, seeds versus gold coins, the difference between a bag of coins and an income-producing asset, and the final severing of the beanstalk. We also connect the story directly to Jacob's ladder in Genesis, tracing the same ten beats through Jacob's story with Laban.Part of our series at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fairy tales, fantasy, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In this episode, we explore Star Wars: Return of the Jedi through three themes: identity, family, and redemption. We look at what it actually means for Luke to become a Jedi, his mission to rescue his father from the dark side, and why Darth Vader, not Luke, is really the main character of the entire saga.Part of our series working through the stories that shape us at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In this episode, we explore Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back through the themes of loyalty, training, and love. We look at Han Solo's rescue of Luke on Hoth as an act of loyalty, Luke's training under Yoda on Dagobah including the size test, the X-wing test, and the cave test, and how the Darth Vader reveal reframes the entire trilogy's conflict between power and love.Part of our series working through the stories that shape us at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati exploring fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology through the lens of the Gospel.Website: www.storychapelcincy.comEmail [email protected] for location details

In 1977, something broke open in the hearts of a generation of young men. What was it?Before Star Wars, that generation didn't have a name for the ache: the sense that you're living the wrong life, farming moisture when you were built for something else. Luke Skywalker gave it a shape. A grumpy uncle. A binary sunset. A name that didn't fit the life he'd been handed.This is the first episode in our new three-part series on the Original Trilogy. JP traces three ideas buried in the first film that still hit as hard as they did in 1977: the ache of longing, the terrifying weight of destiny, and George Lucas's own surprising conviction that none of it means anything without faith. Along the way: what Obi-Wan's death actually costs him, why C-3PO is the first one to see who Luke really is, and what it means to stand at the end of your life and see the difference between who you were and who you could have been.Part of our series working through the stories that shape us at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati where we read fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology looking for the Gospel hiding inside the story.You don't need to believe anything to belong here. Just bring your curiosity.

What if the wisest person you know has never had an original abstract thought in his life?Farmer Maggot barely appears in the movies. In the books, he's a gruff, dog-owning, trespasser-hating farmer who Frodo is more scared of than the Black Riders themselves. Tolkien could have cut him from the story entirely and lost nothing of the plot.So why didn't he?The last session in our Forgotten Characters series argues that Farmer Maggot is Tolkien's answer to a question we still haven't figured out: what's the difference between being smart and being wise? JP traces it through Proverbs, through Gandalf's own words about Saruman, and through a character who never once reasons his way to anything; he just knows, in his bones, how the world actually works.Part of our series working through the characters of The Lord of the Rings at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati where we read fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology looking for the Gospel hiding inside the story.You don't need to believe anything to belong here. Just bring your curiosity.

Can an elf lord teach you how to see?There's a moment in The Lord of the Rings that most readers rush past. Frodo, wounded and fading, looks across a river and sees something no one else can see: a figure of pure white light, while everyone around him, even Strider, even the hobbits, appears only as a shadow.That figure is Glorfindel. And the question this session asks is simple: what did Frodo actually see, and what would change if we saw people that way too?Part two of our three-part series, The Forgotten Characters of The Fellowship of the Ring. JP traces Glorfindel back through the fall of the hidden city of Gondolin, into a conversation about the border between the physical and spiritual world, and lands somewhere unexpected: an old idea from C.S. Lewis that there are no ordinary people, only immortals we joke with, work with, and forget to notice.Part of our series working through the characters of The Lord of the Rings at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati where we read fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology looking for the Gospel hiding inside the story.You don't need to believe anything to belong here. Just bring your curiosity.🔔 Subscribe for the rest of the series

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." We say it like it's settled. But look around at who actually holds the power, and it's hard to believe.In the first episode of Story Chapel, we go looking for an answer in one of the strangest, most forgotten characters in The Lord of the Rings: Tom Bombadil. He's older than the river and the trees, he skips through the forest worried about his flowers, and he's the only one in Middle-earth the Ring cannot touch. What he reveals about the difference between being meek and being weak might change how you read that line for good.Story Chapel is where we find the beauty and truth hidden in the stories that move us. Not a church service. Just a good story, and the questions it opens.