A line of New Yorkers throttles a Greenwich Village block. It's hard to tell where the queue ends, but it's clear that anyone who arrived less than an hour early won't be among the 250 who fit in The Bitter End. The bar once provided a stage for Bill Cosby and Bob Dylan, but now settles for run-of-the-mill singer-songwriters and bands.

Occasionally, however, the bar's old magnetism is revived, like with tonight's appearance of "The Moth."There's no celebrity name on the marquee, no up-and-coming band on showcase.Instead, a few names will be drawn from a hat and the winners will come forward to tell true first-person stories.In an age of flashy technologies and star-studded stages, The Moth—real people telling real stories to a live audience—has not only revived the old tradition of raconteuring, but turned it into a cosmopolitan pleasure.

The rules stay the same: No notes are allowed, it must be a story with a beginning and an end (no standup routines orrants), it must relate to the night's chosen theme, and (most importantly) it must be true.

Why are New Yorkers willing to pay—and stand in line!—for the most basic form of recreation? What is the appeal of hearing strangers talk about themselves? Why are people willing to divulge the intimate details of their lives to people they've never met? Or as Augustine asked in his Confessions: "Why let others overhear my testimony, as if they could treat my symptoms?"

The simple answer is because we are"storytelling animals," says Donald Miller. "A hunger for stories is built into our DNA and telling stories creates community."

Stories help us make sense of things. This is why so much of Scripture is narrative. This is why Jesus used parables to help his disciples understand the new reality he was inaugurating. "There's no better way to convey a dense packet of information than to tell it in the form of a story. That's what we respond to," Miller said.

"The chief role of a Christian is to tell a better story," Donald Miller has repeatedly said, and has now made this the theme of his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Author Alan Jacobs agrees, "I do not know whether human beings naturally or instinctively make their lives into stories; I only believe that this is something Christians are obliged to do. But we are obliged to do it properly." Christians must know their stories and tell their stories, but they must be good stories.

Telling a good story is not always easy, and is not necessarily instinctual. "What people began to learn quickly is that you didn't need to affix a moral because whatever moral is in the story should be revealed within the story. The story carries its message within it. And as a Christian our story has high stakes with battle scars, mountain tops and plenty of failures. In fact, most audiences respond better to honest stories that don't gloss over the mistakes and defeats. God is pretty clear in His Word that He doesn't whitewash our failures but instead uses them for His glory." says Donald Miller.

A Christian's story is not just about his or her triumphs, but about his or her failures and Christ's supreme victory over them. If told honestly and artfully, that story possesses the power to spur other tales of transformation while fortifying community. But first, that story must be shared.