Stories that Shape, Transform and Give Hope – Print.

Stories that Shape, Transform and Give Hope

By Ian M Kilgour

[Publishing late July 2026 - Order your copy now]

A thoughtful and generous exploration of the stories that shape our lives, deepen faith, challenge narrow certainties, and open a path toward hope.

This book will help readers to:

• Reflect on the stories that have shaped their own life and faith
• Explore Christian belief without being pushed toward rigid answers
• Think more deeply about meaning, suffering, love, justice, science, and spirituality
• Appreciate the Bible as a living collection of transformative stories
• Recognise how personal, family, community, and national stories influence identity
• Engage with faith in a way that honours questioning, doubt, and discovery
• Find hope within the larger story of God, creation, humanity, and love

Features

• A deeply personal and reflective work by a lifelong Christian minister
• Explores stories from Scripture, church life, world history, community, family, and personal experience
• Includes “Windows of Insight” with quotations, hymns, poetry, and reflective commentary
• Written for thoughtful Christians, seekers, and spiritually curious readers
• Addresses contemporary issues including justice, peace, poverty, science, technology, creation, and the future of faith

Paperback, 7” x 10”, 286pp
ISBN 9781067125226
Philip Garside Publishing Ltd (2026) 

[eBooks available soon]

Description

What are the stories that have made you who you are? Some stories shape us quietly. Some define us. Some wound, divide, or mislead. Others heal, transform, and give hope. This generous and thoughtful book invites readers to look again at the stories they have inherited, believed, questioned, lived by, and passed on.

Drawing on a lifetime of preaching, pastoral ministry, critical reflection, and spiritual exploration, Ian Kilgour reflects on the central role stories play in human life. His concern is not simply with autobiography, nor with religious certainty. Instead, he asks whether there is a “big enough story” to hold together the many strands of human existence: family and memory, faith and doubt, joy and suffering, justice and failure, science and spirituality, the Bible and the future of humanity.

The book is unashamedly Christian, but it is not narrow or coercive. It speaks to believers who have grown tired of simplistic answers, and to seekers who still hunger for meaning. Ian explores the Bible as a great treasury of stories, not as a flat book of literal certainties, but as a living collection of myth, memory, wisdom, poetry, challenge, and transforming truth. He reflects on the meta narrative of God, the mega story of the Bible, First Testament and New Testament stories, church and faith stories, world-changing stories, community stories, and the stories that either harm and divide or unite and give hope.

There is a strong pastoral heart running through the book. Ian writes out of ministry among ordinary people, the poor, the grieving, the wounded, the faithful, and the questioning. He honours complexity. He does not pretend that faith removes suffering or resolves every contradiction. Instead, he invites readers to see how meaning can be discovered, tested, reshaped, and deepened over time.

For older thoughtful Christians, spiritual seekers, ministers, worship leaders, and anyone reflecting on the legacy of a life, this book offers companionship, wisdom, and encouragement. It asks readers not only to understand Ian’s story, but to value their own. As the manuscript says, every life story is woven from many others, and every person’s story belongs within the wider story of the world, the cosmos, and the Sacred Presence at the centre of all life.

Praise for Stories that Shape, Transform and Give Hope

“This book is rich with the learnings of a lifetime in ministry. Ian Kilgour paints a broad canvas, combining personal experience and reflections with theology, science, and history of religion. The result is an engaging exploration of how stories shape our lives in profound ways.

Stories that Shape, Transform, and Give Hope is a book for our time. When we are seeing many harmful narratives contribute to the breakdown of trust, social cohesion, and democracy, critically reflecting on our stories has never been more important.

Kilgour takes a broad, inclusive, and humble approach, recognising the limits of his own worldview while affirming the value in the faiths and spiritualities of others. He writes from a Christian perspective but saves his most critical and incisive analysis for the harmful stories perpetuated in his own tradition. In this way, he invites the reader into their own critical self-reflection.

The book is for anyone who wants to engage more deeply with the stories that have shaped them. They will find Ian’s frankness and honesty refreshing. I warmly commend his book to you.”

Rev Dr Jordan Redding,
Presbyterian Minister

About the Author

Ian M Kilgour has served in Christian ministry since the 1960s across Salvation Army, Methodist, and Presbyterian settings. With a strong pastoral heart and a lifelong commitment to thoughtful faith, service, justice, and spiritual exploration, he writes from decades of preaching, teaching, listening, counselling, and reflecting on the stories that shape human lives. Together with his wife Shirley, Ian’s ministry has been marked by compassion, openness, and a deep respect for the spiritual journeys of others.

Contents

Dedication
Foreword
Preface

Part One: Foundation Stories that shape and define
1 – Foundation stories that shape and define
2 – Understanding the dynamics of stories
3 – The meta narrative of God
4 – The meta narrative of the Bible

Part Two: Mega stories that transform
5 – First Testament mega stories that transform
6 – New Testament Stories that transform!
7 – Church and Faith stories that transform!
8 – World impacting stories that transform
9 – Community stories that transform

Part Three: Stories that hinder or help
10 – Stories that harm and divide
11 – Stories that unite and give hope!
12 – Connecting through worship, prayer and meditation

Part Three: Stories that give hope, faith and love
13 – Faith and spirituality in a technological and cosmic age
14 – Living in the big story!
15 – Love is supreme
16 – Epilogue