#4004 Introduction to Kelly Yepez and NT Wright's God's Big Picture Bible Storybook

Kelly Yepez is a lifelong Tucsonan who quite literally grew up at The Village Church, with some of her earliest memories rooted in the old spaces where kids would run and play after service. Now 25, Kelly brings a thoughtful way of seeing the world, shaped by self-awareness, family insight, and a love for simple, practical creativity. She carries that same posture into ministry, especially in Kids Matins and Kids Vespers, where she helps build curriculum that serves children, supports teachers, and stays grounded in the life of the community.

Why we’re using it: It is written by a lifelong Bible scholar, which helps keep the stories close to the biblical text without adding extra details to force a lesson.

• What problem it helps solve: Some kids’ Bibles add imaginative elements that unintentionally shape the story in ways Scripture itself does not. This approach avoids that.
• Teaching posture: Read the story clearly and let it stir curiosity. Resist the urge to land on a single moral every week. The goal is thoughtful engagement, not quick conclusions.
• Age clarity: The material is designed for ages 3–8, so keep language concrete, sentences short, and explanations simple.
• A realistic scope: With 140 stories, this is meant to be a long, steady rhythm, roughly a two-year journey, not something to rush through.
• Handling harder stories: Some stories are intentionally delayed because they are too intense for younger kids. If a child brings one up, affirm their question and let them know it is a story we talk about when we are older.
• When details feel “missing”: The retellings may be brief by design. If something feels unclear, return to the biblical text rather than filling in the gaps with extra details.
• Teacher confidence: It is okay to say, “Let me check that later.” Careful attention to what Scripture actually says is part of the formation process.
• Village posture: Read together, wonder together, ask a few good questions, pray simply, and send kids home with something they can talk about around the table.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

The Healing the City Podcast is a ministry of the Village Church in Tucson, Arizona. If you enjoy the Healing the City podcast and wish to support it financially, you can go to villagersonline.com, click the We Give tab, and follow the instructions. Thank you for listening and enjoy the podcast. Yeah, this is a little bit like Radio Lab. Um, all right, so welcome to the Healing the City podcast. My name is Eric, and I am sitting with Kelly Yepes. And as I was thinking about uh this, we've talked about doing well, we've talked about doing one podcast a lot, which has never happened, and maybe it will happen now that you get used to it, you'll um is doing a thrifting podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be fun.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Yeah, I I also think it'd be fun, and apparently a few people have now told you that that would be really cool.

SPEAKER_01: 0:55

So Yeah, yeah. I didn't realize how much like sneaky little knowledge I had on thrifting until I was talking to people, and I'm like, oh, I guess I'm I'm way more into it than I really realized.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08

Yeah. Uh I think definitely when this podcast is over, we should set a date for you to come and we'll do like a 30-minute thrifting the secret knowledge of thrifting with Kelly. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be fun. So I was thinking about this. We should introduce you a little bit, but I met you when you were in your mother's uh womb. So that was that so I've known you since the beginning. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're what now twenty-five? Yep. Wow, they got it right.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37

Same age as the year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

Oh, lucky you. Yeah. It'll be helpful when you get older. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

It's helpful now sometimes, I to be honest.

SPEAKER_00: 1:47

Wow, so I've known you for 25 years. Yeah. I'll just let that second for a second. Wow. Okay. So um you grew up at the village. Mm-hmm. So kind of maybe just give me uh well, just give me a little bit of your story and your experience of being community, and just and I'll kind of ask you questions as we go. So you can start wherever you want.

SPEAKER_01: 2:09

Oh man. Yeah, I mean, I was born and raised in Tucson. So I've been here my whole life, and then I think I think the village started when I was like one or maybe not even one yet.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27

Yeah, 2001.

SPEAKER_01: 2:28

2001, so I was one. So apparently I was at the vineyard before here, but I don't remember that. Um but yeah, I don't I So maybe I I'll help you out.

SPEAKER_00: 2:41

Maybe maybe uh what what's your earliest memories of the village?

SPEAKER_01: 2:45

Um my earliest memories of the village was these two giant doors that we would run and play in. Okay. Um It was, I think it was the building before the one we rented. Okay. With the big blue gates. Uh-huh. Or the big blue fence. Yes. Um, I yeah, I mean, I would say that's all I remember was when service was over. For some reason we there were these doors that had a hallway. Ah, yes. And I don't know why we loved the hallway, but we did. That's where we hung out.

SPEAKER_00: 3:20

Right. I do remember that. And then you ran through the two big doors. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 3:25

Um, but I would say I more remember the church that we would rent a space or something, and there was like a big playground.

SPEAKER_00: 3:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 3:35

Yeah, I remember playing around on the concrete like court or something, and I there it I don't I think they repainted it, so it's not blue anymore, but it's so blue in my memory. But those that big blue fence, I remember I was determined to count um how many bars there were. And so I stood on it because there was like a way where he'd stand and I would count, and then I never got I never finished, so I would have to like mark it somehow, and then the next week I'd go back and I'd start counting. I don't remember how many, but I think I eventually finished. That was that's a very strong memory in my brain of trying to count. Um I think I I'm very analytical, maybe detail oriented.

SPEAKER_00: 4:22

Um You're very detail-oriented.

SPEAKER_01: 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:25

When did you kind of figure out that that you're like, oh, I like detail, like, and kind of own that?

SPEAKER_01: 4:32

Um man, I think when I actually really consciously remember it was and I this sounds so late, but in college, I like, you know, in social work, we took all these personality tests and stuff, and there was this one to find out like if you were like the the beaver or the otter or something. And I took it a couple times by like you're supposed to analyze yourself, and I just always felt like I was biased and my own responses. And so I had my parents take it, and I remember them arguing over different answers, and oh man. I remember detail-oriented was on there, and that was one that they were like, no, yes, like she's super detail-oriented, and like so they took the test for you.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:22

As if they were Yeah, and the hard part is that you have these four statements and you have to pick in order of which one is like the most like you.

SPEAKER_02: 5:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:31

And so sometimes two of them were both very similar to who I was. Right. Um and they but they would argue over like which one was more like me. And I think I remember my dad being like, My daughter is detail-oriented and analytical, like we're putting that one first.

SPEAKER_00: 5:49

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I think people get really frustrated with those tests, but they don't realize that the more frustrated they get, the better the social the happier the sociologist is. Because that's what brings out their personality and helps them kind of and helps them.

SPEAKER_01: 6:05

Yeah. I yeah. I definitely feel like those are the tests that I think it's the best to take in front of someone and they can see how you answer the questions because I would end up answering like, I don't take everything literally, because of course there are some things I don't take literally. Right. And then I'm like, No, not everything. But then I'm realizing, well, I'm literally taking the question literally when it's just asking, do you take most things literally? Right. That one's a struggle for me.

SPEAKER_00: 6:37

That's awesome. That's so funny. So you grew up at the village, and then you went away to college at NAU. Mm-hmm. So when you uh left the village, what would you say? Like how did the village I guess the best way to ask this question is equip you, or what did you feel like you brought with you from the village when you went to other places?

SPEAKER_01: 7:02

Other places like other churches.

SPEAKER_00: 7:04

Other churches or just into a community that's no longer this, you know, the village community. Like you're now with another group of people, another group of friends.

SPEAKER_01: 7:12

Yeah, I feel like that's kind of hard because I didn't I didn't really go to church when I was up in Flagstaff. Um I did a Bible study with Daniel and Aaron and Anna and then Catherine.

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

So you you did a Bible study with a bunch of villagers. Yes. It seemed to be villagers.

SPEAKER_01: 7:34

Yeah, and there was a church that I went to m once, maybe twice. Okay. Um but I didn't have a car, and I didn't really look too much into the on-campus ministry. That I don't know, I just wasn't something I was super familiar with. Um and then very quickly COVID hit. And so I would sometimes just tune into the village.

SPEAKER_00: 8:02

Alright, so you're a true villager. Yeah. Where okay, so um you so you're you're a McConnell because I understood you as yes. So you you married Aaron. Um and you met him in high school.

SPEAKER_01: 8:16

In high school, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

And and you guys dated for how long before you get married?

SPEAKER_01: 8:21

Four years.

SPEAKER_00: 8:22

So how long have you been married?

SPEAKER_01: 8:25

Um three years.

SPEAKER_00: 8:27

Three years. Wow. Man, things go for it. I think you had your wedding in the backyard, Daniel's backyard. Yeah. And you guys also your parents live in the middle, and then you live to the right, and Daniel lives to the left, depending on if you're facing south, if you're facing north, it's the Yes, yeah. It's a different yeah. Um Do you like that? Do you like like sort of the closeness?

SPEAKER_01: 8:49

No, yeah, we all we all really enjoy it. It's nice to be close. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:54

And so why so, and then we'll move on to the real point of this uh interview, but I I like asking questions. Yeah. Um so why do you think um your family is so close? Like, what is it that your parents kind of established that enables the Because a lot of families look at what you guys do and they're like, Yeah, no, I could not live with my brother down the street. Like that would not work.

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

Um man, I mean, maybe you could ask my parents, but I think like in my memory of us kids, like my parents, like the most important thing to them was that we got along. You know, if we there were obviously like consequences if we disobeyed them and if we, you know, did things that were wrong. Um and uh I was so afraid to get in trouble, so I don't I was more of like a I need to confirm five times that this is okay before I do it. But really like making sure that we not just like got along in front of them, but like understood each other. Um and so like I don't know, I guess I just I think she really worked hard on making sure like when we hurt each other's feelings, it was it was really important that we like included each other and we we understood where the other person is coming from from like their age. I mean be I don't know, but I'm I'm also the baby and so I'm sure my brothers have much different stories.

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

Um but I mean I think that's important I do think that's important that and I would agree with you that's that your parents hold that value of of really emphasizing your guys' friendship and also understanding each other's I can definitely see your mother.

SPEAKER_01: 10:47

Yeah, and like if some people would be like, Oh, just let them fight their siblings, that's what siblings do. You know, my mom was like, they don't have to though. Right. Like siblings don't that doesn't need to be the relationship that siblings have with each other. Right. But I also think my parents respected our our growth. We were, you know, as we grew older, there was more responsibilities that we had, and and so I think we all felt well I guess I'm not gonna say we all I definitely felt like they I never felt like pushed down by my parents or I'm like, oh my gosh, if I live next to them, they're just gonna be controlling my life.

SPEAKER_00: 11:27

Right. It's not gonna, yeah. It's not gonna be an everyone loves Raymond kind of experience, right? The parents live next door and are just always bargeing. Always barge Yeah. Trying to nosy into everything and control things.

SPEAKER_01: 11:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I know I'm very different from my brothers, and also, yeah, being the youngest, the only girl, I don't know. I'm yeah, I know that my experience is definitely very different.

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

Special experience. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that you are the only girl and you are the youngest, those. Yeah. So um I don't actually as I was thinking about this, I don't actually know how you ended up kind of coming to this thing where you're like, I want to help move the the village from the Jesus Storybook Bible, which we've been in for many, many years and many people love, to the NT Wright Bible. Other than I had started shopping it around to parents and saying, what do you think of this? And it actually at first kind of got a little bit like I don't know how we can do this kind of thing. Mark and I really loved it. Like we read it and we're like, oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. No, it's great. Sometimes I want to I'll read the whole Bible, and sometimes I'll just read the right story Bible. It's a really good read. Um, and we thought that it didn't avoid things that the Jesus Storybook Bible did. So anyway, but I have no idea how it got into your hands. I don't know how you decided, like, I want to try to do this. Like, so can you kind of begin that story for us?

SPEAKER_01: 12:57

So I'm I'm pretty sure it started with I I heard that NT Wright wrote a storybook Bible, and I was like, oh, that's really cool. And I remember I think I talked to Daniel about it, and we were discussing like the difference between someone who like loves kids and loves Jesus and says, I want to write a book, and then someone who's studied the Bible their entire life and then thought, oh, maybe I could write a kid's Bible. And I think that those two aspects, they both create amazing and beautiful storybook Bibles.

SPEAKER_02: 13:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:30

Um, but I think this is something that we haven't really seen very often in kids' Bibles, or maybe ever, I don't know, like someone who just spent, you know, their whole life dedicated to studying and writing books for adults for the Bible. So anyway, I think it started there where I just heard it was out there. And then I do babysitting, and I was babysitting at the Kohl's, and I saw it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I've heard of this. And Dave was saying, Oh yeah, like Eric gave these Eric gave these uh these out and he's having us look at them, you know, I think we're gonna switch to them. And this was like a few months before 2025. Okay. And so I thought, oh, this is great. Like, because I was reading, I would read it to the girls and I flipped through it while I was at their house, if I don't know, either when they were there or when they were napping or something, and I was like, this is a really great, this is a really great Bible. I just immediately was like, I like this. And so anyway, then January hit and we nothing happened, and I was like, dang, like I really thought the you know, we were gonna move to it. And uh, you know, since Daniel was a pastor, I got the inside scoop from him.

SPEAKER_00: 14:48

You can go get some inside scoop.

SPEAKER_01: 14:50

You know, I just walked, you know, two store two doors down, and then um see I remember I was like helping him paint a fence and I was talking to him about it, and basically we kind of he was talking about how like yeah, Eric and Mark really love it. Um but it just we don't I mean there's no curriculum for it and it's kind of hard to make that big switch and sounds like some people kind of came back with maybe some concerns with the Bible. And so then I was thinking, you know, well I've got I've got free time and writing a curriculum doesn't seem that hard to me. I'm I don't know, I'm knowledgeable on Canva and writing things. I was like, I don't know, I I could probably do this. And uh so yeah, I guess it was kind of on a whim, and then you were about to go on leave, and I was thinking like I need to commit myself to this before I back out.

SPEAKER_00: 15:52

That was was that like August last year, or did you start sooner than that? Um August of this year, I mean I guess we're still in December.

SPEAKER_01: 16:01

I don't know. You let's see, you went on vacation in You went on vacation in July, right?

SPEAKER_00: 16:05

No, May. In May? It was May.

SPEAKER_01: 16:08

So it would have been April.

SPEAKER_00: 16:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:10

That I Yeah, because it was about four months after the new year and I yeah, and so So anyway, and then I was like, well I'll just talk to Eric about it. And then um Yeah. And then I guess, yeah, you said yes, and then while you were gone, I talked to Mark a lot about it too, where I was you know, bringing up questions because at that point I was just um figuring out what stories should be in there, because there's so many there's so many stories in here. 140 stories.

SPEAKER_00: 16:42

140.

SPEAKER_01: 16:44

And uh even with a two-year program that leaves some of the stories out, but that was able to solve the problem of some of them being a little bit more intense, which I agree with.

SPEAKER_00: 16:54

The the curriculum is written directed towards three to eight year olds. Yeah, some of these stories are a little hard to digest digest for a three-year-old.

SPEAKER_01: 17:02

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:04

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:05

And some of them I just you know, one of the things I've told a lot of people is yeah, I would read this whole Bible, you know, to my own children. Like that's but when you're interacting with stories like Dave and Bathsheba, yeah, that's not something I would necessarily want some random person at the village just randomly bringing up with my own children. And so I'm like, you know, that's like a story that was left out because I think that that's more, you know, mid-kids level of right.

SPEAKER_00: 17:35

I'm okay with somebody at the village processing Dave and Bathsheba with my nine to twelve year old. Yes. Not really, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:42

Not really eight-year-old. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 17:44

No, totally agree. Yeah, so you I mean you did a lot of work. So before we jump into the work you did, maybe you could talk a little bit, like you were talking before the podcast, and we jumped on, and then I was like, oh, this is great material. We should we should can we just chat a little bit about um the Jesus Storybook Bible, and we can go back to like the one example you gave, which I think is a good one. There's a lot of these within the Jesus Storybook Bible. Um but let me just say, like when the Jesus Storybook Bible was brought to us, we were transitioning, and we've done that that one for a long time, but we were transitioning to from these arch books, which were even longer than the Jesus Storybook Bible. So you're trying to get three-year-olds to listen to you read like five, six pages. Yeah. Um, and most of the arch book books were, I think, illustrated in the 70s and eighties. So it's just we made that transition, and partly we they we did it because they are Jesus-centered and that they try to point you toward how the stories point towards Jesus. Sometimes it feels like they're cramming that in. Yeah. But it's a particular kind of theology. But I would love you to just talk a little bit about why you think anti rights is I mean, you've already touched on it. We have a scholar writing baby stories are basically child stories for children. Um, but maybe you could just talk a little bit more about why you think just talk about some of the things you think aren't great about the Jesus Storybook Bible. We're not we're not like bagging on it, but there's some reasons we're making this transition.

SPEAKER_01: 19:21

Yeah, I guess that was something I guess what we were talking before the podcast. I I have it may seem weird to people who know that I don't actually volunteer in Kids Vespers that I'm writing the curriculum and you know, kind of taking over being more of a head in Kids Vespers. And um part of that is, you know, I I've been a Christian my whole life, but um I'm more recently like I sometimes I feel like a baby Christian in the sense of like my knowledge of the Bible because I'm only recently an adult who's interacting with the Bible, and um one of the things I found in the Jesus storybook Bible a couple times was it would have things in there that were untruthful and um it was hard to know like oh and you know I I can't even point them out to the kids and I guess I'll I'll just give the example. This is a good example. Yeah the example is is um in the story of Abraham and Isaac in the Jesus storybook Bible, there the part where um Abraham's about to like put Isaac on the altar, it says that, you know, Isaac got up and got onto the altar all by himself and then allowed Abraham to like bound like you know bind him and he did it because you know you know it's good to obey your father and Abraham obeyed Abba's father and it kind of I felt like it was pushing a narrative of like, oh now I understand that they are trying to make the moral of this story that you need to listen to your father. Whether that's God or your earthly father. But um that's not in the Bible. I mean it is in the Bible that Abraham obeyed God but uh in the Bible I I went back to it and I was reading and it says uh you know they get up to the top of the mountain and then Abraham binds Isaac to the altar and that's like it. And so technically it's not not in the Bible. It's not contradicting anything but it's adding I think it's adding something to the story that really makes it seem like this is a really important aspect of the story but that important aspect of the Jesus storybook story is not actually in the Bible. And so as someone who's not as familiar with all the knowledge and ins and outs of the Bible very much because I haven't I've only like read through the whole Bible once. I um I just wasn't super comfortable teaching things to the kids that I didn't know if they were actually true or not.

SPEAKER_00: 22:00

Right. So that's that's probably why you're uh you hadn't volunteered there with some of that.

SPEAKER_01: 22:08

Yeah and so if I volunteered I'd I would volunteer I mean it was like once or twice a year. And uh so I do have some knowledge of like I know how Kids Vespers goes. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 22:20

And uh And even though you probably don't have a lot of memories of it you were in it.

SPEAKER_01: 22:26

Yeah it was definitely set up a lot different back then though.

SPEAKER_00: 22:29

It was it was it changes a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 22:31

I mean there were it was a lot we were way smaller.

SPEAKER_00: 22:35

Yeah and uh but the interesting thing is I saw a picture of so we started 2001 and we got this building in 2009. So the first year you were still in Kid Vespers here before Yeah it was a very short time it was very short. So I saw you there was a picture of you and Anna up front with the kids doing the little you know Apostles Creed thing. Yeah I didn't realize that but anyway.

SPEAKER_01: 23:06

Yeah no I remember and I I do remember when I was little we we were still figuring out or not we but you guys were still figuring out the age groups and so I remember the ages changing all the time. Yes. And then like sometimes like you know someone would be a year younger than before they could enter the mid kids and then all of a sudden they were in there the next week.

SPEAKER_00: 23:26

Yeah and so Yeah we were all trying to figure that out.

SPEAKER_01: 23:28

Yeah and so you know it's hard in you know if if I'm talking to a kid now I'm like well I you know we had at one point we had like kids vespers or nursery kids vespers, mid kids and then like a high school thing where we'd go back and talk with Rod. Yes and so it was yeah I think my experience growing up in the village is definitely very different from someone growing up now in a village.

SPEAKER_00: 23:56

Yeah there's a I mean Ashton was talking last night about just you grew up with such a small group of kids too like now she looks around and running everywhere and she's like yeah there weren't that many when we were Yeah. Yeah and it's a different experience. But anyway back to the thing is anti right so what is it that you found as you read through this book that you enjoyed that was in contrast to the Jesus Storybook Bible?

SPEAKER_01: 24:23

I would say I mean the stories are very short the and I think with that there's no room to add anything. He just he'll leave things out sometimes if it's maybe I don't know short for time. I mean there are some things that he leaves out that I'm like what? But at the same time like I don't he's it's not I guess to me what I what I just really like is that he may leave things out but he doesn't add anything. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 24:50

There's nothing that's added and so that's And it doesn't feel like he's trying to reinterpret things for kids to find a moral or yes that's another yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

No yeah I'm glad you brought that up because that's I just I've looked into a lot of kids' Bibles just for fun. I don't even have kids but I'm just I'm just interested and one of the things that I've seen is that some do try to really reform the story to make sure that there's a moral of the story and a lesson that each kid can learn from the story. But I think sometimes it's good just to learn the stories and then you learn kind of what it means later. Especially because one story can teach you so many different things.

SPEAKER_00: 25:36

Yes. And and also one story like if you don't have a moral then you allow the story to create questions for the kids instead of you telling them the questions that they're asking.

SPEAKER_01: 25:49

Yeah yeah and I think that it's yeah I don't know I guess I mean that's I feel like I took that and that's kind of how I went into my I don't even know what the word is the my theology of writing curriculum I guess. Or I I then didn't make morals of the for the curriculum. I didn't make like this is the lesson, this lesson's on forgiveness, this is the one lesson that you get from this story. Right. So you need to ask questions about forgiveness. I made it more open-ended and I think that yeah because that's yeah I think he just I mean some of these stories are are so short it's just it's just a I mean even like I don't know like Philemon that one's a very short it's already so short in the Bible and he sums it up so much more in this one and that one is kind of like you know what do you even get from that story and I think that there's so many different angles you could go with that.

SPEAKER_00: 26:52

And so well I think the cool thing is that Philemon's even in there. Yeah oh I was so excited I love Philemon.