Bible Story telling
Defining it
Bible story telling is sharing the Word of God in a way that engages the listener with not just words. You look at the listener in the eyes and use your body language and your voice to communicate and bring the passage alive for the listener.
Once you have told the story by memory the story teller asks for a volunteer to tell the story back as best as they can remember. This invites the people listening to start to participate in the Word of God. The story teller always makes this a positive experience.
Then a lead through is done. This is a re-telling of the story and the people listening fill in blanks and help the story teller re-tell the story for the third time. Now the listener has heard the Bible story three times and most likely they can remember it well enough to tell another person.
At this point the Bible story teller begins to ask key questions about the Bible story.
These questions are:
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What might we learn by what was said and done about the characters in the story?
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What choices did they make and what choices could have they made?
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From the choices they made, what were the results and long term impact?
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What do we learn about God and His character?
The heart of this process is to listen carefully and respond well to those who are answering the questions. It is not a time to explain the story, but a time to see how God shows up in how the participants answer and interact. For sure the Bible story teller prepares well and is ready to tell the story and help people discover the truth in the story that God leads in. The goal is to see the people participate and listen to them carefully and learn together as you lead them through the story.
Once there are many discoveries found in the Word of God the Bible story teller focuses in on the observations and brings them to application. The key word for this is “today” We restate one of the observations and ask if this happens today? What does that looks like in our lives and let them talk about it. Then ask, “have you or someone you know ever experienced this?” Then see who might share.
Then you could ask, “what might God be telling you or us to do from this?”
A key part is of coarse is listening to the Holy Spirit and taking His lead on things as people talk and share. The Bible story teller is not simply facilitating a conversation about the Word of God, but is carefulling leading it and preparing well to deliver the story. They are still fulfilling the goal of teaching, but the difference is that the listener owns the discoveries and the Bible story teller is asking good questions and giving guidance as they listen carefully as they go through the story.
Why Bible storytelling is Affective
1. It levels the playing field of learning for all involved.
Since it is an oral method people of all levels of reading ability can participate well. Many times people who never had the chance to lead and contribute to giving and interacting with the Word of God discover they can lead and see things they never did before. For some it is the first time they are invited to give their thoughts and ideas and they discover they have a lot to contribute and they begin to see how God has equipped them to lead.
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2. It is transferable and reproducible.
The Word of God is given in a way that the person listening goes away from the experience with the Bible story in their heart pocket so to speak. They can share that same passage by memory with others in their circles of influence easily and powerfully.
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3. It is conversational.
One can simply have a good conversation in the Word of God with people in public. It is not based in methods of apologetics, debate or giving a presentation. It is based in good questions and careful listening and responding. You are asking people their honest thoughts and ideas based on the Bible story. It is a good way to do evangelism.
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4. Everyone involved is a fellow climber.
As the story is given, questions are asked in such a way to where people can give their thoughts and ideas. There are no wrong or right answers. “What we might learn together?” is more used than, why questions. As the story teller you are leading the time, but the goal is for the listener to speak and interact and hear from God through the Word of God. You are more than a simple facilitator, but leading through good questions and good listening and giving direction in the process. In that you are teaching more through the Word of God speaking and giving people the gift of interaction verses just explaining and talking. It is not a passive situation, but very dynamic.
5. It is very flexible.
You can do a 5 minute story or take many hours in a Bible passage. One can do Bible stories as a personal devotional time, times of outreach in public, times of discipleship in small groups and in church meetings. It can be used in most settings.
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6. You go deep into the Word of God.
You can discover new truth in a story over and over. Many people see new things in a Bible story even after having done that story over 500 times.
How its being used in thailand
I have used Bible story telling as a way to share Christ and truth from the Word of God with Thai Buddhist people in a friendly conversational way.
In teaching groups of seekers and believers in a church setting or in small groups.
I have used Bible story telling to train leaders in how to do use it to start churches and do discipleship.
I have used Bible storytelling with art work that reflect Biblical narrative.
Once a week would go to Temple in city of Chiang Mai and do conversation with monks in monk chat and share Bible stories with them. This was a fun positive way to have a conversation with a them based in the Bible. I would always ask them to tell me how Buddhism would approach the issues that were found in the Bible story as a way to respect them and get them to think about the differences of the Bible and Buddhism. It would give them a chance to talk and share a lot and ask me questions too.
Once a week I would go out with friends to a local park in the city of Chiang Mai and do Bible story telling. I would use a cloth with seris traditional Thai artwork of chronological Bible narratives. I would ask people to pick the one they liked the best then tell the Bible story to them and ask them questions. Was a fun way to have a great conversation based on the Word of God with Thai Buddhist people.
Many of these people doing the Bible story telling training are taking it back to their local church and discipling other with it.
Once a week would go to Temple in city of Chiang Mai and do conversation with monks in monk chat and share Bible stories with them. This was a fun positive way to have a conversation with a them based in the Bible. I would always ask them to tell me how Buddhism would approach the issues that were found in the Bible story as a way to respect them and get them to think about the differences of the Bible and Buddhism. It would give them a chance to talk and share a lot and ask me questions too.