Photos taken by M Mickan 2010
Telling the Story of God so that people remember them
Before you tell a story ask yourself these questions:
Who are the people I am telling this story to?
What do they believe?
What do they think about the Bible?
What are they interested in?
What will help them to listen?
What will help them get to know God better?
How does this Bible story connect or join with other Bible stories?
What stories do people need to hear in order to think correctly about God and trust Him?
How can we tell all these stories together so that people understand the story of God?
STEPS in making a Bible Story
Mark 2:1-12
- Think of an interesting sentence to begin your story. Then people will want to listen to your story.
- Only choose 3 or 4 names of people or names in the story.
- Find the hard words in the Bible story. Think of a way to say them more simply, so that even children understand easily.
- Just tell it. Then people will imagine the story in their minds. They will see and hear and feel the story.
- Don't add to the story anything that is not in the Bible story. Only tell what is in the Bible.
- You need to make your story short. Choose from the story in the Bible what will take 3 or 4 minutes too long.
- If the story is moving from one place to another, tell the story in the different places by moving from one place to another place as you talk.
Before you tell a story ask yourself these questions:
Who are the people I am telling this story to?
What do they believe?
What do they think about the Bible?
What are they interested in?
What will help them to listen?
What will help them get to know God better?
How does this Bible story connect or join with other Bible stories?
What stories do people need to hear in order to think correctly about God and trust Him?
How can we tell all these stories together so that people understand the story of God?
STEPS in making a Bible Story
- Read all the bible verses for your story. Read them 2 or 3 times.
- Think about how you could tell the story in 3 or 4 minutes. Choose from the story in the bible what you most want to say in your story.
- Draw on pieces of paper pictures that will help you remember your story. Number these pages 1,2,3,4 etc. These pictures need to be sketched quickly they are not to be beautiful. They are only for you to use. They are only to help you remember each part of the story.
- Now close your Bible and put it away. Tell the story to yourself just using your pictures. If you did not draw enough pictures to remember all the story draw some more.
- Tell the story to your partner using your pictures. Tell it again to your partner. If your story takes more than 5 minutes, think about how you can make it shorter.
- Listen to your partner tell their story 1 or 2 times.
- Help each other by thinking about these things: Is your opening sentence a good one for getting people interested? Are you using too many names? Are you moving as you tell the story?
- pictures. Then you can tell the story without looking at the pictures.
- Now you are ready to tell it to a group of people.
Mark 2:1-12
Thanks to Bible Society for this 'Bible Storying material' that was used in Bible Storying workshops in 2010.
Every Bible Story can become a Bible Study
Every Bible story teaches us. We can help others know what the Bible Story teaches. The process is not hard and will help everyone learn.
After telling a Bible story you can study the story by this process
1. Retell the story - there is no harm in telling the story more than once especially if it is a story they haven’t heard before.
2. Then the leader says to the people one or other of these statements, “I want you to tell me what you like about that story.” OR “I want you to tell me what you think about that story.”
Maybe you have paper to write it down
3. As people speak up the leader can have someone else scribe on butcher’s paper a summary of what is being said. As you write down what people are saying don’t try and categorise what people tell you (except if someone says the same as someone else may be just put a tick alongside that same “answer”). Be content with the fact that people are continuing to engage with the story even if some might be a little off track. About the only thing the leader might need to do is remind people to keep focussed on this story. It’s important that the leader does no more than prompt people to speak (remember this is not a teaching session) - the less the leader says the more likely the people will share.
4. After a while, as the comments become less the leader could ask one of the other questions by picking up on something that has already been written up. E.g., someone might have said “Jesus was so kind to heal that person”, so the leader might point to where that is written and ask, “Is there anything else we can learn about Jesus from this story?” Or the leader could even say, “Tell me something you found difficult about this story.”
5. Once everyone has stopped sharing the leader can get everyone to look at everything that has been written up and start categorising things, e.g., by putting a blue circle around everything that says something about Jesus. Different people can be called up to circle the sayings about Jesus. Then other’s can put a red circle around everything that says something about one of the people in the story and a green circle around somebody else, or whatever.
6. Then the leader can draw together all these things and have a scribe write up a summary of each item. E.g. Jesus is kind, can heal, knows what people are thinking, etc, etc The blind man was …
7. Then finally the leader can direct everyone to think about this story for themselves and, if they want to, say what this story is telling them to do now. Remember, the power of a story well told and engaged with is that it stays with the person and informs them in their life from then on. Be content to let the Holy Spirit do his work well after the story has been told and engaged with. We can of course pray to that end.
Or maybe use these questions...
Every Bible story teaches us. We can help others know what the Bible Story teaches. The process is not hard and will help everyone learn.
After telling a Bible story you can study the story by this process
1. Retell the story - there is no harm in telling the story more than once especially if it is a story they haven’t heard before.
2. Then the leader says to the people one or other of these statements, “I want you to tell me what you like about that story.” OR “I want you to tell me what you think about that story.”
Maybe you have paper to write it down
3. As people speak up the leader can have someone else scribe on butcher’s paper a summary of what is being said. As you write down what people are saying don’t try and categorise what people tell you (except if someone says the same as someone else may be just put a tick alongside that same “answer”). Be content with the fact that people are continuing to engage with the story even if some might be a little off track. About the only thing the leader might need to do is remind people to keep focussed on this story. It’s important that the leader does no more than prompt people to speak (remember this is not a teaching session) - the less the leader says the more likely the people will share.
4. After a while, as the comments become less the leader could ask one of the other questions by picking up on something that has already been written up. E.g., someone might have said “Jesus was so kind to heal that person”, so the leader might point to where that is written and ask, “Is there anything else we can learn about Jesus from this story?” Or the leader could even say, “Tell me something you found difficult about this story.”
5. Once everyone has stopped sharing the leader can get everyone to look at everything that has been written up and start categorising things, e.g., by putting a blue circle around everything that says something about Jesus. Different people can be called up to circle the sayings about Jesus. Then other’s can put a red circle around everything that says something about one of the people in the story and a green circle around somebody else, or whatever.
6. Then the leader can draw together all these things and have a scribe write up a summary of each item. E.g. Jesus is kind, can heal, knows what people are thinking, etc, etc The blind man was …
7. Then finally the leader can direct everyone to think about this story for themselves and, if they want to, say what this story is telling them to do now. Remember, the power of a story well told and engaged with is that it stays with the person and informs them in their life from then on. Be content to let the Holy Spirit do his work well after the story has been told and engaged with. We can of course pray to that end.
Or maybe use these questions...
- What happened in the Story? (or retell the story)
- What does this story tell us about people?
- Was there something in this story you thought were good?
- What did you find difficult in the story?
If no answer...
Was there anything in the story that maybe some people might find difficult [to believe or understand....] - What did the Spirit show us and tell us about our life?