The Art of Storying

For years I've had experience being on the receiving end of bible teaching.  My family was always the family that went to Sunday School, church, and any weekly event for church.  Wrap that up with 9 years of Lutheran school and I have a pretty good idea of how to teach the bible.  Not to mention, I've now taught the bible in some form for almost 15 years and I have a bachelor's degree in it!  I've even taken a few seminary classes, so obviously I have to know what I'm doing, right?

Well, the problem with all of that learning, both by seeing it done and by doing it, is that almost every time I saw the Bible taught, it was in the same, boring way.  There's a message (sometimes scripture, sometimes not) that the speaker/teacher is trying to get across.  That message is wrapped up in an outline full of intellectual information, personal stories, and web-researched sermon illustrations that all support the main point.  At the very end everything is put together in a brief moment of application.  This method is often one that is great for Christians, but has so much insider language that it is completely inappropriate to those that don't have sufficient knowledge of "Christianese."

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Storying is a method of teaching the Bible that seeks to be open to people that are on their spiritual journey, even if it isn't a Christian one (yet).  Using this approach, a non-Christian feels less intimidated to participate.  Storying actually got its start in oral traditions and grew from there.  In fact, it has been used in missions for some time.  Only recently has this method been applied in mainline evangelicalism.  

For resonate the usefulness of Storying is that it can bridge the gap between those that grew up in the church, and the larger majority of young adults here in Puyallup that have no Christian background at all.  The step from the meeting on the ultimate frisbee field to coming to a ministry group is no longer a giant leap; now it's a much more normal step!

For more on storying visit here or here.