Imagine
A group of Australian high school students organized and attended a "Story The Bible" workshop in Bendigo, where they learned to craft and tell Bible stories in simple, engaging ways.
Written by Rev Keith Bell, retired Presbyterian minister, Wycliffe Advocate, geriatric teenager at STB workshop.
Wycliffe Bible Translators has developed a program which provides the Church with the means to excite our (young) people in sharing their faith in Jesus, particularly with their non-Christian friends. This program is Story The Bible (STB) which aims to train disciples of Jesus into being disciple-making disciples, in effect, fulfilling Jesus’ command to be His witnesses to every people group (evangelism) and to teach them to obey His commands (discipleship).
I have attended two STB workshops for high school students which were organised and led by high school students. One participant commented: I found it really cool having youth teaching youth instead of just adults like normal. Are these students potential missionaries? Sure are.
I believe we (the Church) should do all we can to encourage these young people to develop their abilities as disciple-making disciples; and promote the STB program as an effective tool in evangelism and disciple-making.
… let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good
Imagine
Imagine being able to tell a Bible story to people in such a way you don’t put them off and then leading them in a conversation about Jesus.
Imagine a group of 15 high school students who did just that in Bendigo in the April school holidays. In about 1 hour, they told 19 people 10 Bible stories. They gave away 20 gospels and prayed for 3 people.
Imagine learning to do this in just 3 days.
Imagine 5 high school students organising and leading a workshop, to teach other high school students to craft Bible stories so they can tell them simply, accurately, and memorably with a view to engaging their hearers in a discussion about Jesus.
Imagine 10 high school students giving up three days of their holidays to attend this workshop.
Imagine this group going into a shopping centre or a park and telling Bible stories to people they meet.
Imagine yourself in Bendigo where this workshop took place in the April school holidays.
Imagine the workshop group.
Imagine the 5 teachers:
Jerome, year 12, program organiser, teacher, teaching his 7th workshop
Heather, year 12, event organiser, teacher, 2nd workshop, 1st as a teacher
Archie, year 11, teacher, 2nd workshop, 1st as a teacher
Joseph, year 11, teacher, 2nd workshop, 1st as a teacher
Bailey, pastoral assistant, teacher, 2nd workshop, 1st as a teacher
Imagine the 10 participants: from 3 different schools and a home schooler, who represent 4 denominations: Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal and Presbyterian.
Imagine the geriatric teenager, Keith (me) as overall supervisor.
Imagine crafting Bible stories and being challenged to think about Bible stories in ways you hadn’t previously. Participants learned that not all the events of the story are listed in the Biblical account and that many which are listed are not necessarily included in the telling of the story.
Imagine learning how to keep the story simple, in everyday language, so as not to confuse hearers with religious or church jargon.
Imagine learning to keep the story accurate by developing a storyboard so you can “see” the story thus understanding a principle in Bible storytelling:
If you can see the story, your hearers will too.
If you can’t see the story, your hearers won’t either,
Imagine learning to keep the story memorable by using a variety of techniques (e.g. direct speech, repetition, mimicking the emotion of the story), and telling your story in an exciting and engaging way.
Imagine going into the world to tell your story, and becoming convinced of the truth of another principle of Bible storytelling:
There are oodles of people who would listen to a Bible story, if only there were someone to tell them.
Imagine what such a program could mean in your church. Here are a few comments from the participants:
“My experience overall was good. I was nervous at the beginning because I wasn’t sure what I was involved in. When it came to telling Bible stories to the public, I was very scared, but I ended up telling a whole story to a family.”
“This workshop has been a blessing, allowing me to encourage and mentor others as well as revise and improve my knowledge and skills in this field. I came, I saw, I conquered.”
“Initially, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but in the first minutes we learnt a story and I was like ‘whoa this is going to be epic’. I liked how practical the whole workshop was.”
“Overall, the workshop was a step in my faith that I needed to take and now I feel a lot more confident in sharing and expressing my faith.”
The theory in story crafting will help me write the puppet scripts for our church.
Who knows what God has in store for me, but I hope He will use these new skills to further His glory and increase His people.
Imagine becoming as excited as I am when you take up the challenge of these 5 high school students and have an STB workshop in your area to train people of all ages to be disciple-making disciples.
For more information on Story The Bible workshops contact Malcolm Barker malcolm.barker@ghd.com