Mary Hess

Here’s an essay in the Christian context about using storytelling as a way to deepen faith sharing.The author, Jim Merhaut, uses moments of conversion as the foci and argues that there are five elements to such stories: Love Inspiring Witnesses Gospel Connections Holy Engagement in Community Taking Up the Mission What do you think?

The TED organization has done us a nice favor, and curated a number of TED talks which get at what it is to tell a story. We’ve posted some of these over the years here already, but check out their list: http://www.ted.com/playlists/62/how_to_tell_a_story.html

Sometimes people worry that getting children involved in interfaith work could be confusing, or cause them to doubt their own community’s stories. Actual practice suggests otherwise, with children actually being drawn more deeply into their own community’s stories, even as they engage others with respect. Here’s an example, from a group based in Albany, NY:

The Fund for Theological Education has an excellent short — and free! — resource for embodying something they label “vocation care.” The guide has within it some powerful story prompts that get at faith formation questions, as well as useful tools and background theories for engaging them well. Look at pp. 16-29 in particular.

Here’s a story that’s a bit different from the typical story I post here, but a kind of nice example of how to put music and text together in a compelling way:

An interesting presentation, with a somewhat annoying voiceover:

From Tim O’Brien: “[S]tory-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” That quotation comes from a blog post whose author argues that fiction might well be the best way to tell God’s story. Megan McKenna once said something similar, that “all of the stories in the Bible are true, and some of them really happened.” I think

The Benedictine community originated lectio divina, which is a practice of slow, meditative, reflective engagement with scripture. The Benedictine community of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville has been the source of the first hand illuminated Bible in 500 years — the St. John’s Bible. They have also explored a form of lectio that works with

Ben Cieslik, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, has been gradually inviting people into telling their stories in the context of the community. It’s a great example of sharing individual stories contextualized in the midst of the scripture the community is studying. Here’s one of the videos, but you can find at the church’s blog.

Here’s a useful list of tips for doing biblical storytelling with children. The tips are just as useful for whatever kind of story you might want to tell, though!