Most communities of faith, and the traditions they bear, have stories at the heart of their belief. In the story-filled world we currently live in, our faith stories compete with all sorts of stories — some of which enhance and strengthen faith, and some of which challenge or diminish it. We hope that this site will give you access to some of the many tools around the web that can help you to write and share your own stories.
In this section of our site we share story prompts that have helped communities begin to tell their stories, information on how to create storyboards, resources on digital tools you can use to capture your stories, and other useful resources.
Creating- Memories of September 11th site 29 August 2022This project has a great curriculum for gleaning and sharing stories, as well as a deep collection of stories people have already shared.
- Stories have conflict 3 June 2022Kyle Oliver has just successfully defended his dissertation in the program at Teachers College — and the whole thing is a set of podcast episodes! More on it, soon, but here’s a taste of it engaging the reality that all stories have conflict.
- USDAC Digital Storytelling a crisis 11 November 2021The USDAC group, which is a collection of creative people who do justice work, held a webinar on digital storytelling in a crisis. In addition to the video of the event, they have also posted a collection of resources.
- Storytelling for nonprofits 27 June 2021I’m not a big fan of the notion of “experts” — but I do think there is such a thing as expertise, and this blog post offers a round-up of a number of storytelling resources for nonprofits. Read with a critical eye!
- Stories in Place 8 March 2021Here’s a lovely set of short films created by Black filmmakers offering insights into their favorite neighborhood spots: Stories in Place. I am particularly fond of the one created to tell a story about Lori Greene, because she is a local artist who has taught my family how to do mosaics.
- StoryCorps toolkit 1 November 2020Here is a very useful toolkit for recording the kind of story that StoryCorps is famous for — great questions, conversation starters and such more.
- Episcopal Church resources for storying faith 25 September 2019The Episcopal Church in the US has put together some lovely resources for storying faith. Here is their main site, which includes an introductory booklet, and a full guide.
- How stories invite empathy 15 September 2019Here’s an interesting essay, full of links to other resources, that is exploring how we might be “wired for empathy” and why stories cultivate emotions.
- Unleashing the power of elders’ stories 4 May 2019Deborah Jorgens recently successfully defended her MA capstone project at Luther Seminary. Her paper is a lovely, concise, and eloquent description of the power involved in creating room for elders in a community to share their stories with the wider community. She was particularly focused on a Christian ministry setting that was predominately white and ...
- Indigenous Storytelling 11 March 2019A lovely piece from the Duke Faith&Leadership blog about the epistemological convictions embodied in indigenous storytelling.