Hi to everyone who is planning to hone up their storying skills in December!
The focus of the seminar is on developing your skills relating to telling stories in your own culture and in another. During the seminar you will have the opportunity to learn how to tell a story in a story-style from another culture AND to tell a Bible story in that same style to people from that culture.
We are not teaching Bible content. We are assuming you already know some stories from the Bible which you can prepare to tell to others. In order to be ready for the seminar, you need to think about and choose which stories you will practice on.
Please bring to the seminar:
1. a brief outline story of the whole Biblical narrative.
There is no one correct version of this.
Some questions which might help are: What is God trying to do throughout history? Who could be the main characters of the story? If someone asked you to summarise the whole Bible in a "nutshell", how would you do it?
You can frame the story in any way you like. For example, you might like to prepare a love story between God and His people; you might like to focus on a Father and son theme - expanding the prodigal son story; you could use a Bible story such as Hosea or Jonah. You could also simply (and briefly) trace the historical development of God's interaction with man.
2. a list of 30 key stories which together present an even spread of Biblical narrative content.
Choose one of these stories to practice on during the seminar
3. a story which illustrates a Biblical command
It can be any command and any story. You could illustrate the command with a story from the Bible or from any other context. You could choose a popular story or a Bible story.
4. a story that illustrates a salvation theme from the Bible
It can be any salvation theme and any story. You could illustrate the theme with a story from the Bible or from any other context. You could choose a popular story or a Bible story. For example, you could choose a legal/justification theme OR a substitution theme OR a cleansing theme OR a reconciliation theme. If you wanted to talk about redemption, you could use the story of Ruth or a recent news story relating to kidnapping.
5. a story illustrating a whole Bible theme
It can be any theme and any story. You could illustrate the theme with a story from the Bible or from any other context. You could choose a popular story or a Bible story. Classic examples or themes would be "God's love" or "forgiveness" but please feel free to choose any theme however obvious or obscure it might seem.
You do not need to write out the above stories. We will not be collecting or marking them. Apart from the folk story below, the only written item you need to bring is the list of 30 stories and any notes you need to make for your own reference. It is your telling of the stories that we are interested in. This is simply to make sure that you have some stories ready to work on in the seminar.
6. a written copy of a folk story from another culture
It doesn't matter what culture your story is from. If you are planning on going overseas, it would be good to bring a story from the culture you are planning to go to. You don't need to do any work on this story before you come - just bring a printed copy. During the seminar we will be analysing it to learn about how other cultures communicate.
If you have any questions at all about what you need to bring or what will be in the seminar, finance or accommodation, please write to Richard Jenner (richard.thejourney@tpg.com.au).