September 23, 2009
Two weeks ago I intentionally started storying with my youth group. I’ve been reading, praying, and thinking about storying for a few years now and recently figured I need to start experiment, tweeking, and participating in the process beyond conversations with some youth worker friends and my own brain.
Two Wednesday nights ago I decided to explore some of the storying preparation resources I came across on Echo the Story. Mike Novelli has done some really helpful work in creating categories that not only communicate for the storying process but has been generous in providing those to people interested in this form of communication. Thanks Mike!
To begin, I almost jumped right into the biblical story as a way of learning with my group but realized the resources Mike listed included a preparation time. I took some of the recommendations he makes on his website and tweeked them for my youth group. We started by sitting in a circle and sharing short summaries of our favorite books or movies. Then I asked each “storyteller” to answer the following questions from Mike’s “Pre-Storying” suggestions:
IDEA 3: SHARING OUR FAVORITE STORY
* a favorite “scene” from the story in 30 seconds or less (i.e. reading an excerpt, or showing a movie clip)
* a summary of the story, including the setting and main characters
* how they have identified with a character(s) in the story
* how the characters may have changed in the story
* why they love the story and what makes it a good story
* how the story has affected their life
The coolest story I can share from the evening was when one of the teenagers, Adam, shared from my favorite story, Star Wars. He went with a Phantom Menace summary. It was both energetic and interesting to hear what parts he focused on from the film. When going through the questions I asked him “how could one of the characters have changed the story?” He responded by explaining Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi, could have been less “lame” and not died. Then maybe Jinn could have trained Anakin and Anakin wouldn’t have gone over to the dark side of the force. It was cool to see the light come on in so many faces at that discovery. I was excited because that is when I knew storying could work with the Bible.
I thought and read that it could but this was confirmation. I’ll share our second adventure in my next post. Hope you can join me in the process. Tell me some of your stories!
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Theology, bible, church, ning, story, teenagers, youth ministry | Tagged: Echo the Story, Michael Novelli, ning, Theology, youth ministry | 
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Posted by faithsowers
May 7, 2008
A Horizon Bible Study goes something like this…
Once upon there was a mountain. It was in a forest. This woman, Jane of the Forest, knew all about the forest. She lived there and felt at home there. She also knew the mountain pretty well. One day she decided to go up the mountain because, well she never had before.
Jane of the Forest started to climb the mountain and before long she was at eye level with the canopy of the trees of the forest. She was amazed at the animals living in the trees. She saw all sorts of animals she had never seen before so she studied them and named them and got to know them.
As she was watching the animals in the canopy of the trees she looked at the side of the mountain and noticed a little house. This guy, Tarzan of the Forest, had made a little home on the side of the mountain in the canopy of the trees. He and Jane met and talked about the animals in the trees and Tarzan was able to point out all sorts of things she never saw when she looked at the animals…and the trees for that matter. Well Jane was able to tell Tarzan all about the forest floor. He didn’t even know there was such a thing.
After spending time discovering a little more about the place that both Jane and Tarzan called home they decided to go up the mountain further. To their surprise, they discovered there was not a forest but that there was a beautiful forest and a wonderful river. Jane and Tarzan found many more hikers along the way that had made their home at different places on the mountain and discovered many new things about the home they thought they knew so well.
As the community of hikers, including Jane and Tarzan, climbed the mountain together their horizons began to expand. They knew so many more specifics about their home than they ever did before. No one ever reached the top of the mountain though. It seems it went on forever but they grew closer to each other and to their home. And they journeyed happily ever after.
THE END
Basically the story above is how I’m currently leading my Bible study at the
http://www.1bc.org/. We have been reading 1 Kings 19:1-18 for three weeks. Every week we read the passage and then we do create a new horizon in the context of the passage.
So week 1 we read the passage and answered 3 questions, all based on our embedded beliefs. The second week we added historical background to the passage and after reading it again answered the same three questions plus a 4th question that asked us to reflect on how we had changed between weeks of study. Last week we incorporated a prayer experience into the study an asked all the same questions again. So on and so on…
For me, I’ve really enjoyed the format and spending time reflecting on the same passage over and over. Especially because I believe we approach the Bible with a new horizon everytime we study it.
Well I think I’ve said enough for this week. It felt good to blog again. Peace Out!
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Posted by faithsowers
