The Basics of Chronological Bible Storying

Q & A Session - Steve Evans, Marcus, Jim Slack, Grant Lovejoy & J.O. Terry
(This storying series was originally given as a seminar in July 2001 and nished with the following question and answer session.) Question: What if one member of the group has already made a decision for Christ, how can you keep them from spoiling the story for the rest of them? Steve: Often when a person is taken aside and told the rest of the story and accepts Christ, they want to remain in the group, and they have the tendency to want to say, Well, I know whats going to happen. I know where this is leading. We dont want them to do this, but we do want them to tell the stories where they work, live and play. They need to let those in the group hear the stories as theyre being presented. Marcus: We dont want them to go immediately and pressure other members of the group who arent at that point of understanding to make an immediate decision for or against. Jim: And this is a biblical issue in that we understand it is the Spirit that draws them, and therefore, we want to honour that and see in them the Spirit bringing them to the point of conviction. We shouldnt try to create something out of sync with the Spirit. This is a very, very important biblical issue. Grant: One other issue that sometimes comes up is when people want to argue and debate. They say, Oh, I dont believe this story. Instead of getting into argument, we go back to the win-win principle, and simply say to them, Each of you must nally decide whether youre going to believe Gods story. Were telling the stories, and it will be up to you to decide what youre going to believe.

Question: J. O., can you expand on what you made reference to earlier on why we would not want to use some Bible stories? J. O.: Theres several reasons. One would be that a particular story might reinforce a negative belief or action. Let me illustrate. Among people where honour and revenge are strong world view issues, the story of the rape of Dinah found in Genesis would reinforce this taking of revenge, and so that particular story would probably not be a good one to use. Another illustration -- among the Han people, we were advised early on not to use the Cain and Abel story because it would reinforce the concept of sin as only being major things like murder, robbing banks and that sort of thing. We were advised to use stories of smaller and more common sins.

Marcus: Are you saying that youd never use the story of Cain and Abel? J. O.: It just means that you need to understand what youre going to gain or lose when you use the story. If you use that story early on and people say Im not a sinner because Ive never killed anyone, then youve actually set yourself back. Marcus: So what youre saying is that the worldview is certainly driving the story at every point. J. O.: Right, but not only in the choice of story, but also in some of the vocabulary. We have to be careful with the vocabulary because this also could become a stumbling block. Marcus: One guiding principle is to nd what the people in the group are ready for in their development. In other words, if you have leadership training candidates, then obviously, if they come to know the Lord and were true in the Lord, I would assume you could enter into the Cain and Abel part no matter what culture they were from. Is that correct? J. O.: Often we would come back to a story like this when people are better able to understand or they have a fuller understanding about sin. We would come back and reinsert missing stories. Jim: This would be, very obviously, something to consider in the discipleship phase. In the dialogue in discipleship they may disagree with you not telling them earlier and decide they want to use it in evangelism, but they may also arm you were right and that the story shouldnt be used in future evangelism. But you shouldnt withhold stories in discipleship. That is an environment where, with the Spirit dwelling in them, they are perfectly capable of discussing it and deciding how it can be used. Question: Perhaps this just a Western concept, but how do we deal with questions, coming from new believers or seekers, with relationship to the canon of Scripture? ...questions having to do with how the book came to be? Might an illiterate person wonder about the assemblance of all of those words? How do you address this in your storytelling? Grant: Sometimes people are concerned about it, and sometimes theyre not. If in our initial work with them we discover its an issue, then we can include an early story that is the story of how the Bible came to be written. We pull together various portions of Scripture that talk about God inspiring dierent people to write, constructing what we call a composite story that answers the question of how we got the Bible. Question: Is it necessary to give an Old Testament story rst before telling a New Testament story that makes reference to the Old Testament? For example, Jesus referring to Moses, David or Elijah? Jim: It is important to look at the set of stories youre going to tell, and if, in a future story theyre commenting on things that happened previously, youll want to check and see if youve covered that issue in previous stories. If not, you have a few choices. Go back and put in a story, so that when you eventually reference it, its there. Another option is that in your pre-story time you could say, In this story youre going to hear about such and such. This is what it means. Or nally, in the dialogue after the story you could pick up on it and discuss the reference. So there are a number of ways you could handle it. Question: Could you talk a little bit more about crafting the dialogue session as it relates to world view? Grant: When we are thinking about what questions well ask in dialogue we are certainly keen to remember what caused us to choose this story in the rst place -- what biblical truth in it are we trying to bring out, and what world view issue is that truth speaking to? We want to be certain that despite any questions we discuss, we have denitely guided them to answer questions that deal with the truth in the story as it speaks to their world view, lifestyle, belief, etc. So thats why its very important to keep a record of why each story in the set has been chosen. Question: How do you deal with a group dialogue setting where they continually come back with an answer

thats wrong, that doesnt t the truth youre hoping to impart? Grant: It somewhat depends on who and how many give the wrong answer. If the leader of the whole group gives the wrong answer, thats more dicult than if a low-status member of the group gives the wrong answer. Sometimes, especially as the group unfolds and builds more cohesiveness, theyll correct each other, and they take care of it -- but sometimes they dont. In that case, we need to try, as tactfully as we can, to say Well, does someone else have an answer to the question? and sh for a right answer. If none of them get the answer, then we take responsibility for it and say, You know, perhaps I didnt tell that story well enough. Lets go back, and let me tell that story again, and as I tell it again, you listen for the answer. Jim: And sometimes it means that they are struggling with that story in terms of understanding the concept, which may say we need another story, sooner or later, which hopefully will add to this understanding to help them grasp the concept. So this is all dynamic. Youre constantly critiquing your methodology as you move through. Marcus: What if your storying still just doesnt evoke the right answer? Grant: Then you go back and tell the story again! Before you tell it again though, you ask them to listen for the particular item in the story they are missing. It also may be that you have to just move to another story. The story we chose may not speak to them the way we thought it would, so we try a dierent story that speaks to the same concept later. Question: Many people who are about to branch out into storying for the rst time may be thinking why cant I just take my Bible out there and read it in an interesting way, but stay with the Bible text? Is there a problem with this? Jim: The issue here is that were speaking to primarily oral learners. They cannot remember the story that way. This is why we craft it as a told story. This is why we laboriously do what we talked about in this module and why we try to tell it the way they would. Its even hard for us, remember, to recall a pastors words if he just reads his sermon; so too primarily oral communicators have a hard time remembering and retelling a read story. Grant: Also, they cant do it (read from the Bible to teach others) themselves. So if we read the story from the Bible, were modeling something they cant reproduce, and so the story will not be repeated, it stops immediately with our example. Marcus: Many people may have audio resources of the Bible. What is the dierence between storying and, say, sitting in a group setting and saying, Now listen to this Bible story, punching a tape recorder or CD player and listening to a Bible narrative or even dramatizing it? Steve: There are two problems with this. The rst is that a dramatized version is often not reproducible because there are many characters and sounds and things added to it. The second is that many times the recorded Scripture is a reading of the Bible when its written in very grammatical, literate structures that are not easily remembered by the person. Jim: And a third issue is that its not crafted to be told in light of a worldview issue or universal Bible truth. Theres no careful attention put into crafting the story to deal with their particular situation.

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