Pentecost and Other Stories of Mission
Tom Boomershine
On the last Sunday in June, sister churches in Dayton, Ohio enjoyed mission stories together. Representatives from “Grace By Heart” of Grace United Methodist Church told stories at the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church.
We were storytelling preachers—telling in the sermon slot for Sunday morning worship to a most responsive congregation. Guest tellers besides myself were Susan Bennett and Richard and Elaine Green. We were accompanied by GBH Coordinator, Barbara Blacklock, who organized the telling.
It was “Mission Sunday” at St. James, so we had been asked to tell stories about mission. We told the story of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones, the leper/paralytic/Gerasene stories from Mark, the Samaritan woman at the well, Paul and Silas in jail, and Pentecost. The long-time president of the Missionary Society of St. James, Maddie Wadkins, heard some of the folks tell at an ecumenical gathering last winter and wanted us to come. It was a joyful morning!
Storyboards for Storylearning
Amelia Boomershine
Week after week I teach stories using storyboards. I never tire of it. Creativity is unleashed and biblical storytellers are born through these quickly sketched responses to hearing the story told one episode at a time.
I am always amazed at how well this activity works to help people learn and tell stories. Equally amazing is how willing people are to dive in and do it, even if they have issues about drawing. They just need to be given permission to draw stick figures.
Upon completion, storyboards help each person tell the story to their neighbor. The room suddenly fills with the sounds of their voices—telling and laughing. There is both an air of serious recall and light-hearted delight in sharing compositions.
The storyboard pictured here helped its creators tell the story of “Woman with Flow” (Luke 8:43-48) in a recent Sacred Stories class at the local jail. Click here to download a PDF with directions for leading the storyboard exercise.
Join us at the FG!
Tom and I hope you will join us at the 2016 Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers early next month. It’s an annual extravaganza of wonderful worship, workshops, keynotes, and storytelling!!! Great people, great food, great fun. What more could you want? Oh, yeah, it’s in suburban DC. Come a day early or stay a day after to do some sight-seeing. Visit the NBS website for all the details.
