Memories of Guatemala

Last year at this time we were packing for ten days in Guatemala on a biblical storytelling teaching mission of the Network of Biblical Storytellers. Tim Coombs and Bonnie Orth were our trustworthy leaders who had established relationships through their Presbyterian connections in Guatemala. We had events in three cities and saw a good portion of this beautiful country. I learned my two stories in Spanish and was actually understood! It was a joy to visit, teach stories, and make friends in Central America.

Why bother to learn the stories of the Bible by heart???

After all, they’re all right there in the Bible.  You can pick up the book and read them anytime you want. Joyce Orr asked the question AND answered it in her 2020 Congregational Meeting Report on Zion Storytellers Ministry Team:

• Reason 1: Most of what we call the Bible started out orally.  In only a few cases did someone sit down in solitude, pen in hand, and put the words on paper.  Parts of the Bible are oral legend – Old Testament stories of the ancestors told around the evening fire.  Some of it was Liturgical material developed for worship – the Psalms.  Much of it was dictated – New Testament letters from the early church leaders to distant “house” churches.  All were eventually preserved on the written page, but even then, much of the Bible is “speaker’s notes”, intended to be presented orally to a mostly illiterate audience.
• Reason 2: It’s a spiritual practice. You’ll never understand a passage as well by reading it silently, as you will by learning it “by heart” and speaking it out loud.  Even though we’re not using the original languages, the pacing and phrasing of the passage that come out as you speak the words out loud add to your understanding of the Scripture.
• Reason 3: It’s fun. Learning a passage or story from the Bible, then presenting it out loud to other people, is fun for both the teller and the listener.  It unites us in a shared experience, and breathes Life into words no longer flatly printed on a page.

Zion Storytellers was formed in the spring of 2019 as a Ministry Team of Zion United Church of Christ in Norwood, Ohio.  It has dual standing, as both a Ministry Team of Zion and as a Guild of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, International (NBSI).  Its mission, in both of these contexts, is to learn and tell, and to encourage others to learn and tell, the stories of the Bible. Joyce Orr is the Ministry Team Leader, Coordinator of the CinDay Storytelling Guild, and an active member of the NBSI.

Joyce’s report is an excellent model for integrating biblical storytelling into the life, ministry, and mission of your local church. For example, by issuing this challenge:

Our primary goal this year is the “2020 Storytelling Challenge” – that each friend or member of the congregation of Zion, will learn and will tell one story of the Bible every month this year.  Through this Challenge, we hope everyone in the congregation will experience the joy of learning and telling the Stories of the Bible.

Any church which met that challenge would be transformed. For more information about building a storytelling ministry at your church contact Joyce Orr: cindaynbs@gmail.com

Hear the Prophets at the 2020 FG

Join us in Dayton, Ohio for the 2020 Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers and hear the prophets Amos and Micah told in epic style. The “epic telling” is a remarkable, shared performance of scripture. It takes place during the Festival Gathering on Thursday evening, July 30. It is free and open to the public.

Better yet, be a part of the epic telling! Bidding on verses begins this month: Saturday, February 23 at noon EST. You must be registered for the event to bid, which you can do by clicking here…