As Christ-followers and as tellers, we have been called to feed people. As part of living into that call, we surrender up our gifts that God might bless and multiply and use them to feed others. We feed the hungry, the poor, the sick, the downtrodden. We feed the well, as well. But, contrary to the world’s feeding where the feeding is so often about getting full, I wonder if we are not called to feed others until they are hungry. At the end of each Festival Gathering, I am always left wanting…wanting to get more…to give/do/tell more…to invite more… Again, I find myself at that place…at the end of a Festival Gathering…wanting more…which must mean we were served generously and well. Thank you to all who planned and helped to execute this Virtual Festival Gathering that fed and filled us just enough to want to come back to get more and go forth to give more. Blessings to All!
Kathy Culmer’s Aug. 1 post on the NBSI Facebook page following the 2020 Virtual Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers
The summer is slipping away. Happy memories of the 2020 Virtual Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers are fading. It was an amazingly successful event thanks to the hard work and creativity of people like Kathy Culmer who organized all the workshops. And to many, many others who did so much to plan, coordinate, train, and pull together a myriad of digital pieces.
The epic telling of Amos and Micah with pre-recorded video of tellers from everywhere was different than a live experience, but still very compelling. Tom participated in Amos, bringing up the rear telling the concluding verses.
We missed being with people in person, but being virtual meant people from all over the world could, and did participate. Sarah Agnew, the keynote speaker, came to us from Australia. Her presentations were pre-recorded, but she got up at 3 a.m. Australian time to be with us during her talks and so could participate in the Chat during her talks! She told us afterwards how delightfully strange that was.
GoTell Board member David Larson and I led an introductory workshop on Jonah 3 which included participants from Canada, Jamaica, and Albania. Tom and I in Ohio were honored to participate in the closing worship, along with George Minang in Cameroon (see the June-July post about his biblical storytelling ministry there).
Who would have imagined a “Virtual Festival Gathering” five months ago, when everything came to a standstill. I remember celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at home on the same day I told the chaplain at the jail that I would not be coming to lead my Circle of the Word program with women because of the virus. Nor would our fledgling scripture by heart group at McKinley UMC be telling in worship the next Sunday.
In April I was invited to tell a story to open a “Gospel Showcase” using Zoom and Facebook Live. I told the opening scene of the Pentecost story in English and Spanish for another Zoom recording. There was a deep sense of satisfaction to be learning and telling again, if only to a bright green dot above a laptop screen. Starting with Pentecost, Tom and I began telling scripture for Sunday worship to a handful of worship leaders, empty pews, and a camera in the balcony at McKinley for YouTube and Facebook Live.
As faith communities began to move mission and ministry online, so did GoTell. In May, Tom and I recorded a telling with Q & A commentary on the upcoming Gospel in the lectionary. We really didn’t think about how long we would continue; once was a great victory! We received enough feedback that we did it the next week, and the next, and the next. Until we felt some commitment to continue, at least as long as Tom was willing to learn a new story each week and a percentage of persons were clicking on a link in the Constant Contact email we sent out.
So we are still at it. Here is the “Monday Meditation” on Matthew 16:21-28 which is the lectionary Gospel for Sunday, August 30.
Tell the Story,
Amelia
