The Amazing Effect of Embodying Scripture
I am a student at Wesley Theological Seminary getting my master’s in theological studies, working towards hospital chaplaincy. One of the courses I took was biblical storytelling. I dreaded it, to tell you the truth. I can’t memorize anything, but it fit my schedule.
Well, it was transformative, I have to say. When you embody, as we’re taught, the scripture, it has an amazing effect on you.
And what I also realized, you know we forget sometimes, this is how the people back in the first and the second centuries-this is how they heard these stories. People didn’t read, they didn’t sit around with a Bible, they had to hear these stories. So to be able to learn how to tell them was really a fascinating journey for me.
Ms. Laura Shay at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, MD 6/19/16
Experiencing the Word of God in Jesus had an amazing effect on a man possessed by a whole legion of demons. Experiencing the Word of God by embodying stories about Jesus had an amazing effect on Laura Shay. Hear her testimony of what she learned in a course on biblical storytelling taught by
Dr. Tracy Radosevic; then enjoy her creative telling of “The Gerasene Demoniac” (Luke 8:26-39).
Click here for the audio link.
“Soul Sisters” Women’s Retreat
by Amelia Boomershine
Last Spring I told a prophecy from Isaiah during worship at a regional meeting of the United Church of Christ. Jan Lehman was so impressed by experiencing the scripture embodied that she contacted me a couple of months later to inquire about having a biblical storytelling approach to a women’s retreat at her church.
We talked about times and spaces, publicity and program. Jan didn’t really know how the women of Hawker would respond and hadn’t arranged an event like this before. I felt confident that a retreat grounded in biblical storytelling workshop processes would be both enjoyable and meaningful, but you never know for sure how people will receive this different thing that is biblical storytelling.
Jan said there hadn’t been a women’s retreat in her church for a long time. She anticipated a small group of four to six. But she greatly underestimated the interest among women at Hawker UCC to gather for a retreat around a biblical story, in this case, the story of Martha and Mary. When the day came (Sept. 18) twenty-four women arrived, including two teenage girls.
Improve Your Storytelling: Video Feedback
The following tip for improving your storytelling is reprinted with permission from “Scholarly Musings” published online by the
Network of Biblical Storytellers. This month’s tip comes to you from biblical storyteller and theologian Phil Ruge-Jones, convener of the NBS Seminar.
One the most painful, but fruitful things I’ve done was to film myself performing, watch it, and ask peers to watch it and give me feedback. I saw for myself habitual gestures that I overused. One peer noted that I use symmetrical gestures too often with the left and right hand doing the exact same thing. Aware of this I practiced with one hand in my back pocket for a while and then later intentionally made my hands do different things.
Phil Ruge-Jones pruge-jones@tlu.edu
“The Story Keepers”
Now available from GoTell
Over the course of 13 half-hour episodes, “The Story Keepers” animated series tells the story of a Christian family in 1st century Rome and the early days of the Church. Each movie includes the telling of biblical stories from the Gospels.
“The Story Keepers” episodes are full of exciting adventure, gentle humor, and searching questions. They also portray the same kind of daily activities and challenges that are common to families of every time.
An accompanying 125-page Teacher Guide includes 14 sessions for teaching one biblical story from each episode. The Guide is co-authored by Tom and Amelia Boomershine of GoTell.
The Story Keepers Complete Kit is now available from GoTell. The kit includes all 13 episodes in English and Spanish on 4 DVDs, plus the Teacher Guide, also in both English and Spanish. The cost is $99.00 plus shipping/handling. To inquire or purchase email Amelia
amelia@gotell.org
