Elmont, New York

From Marcia Bent, about the Scripture by Heart ministry at her church:

I am at St. John’s UMC in Elmont, NY and we have been very successful in providing Scripture by Heart on a regular basis. The ministry was launched in 2006; Rev. Richard Rice has been very helpful in getting us started.

After I came back from The Network of Biblical Storyteller’s Festival Gathering in 2008, I made a commitment to have Biblical Storytelling at every worship service including the 8:00 a.m. service.

I have to say that with God’s help that goal has been realized. We have a strong group of approximately 15 storytellers and we tell the Gospel at both our 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services. Our pastor, Rev. Patrick Perrin, is very supportive of the ministry which is a great help.

In March, Rev. Rice arranged a weekend retreat at Camp Olmstead and we worked on “The Passion from Mark’s Gospel.” Three of us from St. John’s went and at least one of them will be going to the Festival Gathering in August 2009. A group of storytellers told “The Passion According to Mark” at the Tuesday night worship servce during Holy Week.

On Palm Sunday we reenacted the Passion story and we incorporated drama. That was the birth of our drama ministry and it was very well received. We have also incorporated dance with our Storytelling ministry. We did that during the Advent season.

We had Rebecca King for Youth Sunday on March 29th and she shared a biblical story with us during our sermon time. We are also planning to have a ‘Tell-a-round’ perhaps in September.

I am very excited about the Biblical Storytelling ministry at St. John’s!

Contact: Marcia Bent

St John’s United Methodist Church of Elmont
2105 Stuart Avenue
Valley Stream, NY 11580
516-285-6003