2008 Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, Atlanta

Every year the Network of Biblical Storytellers hosts a four-day Festival Gathering of storytelling, lectures, workshops, worship, fellowship, networking and great fun. This international organization was founded by Tom Boomershine and Adam Bartholomew in 1977 and remains a primary focus of for GoTell’s ministry. Its mission is “to help everyone to learn and tell biblical stories.” The Festival Gathering has moved around the country but a favorite location has been Simpsonwood, the United Methodist retreat center just north of Atlanta. We’ve outgrown that location, however, and next year we move to the mountains of North Carolina.

This year at the Festival Gathering we were blessed with participants from three countries in West Africa as well as Australia and Canada. I taught the Novice class the story of Moses and the Burning Bush and they told the story fabulously in the closing worship. I also led a workshop on “The Storykeepers” (I continue to think it’s the best video Christian Ed resource available). Tom participated in the NBS seminar which precedes the Festival Gathering and also led a workshop on Scripture By Heart groups.

We showed our GoTell videos on The Gambia and Scripture By Heart. Cortney spent much of her time audio recording most of the stories for Year C of the lectionary from participants at the Festival Gathering that we had arranged ahead of time. This way you will get to hear a wonderful variety of voices for all those stories from Luke. Here’s a taste of what is to come.

Tracy Radosevic telling Luke 3:7-18

Dennis Dewey telling Luke 2:41-52

Dan LeMonnier telling Luke 16:19-31

Grace and peace,
Amelia