What Is Biblical Storytelling?

Yesterday I began a brief discussion about one of the leaders of the tour on which I am to embark. While excited about the places I will visit and the experiences yet to be encountered, such as, a renewal of baptism vows at the River Jordan, I am also excited about the opportunity to learn how to tell the stories of Jesus. Dennis says the following:

Biblical Storytelling: Learning scripture by heart - http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/storytelling.php

... biblical storytelling reconnects worshipers with the communal experience of hearing God together. Telling stories from Scripture changes the people who learn them well enough to tell them—and changes worshipers who hear the old, old story anew.

In the same churches that soulfully sing “I Love to Tell the Story,” the Scripture reading (if any) is often delivered without eye contact, emotion, or inflection.

Perhaps reading the Bible in monotone seems more dignified, holy, and respectful. It’s certainly common…and also odd, once you think about it. We know that music is not the ink on the paper yet we treat the Word of God as ink on paper.

But as Dennis Dewey explains, learning Bible stories by heart is a spiritual discipline that connects people with the living Word of God.

Just as learning Bible stories by heart helps Dewey see his story within the context of God’s story, he believes biblical storytelling does the same for worshipers. That’s partly because storytelling requires direct eye-to-eye contact. So, unlike watching a liturgical drama, those in the pews don’t have to pretend that the story is happening in front of them.

He credits Tom Boomershine, founder of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, for helping him remember that the stories that became the Bible “were first experienced and remembered as breath and sound and noise—amusing, compelling, moving stories in which people met God.”

And that’s why Dewey describes biblical storytelling as a “new/old way of experiencing the stories of God” and as “lively adventures in communal imagination.”

I wonder what changes I will encounter, and I wonder how my encounter with the Living Word will ultimately have an impact you, as well.