This is the final post in a series on the power of story that can be found here.

There is one more part to the story idea that we want to consider: the art of Biblical story telling.  I was first exposed to this concept by Jim Putman in his terrific book Real Life Discipleship.  (If you don’t have that book and the accompanying training manual I highly recommend that you pick it up.) He uses the ideas pioneered by Avery Willis about sharing the Bible in oral cultures.

What the two men discovered together was that simply sharing Bible stories in a small group setting achieved the following:

• helps people learn the Bible,
• makes it easier to recruit small group leaders,
• facilitates real learning,
• equips members for ministry,
• empowers parents to disciple their kids,
• helps small group leaders understand the spiritual needs of those they are discipling,
• keeps small groups from becoming boring, and
• encourages transparency and real relationships

In other words, discipleship.  How does it work?  You simply read a Bible story a few times and get the main idea of it so that you can retell it as a story.  Then, when the group is gathered, you open your Bible and you lay it on your lap and you just tell the story.  After the story has been told, you have the group retell the story, making any corrections or inserting anything the original story teller might have left out.  Next the group is engaged in some simple discussion questions about the story they have just shared.

This method can be used in any type of small group, even in a discipleship triad.  Consider trying it out in your own Bible study or discipleship group.  It’s also a great way to introduce non-believers to scripture in a natural and non-threatening way. 

For more information on Biblical orality:

Avery Willis’ web site: http://averywillis.org/orality.aspx

You can watch a complete Bible storying session (in 3 parts) on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/6150232

Tomorrow R3ally.org will feature a post from Mission Frontiers with more information about the partnership between Real Life Ministries and Avery Willis.

Story series by Michael Smith

Community Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church of NW Arkansas

www.twitter.com/mismith330

Part 5?  Yes!  The other four parts are here.

Hopefully you want to tell your story … not because you think you are so interesting, but because your story is about Jesus and what he has done for you. 

So you get your chance … you are sitting at the coffee house.  Your friend is sitting across from you.  You’ve asked some good questions, like “Did you grow up around here?  What did your family do for fun when you were a kid?  Did your family have any faith tradition that you embraced?” And they have opened up.  They have told you about growing up with parents of different faiths and how that left them confused.  They mentioned the college years that they wish they could do over.  They have told you about how they believe all religions are basically the same and that they are spiritual without being religious.  Now it’s your turn.

What in the world do you say next?

If you felt a sinking feeling in your stomach as you imagined that moment, you are not alone.  Most of us fear that moment when we get exactly what we have been praying for: an opportunity to share!  Here are some simple tips to make it easy to share your story when the moment is right:

• Say a quick prayer, Nehemiah style (Nehemiah 2:4-5)
• Use the Acts 26 model (My life before Christ, how I met Christ, my life since I met Christ)
• Weave the gospel into the story (1 Cor 15:3-11)
• Avoid using Christian jargon like “saved”, “sanctified”, etc.
• Remember to smile: what you are sharing really is GOOD NEWS!

Douglas Cecil, in his book Seven Principles of an Evangelistic Life, gives us the ABC’s of sharing our faith:

• Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you speak
• Be brief
• Center on Christ

Relax, people want to hear your story.  And you never know, God might use to change someone’s life!

For more on sharing your story, see our free resource entitled Sharing Your Story: Your Most Valuable Tool for Sharing Christ.

By Michael Smith

Community Pastor

Fellowship Bible Church of NWA

mismith@fellowshipnwa.org

Try these opening lines on for size:

• When I was in high school I was always worried about what people thought of me.
• I was in an abusive relationship, but I was so lonely that I was afraid to leave.
• My family life was a mess, but I wanted people to think that we had our act together, so I always pretended everything was OK.
• I used to look for happiness in the wrong places… alcohol, relationships, entertainment … but nothing ever really satisfied me.

Each one of those makes you want to know what happened next, don’t they?  That’s because we love STORIES.  And each one of those stories openers above sets up for the next part of the story: “But then I met Jesus.”

How about this one, “In the beginning, God created everything”?  That’s a great opening line, huh?  I want to know what happened next!  Try this opener: “I was serving God in all the wrong ways.  I was so zealous for God that I was having people locked up and even killed if they didn’t believe what I believed!”  That one will get you listening.  And that’s pretty much how Paul begins sharing his life’s story with King Agrippa in Acts 26:9-10.  And King Agrippa is hooked!  As a matter of fact, after hearing Paul’s story Agrippa says “Keep this up much longer and you’ll make a Christian out of me!” (Acts 26:28 MSG).

What is really interesting about Acts 26 is that Paul gives us a great model for how we can share our own Christ-story.  It breaks into three simple and easy to remember segments:

• Acts 26:4-11 –Paul’s life before he trusted Christ
• Acts 26:12-19 –How Paul came to trust Christ
• Acts 26:20-23 –How Paul’s life changed after trusting Christ

Read Acts 26 a few times this week.  Take a moment to write out your story using this simple formula and answering three questions:

• What was my life like before I trusted Christ?
• How did I come to Jesus?
• What has my life been like since I trusted Christ?

Next week we will look as some “do’s and don’ts” of sharing your Christ-story.

By Michael Smith

Community Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church of NWA

mismith@fellowshipnwa.org

Way back in 2011 (remember 2011? That was a simpler time.) we began a series of posts on the concept of STORY.  From the beginning, people have loved stories.  Oral traditions gave way to literature which evolved into all kinds of media dedicated to the simple idea of telling a story.

And you have a story.  And most of you just thought to yourself “My story is boring.”  Well, if you are a follower of Jesus and you think your story is boring, then I guess you think that the fact that you used to be dead and now you are alive is boring.  That’s what Paul tells the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 2:1-10.  You were dead and now you are alive.  Not “you were sick and now you are well.”  That might make a decent story, but not as good as “I was dead but now I am alive.” 

At some point in our church experience our story became our “testimony.”  Now there’s nothing wrong with the word testimony.  As a matter of fact the dictionary says a testimony is “an open declaration or profession, as of faith.”  R3Ally.org is the LAST place you will see anyone criticized for openly declaring their faith.  But what happened was “your testimony” became something it was never supposed to be:  BORING.

Your story is not about how much fun you used to have sinning and how now you don’t do that stuff anymore.  Your story is that you were DEAD and now you are ALIVE.  That you were HOPELESS and now your life is defined by your HOPE.  Your story is that you are a part of the most exciting, most revolutionary, most important thing that has ever happened in the history of mankind.  And that story is exciting. 

Next week we will look at how you can tell your exciting story effectively.

by Michael Smith

Community Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church NW Arkansas

mismith@fellowshipnwa.org

The man walked out of the cool shade of the stone building and into the heat of the day.  He felt the perspiration on his face almost immediately.  As he raised his hand to shield his eyes from the mid-day sun, he could see the faces of the people in the streets.  What he saw saddened him.  He felt his heart go out to them.  They looked tired and dispirited.  “They look,” he thought to himself, “like sheep without a shepherd.”  He turned to the men that travelled those dusty streets with him and began to speak.

Do you want to know what he said?  Do you want to know who the man was and what happened to the tired and dispirited people that he saw?  Do you want to know the rest of the story?

Last week we talked about stories.  As you have probably already surmised, the opening paragraph was an imagined recreation of Matthew 9:35-36.  Instead of quoting the verses, it was presented as a story.  There is power in sharing a story with someone.  There is even more power in sharing God’s story.  That’s what the Bible is: God’s story, recorded by His people, and preserved for us to know things about Him that we couldn’t otherwise know. 

Eugene Peterson, the author of the popular paraphrase of the Bible, The Message, wrote this about the power of biblical stories:

“Stories are the most prominent biblical way of helping us see ourselves in ‘the God story,’ which always gets around to the story of God making and saving us. Stories, in contrast to abstract statements of truth, tease us into becoming participants in what is being said. We find ourselves involved in the action. We may start as spectators or critics, but if the story is good (and the biblical stories are very good!), we find ourselves no longer just listening to but inhabiting the story.”

(from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:

A Conversation in Spiritual Theology)

As you meet with your man or your woman this week, bring with you a story.  God’s story.  Tell them a story about something Jesus did or said.  Then get them to engage you on it.  Maybe Luke 15:11-32 or Matthew 13:1-9 would be a good place to start.  Then send us a note or post a comment below and tell us about the experience.  We want to hear your story.

Next week: Sharing Your Story.

By Michael Smith

Community Pastor

Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas

People love stories.  We love to tell them; we love to hear them.  Even when we know how the story goes we love to hear it told again.  What do you do when you gather with your old friends you haven’t seen in years?  You swap stories.  Many of your stories probably begin with “Tell the one where… “  Everyone knows the story, but to retell it, correct it, argue over the details, laugh about it… there is a joy in a shared narrative that brings people together in community.

I have been thinking a lot about the Bible as story.  I know this is not a new concept, but sometimes the Lord just keeps bringing the same thing across your path over and over and you have to stop and consider why He is doing that.  In my discipleship group we are discussing the concept of biblical storying and how we can use story telling to grow spiritually.  A local ministry to men brought in author Cliff Graham to talk to us about The Day of War. He told the group that the Bible is actually a story written by God about himself so that we can learn about Him.  While that was all swirling in my head, I hosted a training for our Small Groups Coaches in my home.  The topic?  You guessed it: sharing your story.  So I started to ask the Lord what He was wanting me to see about the concept of story.

I am still processing the idea.  If you have thoughts I would love to hear from you in the comments below or via email.  Over the next few weeks we are going to consider the story and how it affects discipleship from two angles: God’s story, and our story.  Where those two stories intersect is what we need to share with people.

Next week: Using God’s story in discipleship.

by Michael Smith

Community Pastor

Fellowship Bible Church of NWA

tweet him up @mismith330