Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Report from Kenya
The God's Story Project leaders in the Buddhist World and E. Africa have been busy. They had a stellar first training event in Nairobi last month. If you caught Podcast #40, and Bryan's interview with Dorothy Miller, about the Timothy Church Planter Training launch planned for last month, you will have heard about this historic equipping session. A report has been recently published on The God's Story Project website. Check out what happened when Masaai and Komba pastors gathered to learn how to simply tell the story ...
Monday, February 19, 2007
Making it stick
Our motto or slogan in story4all is: truth that sticks. We have a reason for this as explained before. We believe that storying the truth, the Word of God, the Bible, is the way to enable people, not only to more deeply grasp the truth, but also to retain it best.
A link to a recent article published in the US News came my way a short while ago, and I thought I would share this valuable read with you. Although the use of stories is mentioned in the last section of the article, I find it interesting that throughout the rest of the piece stories are actually predominant in 'making it stick' methodology suggested by the authors, the brothers Heath.
Have a read for yourself:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/070121/29eestickiness.htm
Got any comments? Write them here for others to read also, or start a new thread in our forum. Let us know what you think. Got any personal stories about how a story made something stick for you? Share them with us!
A link to a recent article published in the US News came my way a short while ago, and I thought I would share this valuable read with you. Although the use of stories is mentioned in the last section of the article, I find it interesting that throughout the rest of the piece stories are actually predominant in 'making it stick' methodology suggested by the authors, the brothers Heath.
Have a read for yourself:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/070121/29eestickiness.htm
Got any comments? Write them here for others to read also, or start a new thread in our forum. Let us know what you think. Got any personal stories about how a story made something stick for you? Share them with us!
Friday, February 16, 2007
They went and changed it!
The folks at Back to the Bible went and changed the format of the daily chronological Bible reading guide, which was recommended on this blog a while back!
Overall the site layout is a great improvement, but if you don't like the wee "flash" window that replaces the old adjust-to-any-size window that was there before, check out this link, which should bring you to a more readable format.
And ... you have an option to listen to the reading for the day if you want to take a break from reading one day!
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Bible Experience video
Click here to check out a moving video about The Bible Experience project.
More details on the project here
More details on the project here
Grabbing and Inspiring a generation raised on MP3 players
"God's entourage" is an interesting article from the L.A. Times on how some African American Hollywood stars are making their private faith public through oral means. The name of the project: The Bible Experience! Read that article here
Important contact detail change!
Please note that our USA telephone number has changed. The old one (206-600-4255) has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control. Our new Voice Mail telephone number in the United States is:
206-279-4705
206-279-4705
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Shrinking Western Church?
Leading Christian statistician, George Barna, at a recent gathering of the House Church movement in the USA said that about one million Americans are leaving the traditional church.
What are people looking for now? Could it be there is a weariness with structure and possibly a problem with content?
Regarding this there is a growing concern in the heart of many about the way we 'are' and 'do' church. Increasingly people seem to be searching for simplicity, authenticity and a genuine expression of 'the priesthood of all believers' whereby ordinary believers are discipling and nurturing others. The church models, where the back of heads, or an out of reach stage performance, is what we see for most of our time in church, have become too impersonal for many. People want to interact more with what is going on in church gatherings and be in community with those who gather. They also want better content - stuff that they can recall and apply in their lives. Our bullet point, dull PowerPoint presentations and our three point sermons are forgotten almost directly after delivery.
As we grapple with making church more interactive and community focused, can we also help truth stick in peoples' hearts and minds by learning the art of storytelling with dialogue? Can we bring that into our church gatherings more? Bramuel Musya in Podcast #38 mentions how he led a storying dialogue in a Western church (which had 250 or more people present!!). Check out this link to hear that podcast if you missed it!
See Barna on how House Churches are more Satisfying to Attenders than are Conventional Churches:
click here
What are people looking for now? Could it be there is a weariness with structure and possibly a problem with content?
Regarding this there is a growing concern in the heart of many about the way we 'are' and 'do' church. Increasingly people seem to be searching for simplicity, authenticity and a genuine expression of 'the priesthood of all believers' whereby ordinary believers are discipling and nurturing others. The church models, where the back of heads, or an out of reach stage performance, is what we see for most of our time in church, have become too impersonal for many. People want to interact more with what is going on in church gatherings and be in community with those who gather. They also want better content - stuff that they can recall and apply in their lives. Our bullet point, dull PowerPoint presentations and our three point sermons are forgotten almost directly after delivery.
As we grapple with making church more interactive and community focused, can we also help truth stick in peoples' hearts and minds by learning the art of storytelling with dialogue? Can we bring that into our church gatherings more? Bramuel Musya in Podcast #38 mentions how he led a storying dialogue in a Western church (which had 250 or more people present!!). Check out this link to hear that podcast if you missed it!
See Barna on how House Churches are more Satisfying to Attenders than are Conventional Churches:
click here