Do you feel a blockage at times when it comes to communicating with your audience? Are you asking questions such as 'How can I possibly get them to see that this is the most important life and death message they can ever hear?' or 'How do I get through to this sea of deadpan and disinterested faces?' People are looking at you with too much suspicion and you want to get them past that to hear your message - the Story of God?

An article from the Storytelling Center by author and business consultant Annette Simmons entitled The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell offers some very helpful tips in helping us cross the "disinterest (or cynicism) barrier".

Check that article out here.

The legends of St Patrick are many. And, due to the fascination the Irish have had for oral tradition (and a good "yarn" - story) over the centuries, stories about his life are many and sometimes a little 'stretched' in the imagination.

One of the stories is of his using a shamrock as an oral medium to speak about God to a resistant chieftain. Holding the plant aloft he asked the chief how many leaves there were. The man said "Three". Patrick then asked how many seeds it took to make it. "One", was the reply. Using the humble shamrock, now Ireland's national emblem, he proceeded to explain all about the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hearing him the chieftain then said he could henceforth preach to anyone who would listen to him!

You can read some more about the story of Patrick here. Googling his name though will no doubt bring up many other stories and interpretations of the Irish patron saint!

The latest edition of Momentum, edited by my friend Justin Long, has just been released for download and is a great and attractive read.

The content of this edition is focused on orality. There are some great articles, including how the advance of the Gospel cannot wait for literacy (by Grant Lovejoy), the case for longer-term use of storying (by Roy Sloane), orality and translation (by Janet Stahl) and other tremendous articles by leading thinkers and missiologists of today. Also included is a FAQ on storying (by Karl J Franklin).

Click here to send an email and sign up for a notification (every two months) about when each edition is ready for download.

Check out Justin's site and some of the other cool resources on offer there (see side panel on left).

According to biographer A.N. Wilson, when he lost a public debate with a Cambridge philosopher, and he became both depressed and challenged, "the seeds of the first Narnia story were dawning in his mind. Lewis never attempted to write another work of Christian apologetics after Miracles".

Read the rest of this post to consider the use of stories and other forms of oral communication in our evangelism.

Another quote from the piece: "... stories ... answer the eternal questions: What is the world really like? How am I to live my life in it? How can I truly be myself?".