story4all

Impacting youth in N America

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Echo the Story is a marvellous site on the web about a great ministry that is impacting today's youth in N America.

On their site they say they "use a process called Storying (short for Chronological Bible Storying) - a sequential telling of Bible stories followed by a time of review and dialogue. Derived from the ancient Hebrew way of learning, Storying was rediscovered a few decades ago by missionaries who are now using this method extensively around the world. Recently, storying is also proving to be effective with youth and adults in our media-literate, story-oriented North American context."

They have a blog too.

Summer break

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:27:00 +0000

story4all will be on summer break from 1st until 13th August. However, God willing, podcasts will be released on time as normal during the break.

story4all is on twitter

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:31:00 +0000

For those of you involved in the world of Twitter and tweets, please be advised that story4all now has its own twitter site. You can find (and follow) us by going to the following URL:

story4all on twitter

We intend to send out tweets infrequently to update "followers" on details such as podcast releases, new products, interesting storying links, technical updates on the site or with the podcast itself.

[For those of you who have no clue as to what all this twitter and tweeting stuff is all about, read this explanation about it!].

Bread and Bananas - the power of accuracy

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Carla Bowman, of Scriptures in Use, tells a wonderful story here about the importance of accuracy in communicating Bible stories. This article in Momentum magazine's latest edition is a marvellous piece of storytelling in itself. Read how from India to Central America accuracy to the biblical text is vital in passing on the Story of God.

The Story we haven't heard

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:20:00 +0000

Frank Viola has written an excellent article on his website entitled "The Story we haven't heard".

It covers a number of thoughts centred round how "the New Testament in its present form doesn't put the story of the early church together in a way that fills in all the historical gaps", to quote Viola. He says, in our current post-modern era, we need to recapture the chronological story of the New Testament to better understand its message and teaching.

Read that stimulating piece here

Not too late to register for the Orality Conference

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:35:00 +0000

Oral ministry making a difference in Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:52:00 +0000

In a land cited as one of the poorest in the world and where a peace process teeters in the balance, T4 Global, by means of a small audio player and mobile training schools, uses oral methods to teach and reach a region where 85% of the population cannot read nor write.

Meeting in a hut, under a tree, by a well or in the heart of a village, people gather to learn about HIV/AIDs awareness, as well as the message of the Bible through stories and drama.

Watch this video to see how one Sudanese church leader believes this ministry is transforming Southern Sudan!

Avery Willis meets YWAM about Orality

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:06:00 +0000

Just released this week ... YWAM's Globalcast vodcast ministry have produced a video interview with Avery Willis on "Orality & Bible Storying".

The particular episode can be viewed online here.

Subscribe to YWAM's Globalcast vodcast on iTunes here!

Chicago church celebrates with stories

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:07:00 +0000

Do you want to see how storying and other forms of oral communication can impact the life of a local church? Look at this church in Chicago that is celebrating its fifty years of ministry this way:

"It has been proposed and accepted that we become a Biblical Storytelling Church. We will learn the Bible one story at a time so that it will be written on our hearts. We will tell these stories in our worship, to our children and to our community. We have started a new life as God's people."

Now that's what I call grasping storying in church! Way to go Northlake Trinity Presbyterian!!

A word of advice from a pastor

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Recently connected with this blog entry from Pastor Chuck Huckaby.

He stresses not only the importance of storying in every day life but of knowing our Bible stories so we don't unwittingly pressure or intimidate the listener with the preaching pose. It's a good read.

Do you live or work in E Africa?

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:02:00 +0000

Bramuel Musya, director of The God's Story Project in E Africa, has just announced that there is to be an orality conference in Nairobi (Kenya) between 17th and 19th June this year.

If you are one of those involved, or interested, in becoming engaged in the use of cutting edge oral strategies for evangelism, discipleship and church planting, you are invited to attend as exploration is made of what God is doing through Orality movement and what still needs to be done in helping finish the task of reaching our world for Christ.

Promised is a time of learning, networking, and getting exposed to available tools and resources from different producers, and reasoning together on effective means to 'Finish The Task'!

More details cane be found in the Calendar section of our website and by clicking on the event entry there.

As a child grows

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:20:00 +0000

A quote from Sheila Caroll, founder of Living Books Curriculum regarding children and our human development:

Literacy is the ability to read and write; orality is the ability
to speak and listen. All four modes -- reading, writing, speaking,
and listening -- make up human communication. In language
arts instruction, the emphasis is usually on literacy -- reading
and writing. This is unfortunate because orality is an equally
necessary competency. In fact, without it, a child cannot
learn to read or write well. Orality must precede literacy.

The first language skill a child learns is to listen, then to
speak and only much later to read and still later to write. A
very young child is pre-literate and has what is called a
complete primary orality. That is, the child experiences the
world by seeing, touching and hearing. In that time before
formal instruction, the child and parent engage in "baby talk"
that includes rhythms, rhymes, and most of all stories.
Through these oral experiences, the infant or toddler learns
patterns of language. Gradually the child understands the
world through hearing and imitating sounds. In other words,
the meaning of words is associated with the sound.

Having a hard time communicating?

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:59:00 +0000

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.

St Patrick

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:57:00 +0000

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!

Gathering momentum

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:42:00 +0000

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).

What happened when CS Lewis lost a debate

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:45:00 +0000

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?".

Cool OneStory video

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:47:00 +0000

Footage of a OneStory team of intrepid ladies storying in the African bush is up now for viewing on the IMB GoWestAfrica.org site.

If you want to see what a team of OneStory trained people do on the field, click on the flash viewer window below.

These brave young women have made a considerable cross-cultural investment to bring the story of God to some Muslim people in West Africa. It is a stirring and encouraging inside look. Don't miss the chance to be a "fly on the wall" for a few minutes right now!

Training them up!

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:34:00 +0000

As a father, one of the things that has really helped me in 'reaching' and discipling my kids has been the use of stories. Quite often it is through casual conversation. In areas of discipline, instead of launching into a "lecture", I have sometimes paused and brought in a Bible, or spur-of-the-moment, story to get (hopefully) a lasting point across.

This week I came across this cool article on the same theme. It is written by Sheila Carroll, with Living Books Curriculum, which provides a Charlotte Mason curriculum for the 21st Century, proceeds of which support a sister non-profit organisation called Education in a Box, providing "living books" and teacher training to educators in developing nations.

Sheila's brief article will be of encouragement to anyone ministering to, or parents of, children, but also has something for everyone in the whole gamut of orality and literacy.

Storying and church multiplication

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:58:00 +0000

One of the things that impresses me most as a church planter, after many years in a variety of fields and mission contexts, is the power of storying to multiply churches among the unreached. In story4all we not only believe storying is the most effective way of reaching oral peoples, but it is also the most effective way to see congregations multiply!

I was recently reading a story from The God's Story Project in India about how one man, trained in how to tell "interesting, 'pure', Bible stories, nothing added, nothing left out, and how to lead inductive Bible study 'oral style'", had, in nine months, by applying the 2 Timothy 2:2 principle, seen 5 generations of people discipled in Jesus!! From son (the man trained) to great, great, great grandsons. Read the full story here!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:22:00 +0000

A little belated, I know. Apologies for that! We trust all our regular (and first time) visitors are seeing the blessing of Jesus at the opening of this new year of possibilities.

Things have been quiet on the blogging front. We took time off during Christmas with our families and in anticpation of a busy time of moving office location as we came out of the Christmas/New Year break.

Further to the move, hiccoughs with our Internet connection to the new office site have hampered us until now.

God willing we'll have some posts flowing in coming days ...

Living ready

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:06:00 +0000

Some opportunities to minister so quickly pass us by. Being instant in season and out is still the call of our times.

War correspondent Harold Coyle once said the following about modern warfare:

"Humans respond to things we see based upon their shape, colour, posture and activity. A soldier on the battlefield does not have time to read a message being beamed across his field of vision stating 'Enemy, three o'clock'. The cognitive process required to translate that message ... into a coherent thought upon which he can then base his response takes time, time which an infantryman cannot afford. For a system to be worthwhile it has to enhance a soldier's awareness and reduce his response time to threats, not impede it. Therefore all our efforts have been geared to delivering information and images to the soldier in a form that is natural to him and elicits a response that is more instinctive."

Having a repertoire of Bible stories that are instantly accessible no matter the time of day or night, and no matter the gravity of the situation, equips believers to respond effectively to opportunities, challenges and dangers. Let's be immersed in the Word of God to be forearmed with the stories that change lives!

Inspiration for today's post: Stories from Storytellers.

Orlando conference overview

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:34:00 +0000

The last two podcasts were recorded at the recent annual ION (International Orality Network) conference in Florida. If you have not heard those two shows with their highlights from Orlando check out the following two links to hear them now:

Show 83

Show 84

See the story!

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:06:00 +0000

Today I was musing about how I often read my Bible.

Sometimes I am trying to just speed through the passage that is appointed for the morning or whenever. Sometimes I am just reading the day's passage slowly. Often, though, I find myself reading the words or the verses coldly. I am seeing the chapter or the passage I plan to read as just that ... a passage or chapter to read (and hopefully get something out of)!!

One thing I am frequently not doing - I have discovered - is that I am not 'seeing the story'. Reading without entering into the story in that passage or chapter. It is not that it is just familiar to me. It is familiar, but I am not seeing the story!

Lately, as I have been training on storying, I find myself looking more for the stories in Scripture and not just the teaching to be digested. I have begun to form a habit of looking for the story in what I am reading rather than just reading the words. It is quite a different and important approach to grasp as we read the Bible.

Can you relate? Do you understand this? If so, join me in making a commitment to 'see' and engage with the story in future. As a result I am sure our times in the Word will not only be more rich but also more fun!

Still staggered

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:17:00 +0000

I continue to be amazed at all the stories about how stories are influencing and changing people's lives. Especially among the unreached religious blocs of the world.

Here are a sample of stories that came my way recently referring to the long-lasting effect of stories on listeners:

1) Some Indian Muslim women were always fighting like crazy in their village. The story of Cain and Abel was told to them and they were reconciled. A year later they are regularly attending church and about to be baptised.

2) A Muslim family were going to celebrate the feast which recalls the story of Abraham about to sacrifice his son, whom they say was Ishmael. The Bible version of the story (about Isaac) was told to this family and they liked the story very much and wanted to hear more. A year later they're baptised and strong believers in the Lord.

3) A group of three graduating Bible students, who had no heart for the unreached, were convicted upon being told about the Tower of Babel and the need to reach the nations, and, a year later, two of them were successfully bringing the Word of God cross-culturally to a lost tribe.

These and other stories can be read by subscribing to Stories from Storytellers

And signs and wonders accompanied ...

noreply@blogger.com (story4all) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:34:00 +0000

I was reading this story from India (see our Stories page) and was staggered again by the power of the Word of God to heal. Scripture tells us that "faith comes by hearing". One of the results that also comes from Bible storying is faith in the hearts of the hearers.

Many of us have seen the power of the preached word working in the lives of hearers. Here we see a modern day example of what can happen as we tell the stories from the Word of God when faced with human need and the depths of human despair and depression.

God be praised! Let us tell the story with faith that others may believe as God accompanies that Word with signs and wonders!