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The Basics of Chronological Bible Storying

Part Five - The Role of Dialogue by Grant Lovejoy

In the previous articles we emphasised that in the chronological Bible storying method, we tell the Biblical

story without additions, without inserting comments, applications, exhortations, and the like. This is to keep

the Bible story pure, so that those listening have no misunderstandings about what is the Bible and what

are comments, etc.... But if we cannot comment during the story, how do we apply the story to our listeners?

The dialogue session helps us do a number of things, among them, application. It is also designed, in part,

simply to make sure the people have learned and understood the story. So, after weve told the story we

often say something like, So that is the story, close the Bible, mark the end of the story and then move into

dialogue.

The dialogue may begin with questions about basic

elements of the characters. Who does the story say

Saul was? What did he do first? These are simple

questions that bolster peoples confidence -- I can

answer these! In some settings though, we need to

communicate why were doing this as well, because

some may think, You just told the story, and you

obviously know all these things, so why are you asking

us? We need to communicate to them, Were trying

to help you learn the story, so let me ask you some

questions that will help you recall what happened. So

we have these dialogues which, at the basic level, aredesigned to help them be sure they understood the

story. As we listen to their answers, were listening to

see where there could be misunderstandings on their

part. Some may confuse the biblical story with a story

from their culture and get things all jumbled up. So well want, through the dialogue time, to ask questions

that will help them untangle things and have a clear understanding.

During this dialogue time its very common to ask members of the group to retell the story theyve just

heard. In fact, wed like to have several tellings of it because with oral communicators its very important to

have repetition. As each chooses to retell the story, we encourage the group to listen and make sure thatthe person is telling it accurately. This is a very important dynamic in an oral culture because now the group,

as a whole, is taking ownership of the task of keeping the story straight. So its a good thing when they

start correcting each other and say, Oh, no, no. Thats not how the story goes. This is very important in the

absence of a written version to keep it accurate; we need them to take group ownership of this task.

We also want to listen as they talk about and raise their questions to us -- their questions are often very

revealing about their own struggles and the places in their life where they dont want to yield to Gods will

and Gods way. This shows us where to be sensitive and how to talk with them about those issues. They may

even object to features in the story, so we dialogue about that.

The best dialogue session is guidedby the storyer, but certainly not controlledby the storyer.

We try to use questions to lead the group to focus on certain aspects of the story and to contemplate; but

in the storying dialogue, its very important that we let the listeners discover the truths in the story. We want


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them to go away from the story session realising that God has spoken to them by His Spirit through the story.

We want the story and the Spirit to be the teachers while we facilitate and guide. We are not the source of the

teaching; we are not the source of the authority. We hope this will lay a foundation of the Spirit and the Word

as their teachers.

Frankly, those of us who have taught and preached in other ways and other times have one of our greatest

spiritual struggles on this very point. It is intensely satisfying to a preacher to start laying out for people all the

wonderful truths in a story. We may meet our own emotional needs by doing this, but its counterproductive

for their growth and discipleship since we are modelling something they are not able to do. We learned thesethings from our reference books, etc..., and they dont have those. And so as storyers, we have to die to self.

This is a spiritual issue for a great many people who begin storying. I must lay aside my prerogatives and my

desires for how I would rather teach, and instead of laying out great outlines, I choose to invest my energy in

trying to discover the questions that will enable my storying group to be taught by God through the story. In

planning for the dialogue, then, our chief work is anticipating what questions we should ask.

If youre using storying for evangelism, then keep the dialogue session fairly narrow in its focus, at least from

your standpoint. Focus primarily on the issues in the story that relate to evangelism. For a dialogue session

focused more on discipleship, we can have a broader range of questions, but well still focus on aspects of

the story that deal mostly with discipleship issues. If youre beyond initial discipleship and youre into leader

training and advanced leader training, then the dialogue will necessarily become more in-depth. It may bemore far-ranging; it may involve comparing one story with another. The dialogue, in its character and in its

complexity, changes as the primary function changes.

The dialogue session in discipleship can also be a time for accountability. This is the time to ask, How have

you followed up on the actions that grew out of the story in the previous session? And then talk about howto implement this in the coming days. Its also very important in the dialogue session to allow time for the

group to ask questions. Sometimes the storying leader wants to ask all the questions, but this can become

very controlling. Conversely, in evangelism settings particularly, you dont want to get drawn into arguments

and debates -- there is real wisdom in trying to control the questions and not just opening it to any question

anyone in the group wants to ask. But as we move to discipleship and beyond to leadership training and the

like, its important to let the members of the group raise whatever questions about the story they want to

raise.

As were trying to dialogue and answer questions, one of the things that is necessary but difficult is to try

to answer their questions by referring back to the story weve just told or to a previously told story. If we

know our Bibles well, the tendency is to want to jump all around the Bible and quote verses to answer their

question. But, again, thats a skill they will not be able to cultivate if they cant read and write and cant read

all the other verses. So its important that we always try to answer the questions by pointing them back to the

story to discover their own answer or by pointing them to previous stories that theyve heard. Sometimes this

isnt possible, but so far as it is possible, it is good to point them back to the Bible stories they do have. In the


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more advanced sessions you may actually need to tell a new story in order to introduce the material needed to

answer a question.

In some cultures weve found this whole pattern of dialogue is completely foreign. Their expectation of

teaching is that the teacher stands up, gives a monologue and the students sit silently. To ask a question would

be disrespectful and imply that somehow the teacher had taught poorly. In those environments we may have

to work to assure people that this is a pattern that Jesus followed with His disciples. In fact, in discipleship,

you may need to start with a story that shows how Jesus taught, and after He taught, the disciples asked

questions, and He answered, and that seemed to be a good thing! We wont have this issue in every culture,but its found in enough places that we need to be aware of the possibility.

The dialogue gives us a wonderful time to discover -- to be taught by the Spirit. We pray that the Spirit will use

it to draw people forward in their spiritual life, either towards salvation or toward growth as a disciple. So its

a very important time and not to be rushed. It needs to be a time where people can genuinely open up, ask

their questions, and find answers and encouragement.

Heloo Testing 123www.frontiers.org.uk Note: Article taken from IMBwww.imb.org

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