Biblical Storytelling Workshop

Philosophy What is Biblical Storytelling? Biblical Storytelling is about connecting with the stories in the Bible, internalising the stories, and then telling the stories to others in a way that helps them connect with the stories too.

Biblical Storytelling is not dramatising the Bible.... The Bible is already full of drama!

Biblical Storytelling is not about bringing the Bible to life... The Bible is already full of life!

Biblical Storytelling is not about changing the Bible.... it is about letting the Bible change you!

Biblical storytelling is about opening your eyes to see the drama and life that is already there!

Connecting with the story In pairs or threes, each of you should read out your Mark snippet to each other. Was that exciting or emotionally moving? When was the last time you laughed or cried or got angry or rejoiced because of a Bible story? Do you even think of Bible stories as containing all that much emotion? Sometimes reading the Bible can be dull because we feel detached in time and experience from the original story. Think about the Bible story you read before. Maybe it wasn’t much of an exciting experience to read the first time, but do you think it would have been an exciting experience to be right there all those years ago and see it actually happen? Don't think of your story as happening many centuries ago. Think of it as if it happened just ten minutes ago. Imagine you have just come from seeing the event take place with your own eyes. It may even help to think of yourself as one of the people in your story. Now tell your story to your partner again, this time imagining you were there to see it happen. How was that experience of reading the story any different to when you read it the first time? Write down or share with each other the things that impacted you about your story.

Process Storytelling is about the process of turning a Bible story into your own story. After you've done that, it will be natural to share this story with others. This process of internalising a story can be though of as the trunk that connects Philosophy of storytelling (the roots) to the Presentation (the leaves).

1. Make sure it’s easy to read Re–write your story from the Bible in a way that makes it easy to read and write notes around. This is already done for you with the section of Mark that we've given you. Take note of how the new lines start at natural breaks in sentences and that lines are indented to make it easy for you to read. 2. Find Characters Highlight, in different colours, when each character is mentioned. Learn as much about these characters as possible. Try to connect with them as much as you can. 3. Find Locations List the locations mentioned in your story. These could be actual place names or just where different characters and things are in relation to each other. Find a space on your own and 'walk' through your story, saying your story out loud. 4. Find Emotions Go through your story line by line and write down the emotion or mood it evokes. This could be stated explicitly in the text or it may be implied. 5. Find Key words or phrases Underline important words or phrases. These are lines which are important because they either are necessary to follow the plot, characters or setting, or they get across the main point of that part of the story. Your audience will only remember a small amount of what they hear; make sure the words they do remember are the important ones! Read out your story again keeping in mind the emotional journey and the key words and phrases. 6. Break it up Draw a line at natural breaks or 'scenes'. Give each of these 'scenes' a title. Tell your story to someone in your own words, using the scene titles.

7. Understand it in context Each story has been written by an author with a purpose. Each story contributes to the particular book it's in and also to the story of the Bible as a whole. To tell a story, we need to understand what its 'Big Idea' is. Read the story in its context. Why did the author include this story? Why has it been placed here? Work out how the 'Big Idea' of this passage impacts your life and come up with points to thank and pray to God about from the passage. Now continue internalising the story. It's very difficult to tell a story physically with a script, you have to get the story inside you. However, storytellers never talk about 'memorising' their stories, they speak of 'internalising'. The difference is that you can memorise a passage without engaging with it. By 'internalising', the story becomes our own story so when we tell it, it's just like a story about our own lives. By following the process outlined above, you will already be most of the way there.

Presentation In order to serve our hearers, we can tell the story with our whole body in order to convey the meaning and the drama of it. We want our hearers to capture all the emotion and movement that’s already there in the story. So, take your cue from the story. If a character is angry – maybe say their lines in an angry way. If someone is kneeling in the story – kneel as part of your storytelling.

Our job is to help our hearers follow, understand, connect and enjoy our story. The golden rule for presenting your story is that:

If you see it – they too see it. If you don’t see it – they won’t see it

However we add physical elements to a story, the most important thing is that we visualise it happening ourselves, because then and only then will the audience be able to visualise it as well. We must create a world in our minds as we explain how the story unfolds.

Suggestions on how to physically tell your story.

1. Reacting Be an emotional guide to your audience by reacting to what you are seeing.

2. Gesturing Point or gesture to things in the scene as you talk about them.

3. Miming Interact with things or characters to give them a tangible reality.

4. Acting Out Demonstrate the events or actions that you are talking about.

5. Characterisation Use a different tone of voice/accent or different stance to distinguish different characters.

6. Interacting with the Audience One essential difference between storytelling and acting is that you're allowed to believe that the audience is there. This means you must have eye–contact with them and you can even use them to help tell your story.

Contact Us We hope you found this workshop helpful. If you have further questions, please contact us. Also, you can check out the website for resources.

Robert and Simone Turnbull

rob@theBackyardBard.com www.theBackyardBard.com