Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but…
Yesterday, I stood in front of a group of highly distracted, slightly moody pre-teens in afterschool care and well, what can I say…it was a bit rough. Each time I valiantly tried to sprinkle in elements of the Bible lesson I was supposed to cover, some clique of the group would careen out of control in a fit of ornery giggles and mischief.
Everything was a bit chaotic and a whole lot of frustrating until I stopped trying to teach them and just (gasp!) told them a story.
Running out of options and at the point of not caring who was listening, I quietly started narrating the story of the Widow’s Offering found in Mark 12 just to get the lesson done. I didn’t go all out, but added a few descriptive details here and there when BAM!, the raucous crowd from only moments before fell deathly silent. The change was so significant, it startled me as I continued blending and accentuating the details of the biblical account. This went on for about 5 minutes until I brought the story to a close and literally, you could hear a pin drop. Pretty cool, right?
As teachers, we (ahem…I) tend to complicate discipleship and evangelism in the name of trying to accomplish some book-laden agenda or cramming in a few bullet points…we tend to over-deliver obtuse theological nuggets disguised in some clever word alliteration and needlessly harp on the biblical mechanics of morality as we teach. Why? We want so badly for our audience to learn the lesson! Nothing wrong with that. Problem is…we lose many listeners in the midst of our esoteric biblical pontifications or our disjointed, staccato attempts to give only the “meat” of a lesson without sharing the salad and sauce that makes the meat so good.
Relax…tell a story and watch as your audience drinks every detail into their piqued imagination, visualizing the words they hear AND its accompanying message.
That’s how Jesus did it in His ministry and I’m thinking He’s a good Example to follow as we too strive to make God famous. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Happy storytelling!
Landon <><
Photo Credit: Kane Reinholdtsen via unsplash.com
