Here is an updated listing of my upcoming workshops. My fall fills up quickly, so if you would like me to come and lead a workshop with your volunteer or staff team, please contact me right away.
I came across this inspiring video about teaching storytelling in the classroom. It is a promo for the book Children Tell Stories by by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss. I do not have this book yet, but the video sold me!
I love that they have children do storymaps right away to “get away from the words” and put themselves in the story through pictures. I have used this story boarding method a lot, and it works well for telling and retelling any story. While I do incorporate creative retelling as a key part in my Storying process, I have been exploring how can I help students to become the storytellers. If the most effective method of learning is teaching something yourself, then involving students more in telling the stories seems to be a vital goal to have.
I would love to hear how you have tried this... I am always in “improvement” mode when it comes to teaching and learning!
I had a great week at Youth Specialties' NYWC in Pittsburgh. The highlight of the week for me was the workshop I got to lead with Mark Novelli (my brother) and Kelly Dolan. My part was focused on Bible Storying, while they brought context to how communication and learning have changed in our culture. I also got to meet with old and new friends. It was so encouraging!
If you were able to attend this workshop, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought!
As promised, here is a link to download the handout from the workshop (requires login): Pittsburgh Workshop
I am so thrilled to launch the new Echo website! We are still tweaking, testing and adding features, but I couldn't wait to post it. Imago Media did a terrific job with the design work, and Floodlight Web Design did the coding. Great job guys!
It is not just a great looking site, but has many added features and videos. The most notable are the IDEAS section, containing a growing list of exercises to help your group experience storying in new and creative ways, and the RESOURCES section, filled with helpful articles and recommendations to help you with storying. Let me know what you think!!
We are in the process of planning a MERGE Student Event for 2009 in the Midwest. More details will be coming early this fall. This event will be hosted in partnership between Echo, Imago Media and some other great youth ministry organizations we’ll announce soon.
Email us if you are interested in attending or helping out!
It’d be nice if the Bible read like a novel from cover to cover. But it’s not a novel. It’s a series of books that have been grouped together—and many of them are out of chronological order.
In technological terminology, a mashup is a Web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. The Bible is like this—a mashup of different writings from different authors inspired to tell the unified Story of God and his love for people.
In a recent talk, author Scot McKnight suggested we look at the Bible as a “Wikistory,” in which there is “ongoing reworking of the biblical story by new authors who each tell the story in their own way.” McKnight continued, “None [of the books of the Bible] is exhaustive, comprehensive or absolute...they are different stories of THE Story. We don’t have to harmonize them or try to reconcile them. They’re just doing their own versions of the Story, and each has a place in the larger picture.”
Let’s face it—the Bible is often difficult to read and to teach. We’ve got our work cut out for us if we wish to give our students a sense of its overarching story. That’s why storying is the best way I’ve found to give people, young and old alike, a Bible overview with context to all future Bible learning.
(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, Shaped by the Story)
Next week (Aug. 16th) I will be leading a storying workshop for Southbrook Church. This will be my first workshop that is primarily with children’s ministry leaders. Since I am not an expert in ministry to children, I invited one – my friend Amy Dolan from LemonLime Kids! I am really excited to be co-leading with Amy. Youth ministry workers and pastors from the area will also be a part of the day-long event. If you are interested in joining us, let me know!
