I've had a great week at the National Youth Worker's Convention in LA! Even though I've been fighting a nasty cold, it has been a really encouraging week. I've had so many meaningful conversations with youth workers who are hungry to help students find them selves in God's Story. You can access the session handout here at the bottom of my list or articles (login required):
I recently met a youth leader named Jeremy at a workshop I was leading in Ohio. I was really encouraged to hear how he has been using Bible Storying in his context. Here is an excerpt from an email he sent me last week. BE ENCOURAGED!!
"I just wanted to take a moment and let you know of the impact storying has had on my life and also the ministry I am leading. I went to a workshop back in the spring where Mike you lead a group of us youth leaders in the storying journey in Greenville, Ohio. I had just finished reading the book and was excited to learn from the "pro" on how to make the Bible come alive and eager to learn more about this way of doing ministry. After taking the next couple of months researching, praying, thinking, and reading about storying I decided this was something our youth ministry would do come fall. This would give me enough time to prepare things in advance and also give me a time to "test run" things at a week of camp I was going to be leading.
For the week of camp we did storying 13 times to cover major stories from Genesis through Revelation. Each time it was amazing as students were focused and engaged for our whole time together. Sometimes we would go for about 90 minutes as the discussion was rich and the implications for our lives just kept pouring out with each new story. It was also neat to see how they could make the connections from one story to the next so easily. We also drew our own symbols and images of each story which made things come to life some more. Each day the students were excited about what the next story would be and how it would connect with the others. One student said after camp "For the first time the old boring Bible stories came to life and I experience God in a new way. I now see how interesting each story is and how they are connected with each other." Truly a testimony to the power of storying in a group. One of my students who typically does not follow very well loved the experience so much she can't wait for us to start it in our youth group. In fact, she is disappointed we are starting things right away. Never in my 9 years of ministry has this happened, when a student was eager to start our teaching times."
– Jeremy, Youth Leader from Hamilton, OH
I love to work with volunteer teams! I still have availability to come and lead a workshop for your church, ministry or network. If you are interested, click HERE for details.
In addition to working on the programing for the DCLA events, I wrote scripts for three videos. The videos were produced by my partners at Imago, and they did a great job in a time crunch (they had less than three weeks start to finish for the videos!)
Throughout the event Scott Erickson painted murals that represent key elements of the stories. The picture in this post is represents God’s kingdom. I love the style of his work.
DCLA day three began with Learning Labs focusing on loving others. Several youth workers shared with me that their students were really connecting with the content from the Labs. I led Bible Storying workshop in afternoon. I worked hard to try and fit my content into 75 minutes! This was a smaller group than Friday’s workshop-10 people. I was thrilled with this size group because it allowed for more dialogue and interaction. The group really engaged in the Storying experience, sharing creative, deep and wonderfully insightful observations. I left this session so encouraged!
The evening focused on stories from Jesus life. Mandee Radford (from the music group Alathea) shared powerfully about God’s Kingdom. She said, “Jesus flipped everything around, The kingdom of God is less like a palace or a castle but more like a group of people sharing what they have...having a meal together on a hill.” She went on to connect this with the feeding of the five thousand. Then, Marquis Laughlin gave a riveting telling of the story of Jesus’ trial and death.
Day Four was a shorter day. Following the morning Labs was the final Big Room Session. My favorite moment of this session was when Mandee pointed to the thread of the Holy Spirit being present and active throughout the biblical story. She did a wonderful job of connecting us from the current story of the Day of Pentecost all the way back to God’s Spirit hovering over the waters in Creation. Then she gave the observation that God’s Spirit often rests on those who you’d least expect... like humble shepherds. She pointed to shepherds throughout the Bible–and the most important shepherd, Jesus the good shepherd.
I really enjoyed being a part of DCLA. I am greatful that Youth Specialties allowed me to have a voice in this event and was willing to try something new. My hope is that students gained a sense of their role in of the amazing Story of God.
Day Two of Youth Specialties’ DCLA Event in Los Angeles began with Learning Labs. These were clusters of seven students, split up from their youth group to discuss and interact around content guided by media and booklets. Adult leaders formed their own groups around the same content. Student leaders helped keep the conversation moving, with some content given by presenters.I like this model of learning, and it was evident from the first session that students do too. They seemed engaged for the entirety of the time and were candid in their responses. Session one focused on BEING, with discussion and activities centered on discovering our identity in Christ. Steve Gerali did a really good job developing this material.
I taught a workshop on Bible Storying in the afternoon. It is always a struggle for me to compress my presentation into an hour. The hardest part is trying to shorten the story of my experience. It sets up the problem and casts vision, but it is too long! Thankfully, the group of about 50 people seemed engaged. It took lots of energy to keep them engaged right after lunch-and in a gigantic room that swallowed up the sound of my voice. All in all, I feel blessed to be able to share with people my journey and inspire them toward involving their students in their own learning.
The evening Big Room (Whole Group) opened with an interviews-style video recap of the day. Students shared how the Labs had shaped their thinking about God and themselves. It was powerful. The Big Room session continued with a focus on telling God’s Story. It picked up the story of the Israelites, navigating through a large span of narratives from different communicators and video clips.
The level of artistry and variety was engaging. It was a little challenging, however, to gain a sense of the story as a whole. It seems like the event really needs a continual visual device to show the interconnectivity of the stories.
Lots of good “mini-messages” were given. Two stood out to me: Francis Chan unpacked the story of Jonah, giving detail about the context and emotion of the story I’d never thought about. Mandee continued to do a solid job of telling Bible stories and interweaving her own journey through related stories. She is good at making the stories clear and accessible for all.
Day one of DLCA was a lot of fun. During the day, in between rehearsals, I got to walk around a bit in downtown LA. The weather was great-high sixties with low humidity. Lots of good restaurants, too!
The first Big Room session focused on the Old Testament stories of Creation through Joshua and Rahab. A variety of communicators, storytellers and media weaver together these stories. All that were a part of this session are excellent communicators, but I especially through Marquis and Mandee brought the story into out imaginations.
At certain points the program drifted from feeling like a story to a sermon. I could sense the group get a little restless during the 2.5 hour presentation. But I think the variety of elements and mediums kept things moving pretty well. We could have made the program much more interactive and visual, but that is a difficult task in a big group!
I am grateful that it some way and my work with storying and input into this event has helped shape it. I will try to post again tonight.
I am thrilled to be in Los Angeles this week for DCLA. Youth Specialties is hosting this national student event to help students "live into the mission of God." The main sessions (Big Room) will focus on telling God's Story from beginning to end, following a missional (Kingdom) thread. I've been privileged to be a part of the planning and designing of this event for the last year. I also wrote scripts for videos that IMAGO put together that tell three of the Old Testament stories.
I will be posting updates from the event all weekend.
In an article written for Best Health, Ellen Michaud and Julie Bain gives you more than enough reasons to kick off your shoes and rest your head on your keyboard. Here is an excerpt from that article:
Studies show that not only will you feel better almost immediately, says Sara Mednick, PhD, a sleep medicine researcher at the University of California at San Diego and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life, but a daily nap of between 20 and 90 minutes before 4:00 pm will...
All told, a nap, according to Dr. Mednick, will:
Increase your on-the-job alertness by 100 percent
Sharpen your thinking so you make more accurate judgments and better decisions
Ramp up your productivity
Regenerate skin cells so you look younger
Increase your sex drive
Help you lose weight by altering metabolism and shifting chemicals that affect appetite
Reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular problems
Lift your mood by bathing your brain in the neurotransmitter serotonin
Speed up your ability to perform motor tasks, like typing, operating machinery, even swimming
Improve your accuracy—in everything
Improve the way your body processes carbs, which reduces your risk of diabetes
Sharpen your senses so you take in what's important in your environment—and screen out the 24-hour culture chatter that surrounds us
Put your brain into its creative gear so you can come up with fresh ideas
Trigger a naturally occurring hormone that blocks the destructive chemicals produced by stress
Boost your ability to learn something new—and, better yet, remember it
Zap the need for drugs like caffeine and alcohol to manipulate your mood and energy level
Relieve migraines
Improve your nighttime sleep by eliminating that wired feeling and thus shutting off the brain chatter
On Monday, June 1 my daughter was born: Abrielle Emma Novelli, 7 pounds, 1 ounce, 20 inches long. She is healthy and beautiful.
I am blessed to have two wonderful children and a great wife. Here is a picture of my son, Angelo and his new baby sister.
My friends over at Imago posted this a few days ago:
What does it mean to be literate? Most of us would define it as the ability to read and write. But what if literacy means much more? And when we talk about helping people become literate in things like the Bible, what does that mean? The Grown Up Digital blog reports on the Ontario Public School Board’s recent discussion paper suggesting literacy is about a full range of abilities to listen, understand and communicate in the most common media of a particular culture:
If literacy is the ability of the individual to articulate ideas in the main medium of society, how relevant are our current approaches? Paper and pen still have their place but there are other powerful tools for literacy that are more relevant to the world in which students live and learn.
I can only imagine the ways this kind of thinking is messing with educators’ heads. Is the textbook a think the past? Is it most important that student articulate themselves through writing? What if they can best express what their learning through creation of other media?
And what about the church? If the definition of literacy is changing, does the emphasis we put on the printed Bible need to change as well? Should we be encouraging students to read their Bibles, or engage it in other ways?
I just updated my listing of upcoming workshops for the Summer and Fall. I am looking for more opportunities to serve local ministries that are wanting to implement Bible Storying. Though it may seem easy at first, Bible Storying is hard to lead! To be effect you must guide people toward a new way of learning. Storying has a unique rhythm that takes skill and a new perspective. I LOVE helping local church volunteers and staff explore how to lead this process effectivity. I led twenty workshops just this past year! Please consider having me come for a visit and lead a workshop for your team of 6 or more.
A few years ago I stumbled upon a great little book called, Asking Great Questions by Karen Lee Thorpe. I have included a portion from that book that I adapted for Shaped by the Story. You can also download this as a PDF by clicking HERE.
Here is the excerpt from my book:
Keep the Conversation Going
Questions and curiosity drive learning. Once learners believe they have all the answers, they stop asking questions, and then they soon stop learning. Become an expert at redirecting questions back to the group…sparking further conversation and wondering. This will create an environment where deep learning can more readily take place. Don’t be content with just one answer; ask what others in the group are thinking until several people have had the opportunity to answer.
Here are some ways you can keep the conversation going, adapted from Karen Lee-Thorp’s How to Ask Great Questions*:
• Clarifying—Can you tell me a • Clarifying—Can you tell me a little bit more?
• Question—Where have we seen this happen before?
• Follow-Up—Why do you think that is?
• Bouncing—That’s a great question. Does anyone in the group have any thoughts on that?
• Brainstorming—Let’s see how many ideas our group can come up with…
• Sharing—I also noticed the connection between…
• Answering—In the story the character said…
• Bringing New Observations—One thing no one mentioned was…
• Identifying Themes—What did we see in this story that we also saw in previous ones?
• Summarizing—So what was one thing that stood out to you from the story?
• Prompting—Who would like to share what they journaled about?
• Restating—So what you’re saying is…
• Connecting—What you’re saying is connected to what Tom said…
• Feedback—How are you feeling about this process so far? What’s helpful? What’s challenging?
• Refocusing—That’s a really interesting thought, but let’s get back to the question I asked…
• Identifying—How do you think we’re like the people in the story? Unlike them?
• Applying—How does this story challenge you personally?
Thanks to Mauri for reminding me of this great little book!
* Karen Lee-Thorp, How to Ask Great Questions: Guide Your Group to Discovery With These Proven Techniques (Colorado Springs, Col.: NavPress, 1998).
I posted this video before, but I though it was really fitting for Earth Day today. We have been given the great responsibility and privilege to care for this wonderful planet. This is part of God's design for our lives and this great place. I love the whole world!
