Simply The Story

Skill I. How to Prepare Your Story

As you go through the processes of Simply the Story, one guideline to follow above all else, is to trust God’s Word. Trust that the stories in the Bible are best told in their entirety as God wrote them. When you tell a Bible story, add no information, leave out nothing and do not preach or explain the story’s contents as you tell it.

Selection of Bible Stories. In some settings, you may be assigned a specific story by a leader. If selecting your own stories, here are several guidelines.

1. When you only have one (or just a few) opportunities to tell Bible stories to a specific group, pick stories with lengths that fit the age of the listeners and the time available. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you to stories that contain the truths the “listeners” need to hear.

2  If you will be having multiple opportunities to tell stories to the same listeners for an extended period of time, it is best to start at the beginning of the Bible. Select and tell stories in chronological order. You can skip some stories if you feel led. When you select your next story to tell, if you decide to pass by some stories, you will probably want to give an introduction to your story to make the connection smooth. Even when you do not skip any Scripture, at times it is wise to prepare listeners for the story you are about to tell by giving a reminder of the previous story you told.

Now that you have selected your story, these are the ways to learn to tell it.

1. Read the Story Through Once.

2. Pray for the ability to understand the story and to tell it accurately and with liveliness.

3. Read Some Scripture that Leads to Your Story. This will help you better understand the story. Reading verses that are in front of your story and ones that follow it allows you to decide if you need to prepare an introduction or “set up” to the story.

1. At the most this introduction should only be a few words or sentences. Introductions are by nature more of a documentary style than a story, so keep them short to hold listener's interest.
2. Use this set up only if it is needed to place the story in a time and situational context. Make sure your introduction is very brief and vital to the understanding of your selected story.
3. Whatever information the story contains, you probably do not have to include that part in your set up. Sometimes no introduction may be needed.
4. In STS we use only information found in the Bible, not extra biblical information or Greek/Hebrew word definitions as that kind of information is only available to a select few. We want to encourage and empower all believers to share Scriptures through stories. People need to be encouraged to utilize and trust the story.
5. The introduction is your selection of Bible information, so after giving your introduction, make it very clear to listeners that your set-up is done, by saying something like, “Now this is the story” or “This is the Bible story.”

4. Read the story 5-10 times out loud, but softly. As you go through, you may want to change some words. Select words for your story that are the ones your listeners use to express themselves. For instance instead of saying “fearful,” you might decide to say “afraid” or “scared.”

5. To help your listeners follow the story as you tell it, use the names of the people in the story and the specific location or name of an object as much as possible instead of saying “it,” “he,” “she” or “they.”

6. Think About the Timing of the Story. (This "timing of the story" and following that “live the story,” are extremely important!)

1. We can read through a Bible story much more quickly than the actual amount of time it took for the story to take place. So to fully understand a story, read through it slowly. 
2. Picture in your mind each scene in the story. From the information given in the story, imagine what each character in the story is feeling and thinking.
3. Also note that even though the stories in the Bible occurred thousands of years ago, the people in the stories were living those events for the first time. Even though we may be familiar with the story we are reading, no one in the story had ever lived that particular incident before, so walk through the events as they must have experienced them.

7. Live the Story. Notice what each character does and says and how each reacts to the other characters in the story.

1. The actions and words of others tell us much if we listen to them. By using these thoughtful observations, a storyteller can most accurately tell the story with the correct feelings.
2. Do remind yourself that all people we read about in the Bible, even the leaders and prophets of God, are just people.
3. Although many obey God and show faith in hard situations, in every instance, each of them had to make that choice to believe and trust.

8. Speak all the Quotes in Your Story. Say all quotes in the story as the people (or characters) would have said them. This gives you, the storyteller, an opportunity to give great life to the story. Hint: If the emotion of the speaker is listed in the story, or is very obvious, then use that emotion. Look for anger, sadness, fear, disappointment etc. Be as dramatic as possible as you say what that character said. Caution: If you cannot be CERTAIN from the story what emotion the speaker is feeling, do NOT speak the words with the emotion that you THINK the speaker had. That would be adding to the story, which in the Bible God warns us never to do!

Deuteronomy 12:32 “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

Matthew 15:9 “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

9.  Select Your Beginning & Ending Statements. This establishes the path of your story, both where you will start and your final destination. Your story may be easy to remember, which means it is one straight path, beginning to end. More likely, your story will have some hard spots, junctions that you will miss unless you make a mental mark on your path.(See mental markings)

10. Tell the Story in Small Sections. Go through the story a verse or a thought at a time out loud, but only loud enough for you to hear yourself speak.Then, glance back at the text to see if you covered ALL of the information. Also make sure that you DID NOT ADD facts not found in the Bible story! (Remember those verses that you just read above about not adding anything to God’s words.) Repeat this step until you think you have learned the story fairly well.

11. Tell the Whole Story Out Loud. Again, tell the story just to yourself. As you go, if you falter or forget parts, don’t worry. Don’t stop. Just keep going. You can add the missed information in a later sentence if it comes back to mind.   This is storytelling, not memorization.

a.       For instance, if the text says “Jesus took Peter, James and John… , but suddenly you forget all three names you could just keep going saying, “Jesus took three disciples...”  Then, as you continue telling the story, if you remember their names, instead of saying “they” you just say, “Peter James and John…” Notice that the story stayed true.  (Next time you tell the story, you will probably remember the names when they first appear in the story!)

12.        Mental Markers. If you complete this first full-trial practice of the story and names or any other definite parts of the story were missed, now is the time to use some mental markers on the road map of your story.

a.          For words, names or details in your story that are hard for you to recall, draw a silly picture in your mind. Jerry Lucas, known as the Memory Doctor, popularized this method.  For instance.   When telling the story of Jonah you might have trouble remembering Jonah’s father’s name, Amittai.   Think of a word or words in your language that sounds like the word or name you are trying to remember.   In English a storyteller could imagine a ridiculous image of a man wearing a baseball mitt for a necktie. A-mitt-tie.   You will find that the sillier the picture is that you draw in your mind, the easier those hard words are to remember.   In whatever language you speak, find a rhyming word or silly image that brings the name to your thoughts. 

b.          Some who teach storytelling do not stress remembering specific names.  We do encourage saying the names in your story, even though they are usually the hardest parts of the story to remember.  The Lord realizes that we struggle to remember names, but since He did choose in many cases to give us the names of the characters in a story, we like to include them when we tell the story.  

13.        Express the Story.   As you practice telling the story, your voice needs to reflect the mood and feeling the story contains. 

1. When people first start telling stories, sometimes in an effort to be dramatic, the storyteller starts the story by speaking in an excited voice, but then continues with that same excited voice throughout the whole story!  Listening to someone speaking with high voice excitement for too long  eventually wears out the audience and listeners lose interest.  As well, no story would be correctly  represented by excitement throughout. 
   
2. Actually some parts of the story might be about sadness, disappointment, fear, kindness, or some other emotion that an excited voice would not correctly represent. Express the story by raising and lowering the volume of your voice and excitement level as it fits the story. As well, the various emotions of the story can be reflected in your voice.
   
3. Most stories have some ordinary narration that connects the words of the speakers.  Those parts can best be told with a normal voice.
   
4. Sometimes however, the words of the narrator can show a change of location or draw attention to an amazing part of the story. These words are spoken with a deep feeling of interest, kind of inside explanation done in a loud whisper. Doing this points listeners to the words that will follow as particularly interesting. You speak ordinary words such as “meanwhile,” or “at the same time,” or “after they arrived,” but say them in an intriuging manner.
   

14.         Beginning the Story.   As listed before, when you begin telling the story, say, “Now this is the story” or “This is the Bible story.” Also as you start telling the story, hold an open Bible. This indicates to the listener that what you are saying comes out of the Bible.  When you complete the story, tell the listeners, “This is the end of the story,” and close your Bible.  (If you are storytelling in a region that is anti-Christian, you may not want to hold a Bible or even tell listeners it is a Bible story.  In this case just tell your story and let the listeners be touched spiritually by the content and the discussion afterwards.)

15.        Tell Your Story a Lot, to anyone who will listen to it, until it flows easily.   If no people are available, tell it to your pet or a tree.  Remember, you are not memorizing exact words, but you are telling an exact story.