I spent last weekend hearing stories of my colleagues' ministries. We had our seminary reunion.
They were stories of hope and resilience and gave me incredible strength for my own ministry.
Storytelling: How and Where
Good stories are essential to resisting the powers-that-be. We need to hear, and to tell, what is happening. It is helpful as well to tell past stories of effective resistance. Stories give us hope for the future, make real what is happening, and create meaning. Stories provide connections between us.
In one-on-one conversation we simply let our stories spin out as they occur to us. In our churches creating space for this to happen is well worth our time. Coffee hour, small groups, bible studies.
For our stories to go further it is valuable to spend time crafting the spun-out-story into something that follows a traditional arc. Tell the story the first time, and then work, perhaps with others, to prepare it for retelling or to be written.
Great stories develop the context and the characters quickly, bring in a conflict, and then the characters find a way to resolve the conflict.
Your story takes place in a particular place, at a particular time. Share the context as succinctly as you can.
One of the characters should be someone the listeners/readers will connect to. That requires some information about their personality or style. For live story-telling events in a community that knows each other the connection might be simply that I know you, and care about you. For written and recorded stories sent to strangers, you must describe some relevant details about at least one character (likely you).
In many of our resistance stories it will not be that we decided to fight against a thing and then it went away. We marched for civil rights and then won. Life doesn't work that way. Therefore your conflict and resolution is often something personal to you, or significant to a local group of people. For example the conflict might be whether we were brave enough to take a stand, or choosing to ignore expectations of a family member or a friend. The resolution is not the solving of the big issue, but getting to the place of courage. Many stories of resistance include opportunities for more action, but your own story should have an ending.
Practice telling your stories! Tell it the first time as a just a stream of consciousness, getting at what you remember. Then plan a beginning, conflict, and resolution and tell it again. Some of you might like to write it down and read it. Either way, practice repeating the story out loud. Even printed stories sound more authentic if they can be read aloud. If you will have an event with many stories it might work best to ask for five minute stories -- the presenters must time themselves to ensure the story fits the format.
One of the hardest things is to avoid all the tangents, and yet to give a good description of the characters. Make sure you know what is your main point, and what is the most interesting detail about the players, and stick to that. Try the story out with a trusted listener, get feedback, and practice again.
Every story needs a listener. Or many listeners! For storytelling internal to your congregation, make time during worship or coffee hour. Or schedule a storytelling afternoon or evening. You can have older adults take turns leading during Sunday School or a Messy Church session to tell their story, or have an story-telling potluck for the whole church community.
To reach beyond the church schedule a community story telling event. Consider a story slam, modeled after poetry slams. (Be careful about the decision of whether to judge the stories.) You might limit it to hearing stories of resistance from elders. Ashburnham, MA had a gathering of town centenarians (three of the four came!) and we asked them questions to guide their story telling. If there is already a storytelling event in your area, get together a group to attend it.
The stories of our elders are also perfect for the church blog. While this is often the pastor's platform, guest writers would provide an interesting addition. You could even invite other town or neighborhood elders to submit possible stories. If you have a newspaper (perhaps online), write a letter to the editor, or ask if you can write a story for the opinion page.
Elder's stories are important for our future. They remind us that we have faced hard times before. We have resisted before. We can do this again.
How does your your church engage in Story Telling? How do you make sure your elders' stories are told. Hit reply to let me know what is happening in your neck of the woods.
Micaela Blei is a storyteller, educator, and story editor based in Portland, Maine. She has won two Moth GrandSLAM championships, co-founded The Moth’s Education Program in 2012, and earned her PhD in narrative education from New York University. Her forthcoming audio memoir is the Audible Original You Will Not Recognize Your Life (2024). This link offers her basics of storytelling.
Kate Campbell is a singer songwriter who tells about growing up as a white Christian in Alabama during the civil rights era. All of her songs are storytelling. Here is one of of her favorites.
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