story4all

New on the web

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:54:48 PDT

A new site, authored by J.O. Terry and Daniel Sanchez, has been set up here.

Please check it out for articles, resources and books about the use of Bible stories for making disciples.

In the site's own words:

Bible-Storying.com focuses on the following purposes:

To develop and provide practical books and other helps to those who seek to proclaim the Message of Christ through Bible Storying

To equip people and groups to become involved in the ministries of Bible Storying

To provide on-going training for persons and groups who are engaged in the ministries of Bible Storying

To maintain a body of basic resources for those who practice Bible Storying

Do you care?

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:31:23 PDT

Just 639 left ... what are YOU doing?

Cool videos in Gulf Arabic on You Tube!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:21:44 PDT

A follower of Jesus in the Gulf has released some great resources he is eager to get passed round to those living in the Gulf. You can check out these "Stories of Life" clips on You Tube here:

Stories of Life 1

Stories of Life 2

Stories of Life 3

Stories of Life 4

Know anyone who speaks Gulf Arabic to whom you could pass along these links?

Winsome way to gossip the Gospel

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:41:34 PDT

Larry Dinkins PhD, veteran missionary of 22 years in Thailand, who in his own words is "educated past his intelligence", just finished his 6th storytelling training, humbly shares in this video clip, a testimony of his struggles to just simply tell the story but then of the fruit as he did so in his old stomping ground on the field (in Thailand).

Select your format and watch it here!

Bottom line!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:44:51 PDT

When I preached, often people didn't understand what I was saying. I would tell them,
"Go and tell this gospel to others."

But they didn't know how to share the word of God because they couldn't understand it very well.

But then I started to share the word of God through the stories. I told the stories about how God created a human and how he fell into sin. They listened to those stories very carefully and started understanding very well.

Stories like these can be received weekly by email by requesting them here.
[Source: Stories from Storytellers]

Cool video overview on storytelling!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:45:27 PST

Avery Willis has just posted an excellent 10-minute video clip on the call2all site. It is a very concise presentation on why Bible storytelling is so important and needed right now.

Are you hitting the target?!?

Who can you share this video clip link with? Know any pastors or youth leaders or missionaries whom you could send the link to this clip?

Pictures from Asia

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:33:19 PST

The Oral Bible Project from Asia have produced a slideshow of picture from their training ministry showing how, through dramatization or group interactive storytelling, participants have effectively learned Bible stories.

Apart from greatly amplifying the emotional understanding of the stories, improvised drama helps the participants get inside the skins of Bible characters and walk in their shoes through their experiences. Also humour, quite often present in the original stories, can be rediscovered and help bring the message home. Drama comes naturally to these Indian men, for whom Hindu epics are a common occurrence.

Check out the slideshow here

ION has a new home!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:41:57 PST

The International Orality Network has a new home on the web which is interactive and highly intuitive and easy to use. Check out their new site now: http://ion2008.ning.com/

The old page address still works and will lead you to the new page, so no problems if you have a bookmark somewhere for ION's page!

Please note too: The next gathering for the International Orality Conference has also just been announced for 9-12th September 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). More details shall be forthcoming on the ION site soon.

Happy New Year!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:06:30 PST

story4all would like to wish all our podcast listeners and site visitors a VERY HAPPY and BLESSED 2009!

The Word by text message

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:11:29 PST

Faith Comes By Hearing has launched a marvellous project in the USA called "You've got the time!"

Based on the understanding that lots of people say they haven't time to get into God's Word and yet spend a lot of time listening to audio devices in their cars or out walking, running, etc., Faith Comes By Hearing has designed this 21st Century discipling tool to help people get into the Word of God.

All you need to do is send a text from your mobile/cell phone and you will receive a chapter a day from the Audio Drama Bible sent to your cell phone.

Check out the site linked to the graphic above to discover more information and to subscribe on your phone!

Hollywood worried about the death of storytelling!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:25:19 PST

In an interesting read in Britain's The Daily Telegraph some of Hollywood's top movie stars have become concerned that storytelling is a dying art!

They are so concerned about it that they are investing $25 million into a "laboratory" to "help shepherd story into the digital age".

Read more here!

Echo-ing the Story

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:37:42 PST

[Scuse silence recently. Been away on two long trips and just out of bed after a week's killer flu!]

Yesterday evening's posted podcast featured Michael Novelli of Echo the Story. We have mentioned his marvellous ministry before. He blogged about us yesterday. If you missed the plug on his site before, please check it out now starting here.

Purchase link for Great Story CD

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:36:38 PDT

You may obtain the aforementioned CD here: Great Story of the Sacred Book

The Great Story

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:36:04 PDT

... from the Sacred Book is the title of the new resource produced by Rain Song!

In Podcast #124 we interviewed Terry Wildman about his work and this ministry. This is the Bible storytelling project in Native American English that he mentioned in that episode. It is now completed!

Their website says this about the new CD release, available now: "This is a condensed version of the narrative of the Bible told in First Nations Storytelling style. Terry tells the story while (his wife) Darlene adds the cedar flutes to the background".

As Terry says on the CD: "This project is an effort to tell the story of the Bible in a way that relates the message of Jesus to First Nations People".

Do you understand "Dublin"?

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:37:48 PDT

Some may find this wacky. Some may find it unhelpful. Some may find the Dublin accents hard to understand.

One thing is for certain it is quite something to hear young 1960s Irish Catholic school children telling their school teacher (and the national TV station!) the stories of Jesus in their own words!

You may find the cartoon "overdub" uncomfortable. Then again maybe not. If the visuals bother you, shut your eyes and listen and enjoy little children tell what they know about stories of Jesus' life.

Here are some links to the "Give Up Yer Aul Sins" film made at the time, and, appearing for our enjoyment on YouTube. The following are some of my favourites:

The Birth of Jesus

Give Up Yer Aul Sins

The Easter Story

The voices are real 'live' recordings of young children, and the stories were not told in jest. Pretty amazing, eh?

Disclaimer: These links are for your personal viewing/listening pleasure only, and not recommended as resources by story4all!

New video out!

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:20:24 PDT

Simply the Story (STS) have just released a cool new promotional video explaining about their training programme in Bible storytelling.

See it on their website now!

There is still time to sign up for their next USA training in Dallas between 19th and 24th September! Come learn Jesus model of storytelling ... telling the story and then asking questions!

Click here to email the STS office for more details on their training or to register for this month's Dallas training.

Impacting youth in N America

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:05:07 PDT

Echo the Story is a marvellous site on the web about a great ministry that is impacting today's youth in N America.

On their site they say they "use a process called Storying (short for Chronological Bible Storying) - a sequential telling of Bible stories followed by a time of review and dialogue. Derived from the ancient Hebrew way of learning, Storying was rediscovered a few decades ago by missionaries who are now using this method extensively around the world. Recently, storying is also proving to be effective with youth and adults in our media-literate, story-oriented North American context."

They have a blog too.

Summer break

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:28:36 PDT

story4all will be on summer break from 1st until 13th August. However, God willing, podcasts will be released on time as normal during the break.

story4all is on twitter

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:23:54 PDT

For those of you involved in the world of Twitter and tweets, please be advised that story4all now has its own twitter site. You can find (and follow) us by going to the following URL:

story4all on twitter

We intend to send out tweets infrequently to update "followers" on details such as podcast releases, new products, interesting storying links, technical updates on the site or with the podcast itself.

[For those of you who have no clue as to what all this twitter and tweeting stuff is all about, read this explanation about it!].

Bread and Bananas - the power of accuracy

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:21:31 PDT

Carla Bowman, of Scriptures in Use, tells a wonderful story here about the importance of accuracy in communicating Bible stories. This article in Momentum magazine's latest edition is a marvellous piece of storytelling in itself. Read how from India to Central America accuracy to the biblical text is vital in passing on the Story of God.

The Story we haven't heard

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:47:34 PDT

Frank Viola has written an excellent article on his website entitled "The Story we haven't heard".

It covers a number of thoughts centred round how "the New Testament in its present form doesn't put the story of the early church together in a way that fills in all the historical gaps", to quote Viola. He says, in our current post-modern era, we need to recapture the chronological story of the New Testament to better understand its message and teaching.

Read that stimulating piece here

Not too late to register for the Orality Conference

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:49:18 PDT

Oral ministry making a difference in Sudan

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:06:09 PDT

In a land cited as one of the poorest in the world and where a peace process teeters in the balance, T4 Global, by means of a small audio player and mobile training schools, uses oral methods to teach and reach a region where 85% of the population cannot read nor write.

Meeting in a hut, under a tree, by a well or in the heart of a village, people gather to learn about HIV/AIDs awareness, as well as the message of the Bible through stories and drama.

Watch this video to see how one Sudanese church leader believes this ministry is transforming Southern Sudan!

Avery Willis meets YWAM about Orality

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:16:06 PDT

Just released this week ... YWAM's Globalcast vodcast ministry have produced a video interview with Avery Willis on "Orality & Bible Storying".

The particular episode can be viewed online here.

Subscribe to YWAM's Globalcast vodcast on iTunes here!

Chicago church celebrates with stories

bryan@story4all.com (bryan@story4all.com) — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:20:20 PDT

Do you want to see how storying and other forms of oral communication can impact the life of a local church? Look at this church in Chicago that is celebrating its fifty years of ministry this way:

"It has been proposed and accepted that we become a Biblical Storytelling Church. We will learn the Bible one story at a time so that it will be written on our hearts. We will tell these stories in our worship, to our children and to our community. We have started a new life as God's people."

Now that's what I call grasping storying in church! Way to go Northlake Trinity Presbyterian!!