Using stories in a church service
This was recently sent to me and I thought was a good model of how stories/songs and reflection could be integrated. It is a Good Friday service. All the Bible portions were told as oral stories.
This is also an excellent way to train new people in story telling and yet not overwhelm them with a huge task. Most of the story tellers only had one section to tell. This kind of story telling is usually known as a Bible panorama. It can also be done with miracle stories or Acts stories.
The story tellers are named in brackets. Note the number of people involved with the main story teller, Larry.
Good Friday service
Welcome and explanation of Service (Pastor Steve)
Overview of Passion Week (Larry)
Triumphal entry, Luke 19:28-40 (Larry)
Song: Meekness and Majesty
Temple cleansing, Mark 11:15-18 (Larry)
Silent reflection
Last Supper, Exodus 12:1-13, John 13:1-15, Mark 14:22-25 (Larry)
Song: The Servant King
Communion (Pastor Steve)
Silent reflection
Song: Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Prayer, Luke 22:39-46 (Larry)
Poem (Ruth)
Betrayed, Luke 22:47-51 (Larry)
Song: Man of Sorrows
Tried: Annas, John 18:12-14; 19-23 (Sue); Caiaphas the high priest, Matthew 26:57, 59-68 (Carey); the Sanhedrin, Luke 22:66-71 (Miriam); Pilate, Luke 23:1-7 (Calvin); Herod, Luke 23:8-12 (Kari); Pilate, Luke 23:13-22 (Tim); the people, Luke 23:23-25 (everyone reads together)
Song: The Power of the Cross
Denied, Mathew 26:69-75 (Larry)
Peter’s first hand account (Kit)
Silent reflection
Song: How Deep the Father’s Love
Crucified, Luke 26: 33-45 (Larry)
Song: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Buried, Luke 23: 50-56 (Larry)
The service has now ended. Thank you for coming. When you are ready, please leave quietly. God bless.
How could use you story telling in your meetings? Who might be willing to learn a section of story?
I recently used a story in a church service setting for the first time. It is a smaller communion service during the week; usually a Bible reading is not part of the service, but because I usually speak about Bible texts I decided to tell the Ascension story rather than expect my hearers to know it already (turns out most of them did not know the full detail of it!). So basically telling the story became the main part of the sermon / short message.
What makes storytelling interesting in my context is that church services are often in a standard language, and so are all Bible translations, but the people speak a dialect. Telling the story from the Bible, rather than reading it, means I can do it in dialect and that brings it closer to the people. I made sure to tell them where they can read it, though, so that they know it really is from the Bible and can look it up for themselves at home.
Wow Desi, your story comment post was really really helpful! Thank you for adding that here, inspired me a lot. Bless you!