Telling the Gospel Through Story

Everybody loves a good story.

In an age when prepackaged gospel formulations leave people cold, well-told Bible stories can be used powerfully by God to touch people’s hearts and draw them to himself.

After ministry in both Western and non-Western contexts, church planter Christine Dillon has discovered that Bible storying is far more effective than most other forms of apologetics or evangelistic presentations. In fact, non-Christians actually enjoyed storying and kept coming back for more. Storying provides solid biblical foundations so listeners can understand, apply and respond to the gospel, and then go on to fruitful maturity in God’s service.

This book includes practical guidance on how to shape a good story, how to do evangelism through storying and how to lead Bible discussions. With particular insights for trainers and those working in crosscultural contexts, this guide provides you with concrete steps for sharing the Story that everyone needs to hear.

Contents

Introduction: The Power of Story

Part One: Foundations
1. Why Storying?
2. Learning from Biblical Models

Part Two: Preparing a Basic Story Set
3. Choosing Suitable Stories
4. Preparing Stories from the Biblical Text

Part Three: Sow and Tell: Getting Out and Using Storying
5. Getting Started Telling Your Story
6. Leading Discussion: The Why and How
7. Discussion Dynamics

Part Four: Pass it On: Training Others
8. Basics
9. Motivating Trainees

Part Five: Adapting for Specific Contexts
10. Evangelistic Storying with Different Audiences
11. Storying for Christian Teaching

Epilogue
Appendix A: Further Discussion Questions for Basic Story Set
Appendix B: Different Kinds of Bible Storying
Appendix C: A Checklist for Training Others
Appendix D: Links So You Can Listen to Sample Stories

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6 Responses

  1. Weny and Ken Ridge says:

    Great to see all that hard work being used

  2. Rev. Dr. Bill Greenwood says:

    great book…transforming…as after 40 yrs. in the ministry, I now have a strategy for sharing the Gospel…and how perfect is God’s timing as I am finishing up this book ..as I go to Africa for 1st time…at 68 yrs. of age to share stories in Uganda’s leading universities and schools for 2 weeks….and teach 40 young E. African pastors how to share God’s stories in their villages…training their people to get these stories out into the commuity

    • Chris says:

      There are many people who have 40+ years of ministry and are in one sense re-learning everything. I heard one of the main trainers for it here in Australia saying that he has learned more about the Bible himself in the last 5 years through storying than in 35 years of Bible translation!

      I can’t believe how much I am learning about the Bible and communication every week with story telling!

  3. santha kumar says:

    very good site. Thanks

  4. James Chin says:

    Wished I had read this book years ago. I can see myself using story telling to talk about the bible and Jesus. But first I have to learn it, tell it to someone, and to see where it takes me. Excited.

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