A story group at work
John learned about storytelling on a short -term mission team. He has been experimenting with it in discipleship and now is using it among work colleagues at his business process outsourcing company.
When I went back from overseas, I told some stories and highlights of my trip to Christian colleagues. I wanted to thank them for praying for me. This conversation with them also opened the opportunity to talk about storying and how I have seen it as a way of sharing the Gospel to people of a different culture. They became curious about how this is done and wanted to learn it themselves. I told them that I find storying very interesting even in the Christian context and I am using it in discipling people at my local church. We agreed to meet after this and started to learn storying.
First I explained a little about how storying is done then we started with the creation story. We were all amazed during the discussion as we answered the questions. They all commented how storying is very simple yet they didn’t notice before the details of these stories in the Bible. For instance, during our discussion on the creation story in Genesis 1, one of them commented how we can display the image of God as men and women if we would be in harmonious relationship with one another. They said that the story is very much relevant in our lives even in our day-to-day experience.
One of my colleagues then invited her non-Christian friend. The new attendee was surprised at this approach in learning about the Bible. She has continued to join us as she finds it non-threatening without us opening our Bibles. She also likes that she can say or ask anything she likes as we discuss each story.
It’s been almost a year now since I started to do storying among my colleagues at work and it’s been a great blessing to see those that I’ve shared this skill doing it themselves. We’ve been sharing Bible stories and the past two meetings I had with them, they have been leading the storying session already. They appreciate how simple it is and yet we are always in awe of the things we’ve been discovering about God in each story. Just last Wednesday, we spoke about the story of Abraham and we saw how God was faithful in keeping His promise of a son to Abraham. Yet we make our ‘own way’ just like Sarah as she offers to Abraham her maidservant Hagar. This naturally leads to conflict and despair.
I’ve learned that storying is appropriate for all ages even adult learners like us. It also provides a safe avenue for people to hear the Gospel and see God at work in the lives of those who do not yet know Jesus.
Permission from FN to use this story
