An Australian man starts using stories at work and church

“Can you help me? I want to tell someone else some stories.”

I wanted to share stories with a female colleague at work, but being married, didn’t want to share them one-on-one, so I asked a friend, who at the time was a slightly more than nominal Catholic churchgoer, to join us.

We made our way through the stories over a few months. The initial colleague participated in the stories, but didn’t get deeply into it. However, the friend that I asked to join to ‘help’ was very moved. Since then, he has become more and more involved in his local church, has sent his son to a Christian school and relied heavily on God through his wife’s battle with breast cancer. An amazing outcome.

Storytelling allows quiet people to find their voice.

I was leading a very challenging Bible study group. The majority of the group were very quiet, interspersed with some big personalities. After learning about storying at our church weekend away, I decided to give it a try. We learned the Creation story and the Abraham story. The following week, one of the most quietly spoken group members told us that she had learned the story of Jacob and Esau during the week and would like to share it with the group. It was one of best nights of discussion that the group had enjoyed, all through someone finding their voice in storying.