Storytelling at a public community event

I was recently invited to do storytelling at a Christian radio station Family Fun Day. This was held in a park in the centre of town that is used for community events. This felt quite daunting as I don’t find storytelling easy and I was out of touch with keeping my stories familiar.

I was encouraged by Exodus 4 to 6 that God called Moses even though Moses felt inadequate for the job and very reluctant, and that in response God sent Aaron to go with him. I prayed about God’s provision of support and asked several people if they would consider it. Two others felt convicted to say yes as they needed to have a motive to refresh their storytelling. I prepared by practising my stories for two weeks, building up to an opportunity to ask friends if I could practise on them on two separate Friday mornings when I am involved in a social walking and coffee group. I told them to myself while out exercising. I thought about how to introduce the story and practised that also.

On the day, I set up a table and brought a thermos and cups, the makings of tea and coffee. I bought some sourdough from one of the market stalls and bought some cheese and biscuits to share as well. I put up one sign saying ‘Storytelling’ and another sign saying ‘Please share our table if you need somewhere to eat, and have a picnic with us’.

Storytelling over a picnic

We had conversations with eight people over the period we were there. Two were unknown to us before and not yet believers, both of these wondered what sort of stories we were telling and wondered if it was personal stories. In our interaction with one man, he was keen to share a childhood story with us after we had shared a few Bible stories – Zaccheus and Lazarus – and by the end of our conversation he had shared about a story about his own personal sorrow at being separated from his partner and son, and asked us to pray for him and his family. We had a significant conversation about other things people look to to protect themselves.

Another contact was a mother and teenage daughter who were acquaintances of one of the others. They were very happy to share a picnic with us while waiting for the daughter to perform in the talent quest that was being held. The mother happily listened to two stories and thought about the questions.

One couple sat down who knew us from church and were happy to hear a story and then related a current concern they had, and questions about faith from a family member.

The last person was a man who had heard our stories last year, who came over seeking a spiritual conversation and was stirred by the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, subsequently talking about an issue the story raised for him about baptism.

Reflections

On reflecting afterwards we each felt that the time preparing for the event was fruitful in our own lives and had given us the opportunity to ask non Christian friends if we could practice a story on them. This had resulted in some significant conversations. We also saw the perfect timing of when each of us was able to be there. We felt the presence of God’s spirit guiding the timing and contacts. I also wondered afterwards we could adapt the idea of ‘the Moth’ which is entertainment but involves telling a significant story from the person’s life. Perhaps we could start with our ‘story’, a one to two minute testimony, and then offer to tell a story from the Bible which was how God’s story became part of our story.

Submitted by HB.

Could you do something similar? What other ideas do you have as to where stories could be told?