What percentage of people will refuse to hear a story?

This is a report from an Australian training seminar in October 2014

On the October long weekend a Presbyterian church in Brisbane sponsored a Bible storytelling seminar. Thirteen people attended the seminar, in which they crafted eight Christmas stories.

After the Sunday morning church service, the seminar participants went out in pairs for lunch in the city, where they prayed for opportunities to share their Bible stories with people on the street.

One participant, who really struggled to tell her story during the seminar, found that empowered by the Holy Spirit she was able to share easily in the relaxed atmosphere of the city mall.

Another lady who is from Brazil was able to share her stories with some Brazilian young people on the street!

Altogether, the thirteen participants and teaching staff told a total of 58 stories 99 people. In the debrief which followed, they prayed for 15 people by name. Of the 113 people they chatted with and offered to tell a Bible story to, only 14 refused (that is, 12% refused). The participants were not put off by these rejections. They continued to look for other opportunities, and God honoured their persistence.

What stories could you and your friends learn? Let us know what percentage of people are willing to listen to a story. Australia is one of the hardest to get people to listen to anything perceived as ‘religious’ – most other places should have a higher percentage.

Used with permission of KB