The apostle Paul directed Timothy to teach faithful men who would follow his model of teaching others also (2 Tim 2:2). To ask a new believer to tell his or her unbelieving network of friends about Jesus takes boldness, confidence, and—critically—a teaching program that is simple and easily reproducible. This book teaches how to craft and model telling biblical stories in the believer’s own words and style that can be easily repeated by following spiritual generations. But crafting effective stories to reproduce takes wisdom. Biblical Storytelling Design identifies seven negative influences that can either weaken or even terminate the storytelling process of spiritual reproduction. But these influences can be counteracted by applying storytelling strategies when crafting stories. This book teaches not only what to do but why it works through understanding insights from educational psychology, sociology, and anthropology that are illustrated in Scripture itself.

Stories are a God-designed way to impact hearts. In a world increasingly anti-Christian, how can you communicate in a way that slides under listener's defences? How can you leave them hungry for more? But many Christians reject stories as just for kids. Christine Dillon has trained thousands of people in storytelling. 10 myths come up over and over again, and they block Christians from using this life-changing ministry tool. MYTH 1: Adults won't listen to stories MYTH 2: Stories are only for non-literate cultures MYTH 3: Men won't listen to stories ... MYTH 6: Storytelling won't grow mature disciples MYTH 8: Storytelling will lead to heresy ... Using stories from around the world Dillon tackles each myth and challenges you to master this tool. This book is also available in both forms of written Chinese.

How would new, untrained Christians kindly and humbly introduce God to their non-Christian friends? What if neither the Christian nor the non-Christian could learn from printed materials such as pamphlets, books, or the Bible itself? What if the new Christian was usually alone and untrained in a community hostile to Christian beliefs? How could these new Christians continue the process of reproducing spiritual generations without first being fully taught themselves? The strategy offered here is to tell biblical stories that can be easily retold. Stories that revealed God's acts and perspectives leading to questions and discussion. Stories that caused new listeners to question their own beliefs. You're holding a collection of ninety stories designed to be retold by anyone--thirty Old Testament stories chronologically arranged from creation to the return from Israel's exile; thirty Gospel stories from the announcement of Jesus' birth to his ascension to heaven; and thirty stories from the New Testament from Pentecost to Jesus' return from heaven to earth. Each lesson is built upon the principles from Roche's first book, Biblical Storytelling Design: Understanding Why Oral Stories Work, but modeled and explained in this book.

The Bible is filled with carefully told stories that are designed to reach from their pages into our lives. They reach out to entertain us. They cause us to laugh or make us cry. But most importantly, the stories in the Bible shape our thinking and our faith. This book honors the role of God as storyteller and explores how God's inspired authors carefully select and present an event so as to instill it with meaning. In order to deepen our appreciation of the storyteller's craft, this book surveys the traditional categories of narrative criticism to see how the design of scene, plot, characterization, narration, time, and wordplay shape the story we read. But the reader will also find a considerable portion of this book devoted to a new form of narrative analysis-narrative geography. Since the stories of the Bible are filled not only with people but also with place, we note how the storyteller may strategically use, reuse, and nuance geography as part of the storytelling process. As we come to a fuller appreciation of how the events of the Bible become its stories, we will have set the stage for a discussion of the reader's craft, seeking meaning in such stories. In the end, the reader will be rewarded with a new and exciting way of reading God's stories that appreciates not only their composition but also their meaning.

Recounting the biblical stories through visual images was the most prestigious form of commission for a Renaissance artist. In this book, Jules Lubbock examines some of the most famous of these pictorial narratives by artists of the caliber of Giovanni Pisano, Duccio, Giotto, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio. He explains how these artists portrayed the major biblical events, such as: the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Annunciation, the Feast of Herod and the Trial and Passion of Jesus, so as to be easily recognizable and, at the same time, to capture our attention and imagination for long enough to enable us to search for deeper meanings. He provides evidence showing that the Church favoured the production of images that lent themselves to being read and interpreted in this way, and he describes the works themselves to demonstrate how the pleasurable activity of deciphering these meanings can work in practice. This book is richly illustrated, and many of its photographs have been specially taken to show how the paintings and relief sculptures appear in the settings, for which they were originally designed. Seen from these viewpoints, they become more readily intelligible. Likewise, the starting point and the originality of Lubbock's interpretations lies in his accepting that these works of art were primarily designed to help people to reflect upon the ethical and religious significance of the biblical stories. The early Renaissance artists developed their highly innovative techniques to further these objectives, not as ends in themselves. Thus, the book aims to appeal to students, scholars and the general public, who are interested in Renaissance art and to those with a religious interest in biblical imagery.

How would new, untrained Christians kindly and humbly introduce God to their non-Christian friends? What if neither the Christian nor the non-Christian could learn from printed materials such as pamphlets, books, or the Bible itself? What if the new Christian was usually alone and untrained in a community hostile to Christian beliefs? How could these new Christians continue the process of reproducing spiritual generations without first being fully taught themselves? The strategy offered here is to tell biblical stories that can be easily retold. Stories that revealed God’s acts and perspectives leading to questions and discussion. Stories that caused new listeners to question their own beliefs. You’re holding a collection of ninety stories designed to be retold by anyone—thirty Old Testament stories chronologically arranged from creation to the return from Israel’s exile; thirty Gospel stories from the announcement of Jesus’ birth to his ascension to heaven; and thirty stories from the New Testament from Pentecost to Jesus’ return from heaven to earth. Each lesson is built upon the principles from Roché’s first book, Biblical Storytelling Design: Understanding Why Oral Stories Work, but modeled and explained in this book.

In Story-Shaped Worship Robbie Castleman attempts nothing less than to uncover the fundamental shape of worship. Right worship doesn't require a traditionalist return to earlier forms of church, she argues, but a fresh response to God in light of the revealed patterns of worship we find in the Bible and church history.