Creative Ways to Tell a Bible Story

A Bible storyteller’s prayer .................................................................... 8

Foreword ............................................................................................... 9

Introduction ........................................................................................ 10

How to use this book .......................................................................... 13

SECTION 1: WAY IN: INTRODUCING THE STORY

Getting into the theme: Cross the circle ............................................ 19

Getting into the content: Fruit salad .................................................. 20

Getting into the context: Group machines ........................................ 22

Getting into the scene: Group statues ............................................... 24

Getting into character: Clues to the people involved ....................... 25

Getting into the feelings: An in-and-out game .................................. 26

Getting into sounds: What would you have heard? .......................... 27

Getting into ideas: Out-of-the-box mimes ......................................... 29

Getting into props: Using objects ....................................................... 30

Getting into mystery: A box Bible ....................................................... 31

Getting into acting: Sculpting ............................................................ 33

Getting into the facts: A puzzle square .............................................. 35

Getting talking: Building bridges into the story ................................ 36

Getting crafty: Making objects for the story ...................................... 38

Getting moving: Moving with the story .............................................. 39

Getting thinking: Unravelling riddles ................................................. 40

Getting going: Using games ................................................................ 42

SECTION 2: WAY THROUGH: TELLING THE STORY

Response stories with sounds ............................................................ 49

Response stories with actions ............................................................ 52

Response stories moving on key words ............................................. 55

Walk the story ...................................................................................... 57

Feel the story ....................................................................................... 61

Using story circles ............................................................................... 64

Using rhyme and rhythm .................................................................... 66

Working from freeze-frames ............................................................... 68

Using colours and beads .................................................................... 70

Drawing the story ................................................................................ 72

Sculpting the story .............................................................................. 73

Sounding the story .............................................................................. 75

Bringing a picture to life ..................................................................... 79

Reflective storytelling ......................................................................... 81

Acting out the story together ............................................................. 88

Storytelling with simple visuals ......................................................... 91

Creating your own version of the story .............................................. 93

Reading stories aloud ......................................................................... 99

SECTION 3: WAY OUT: EXPLORING

AND REFLECTING ON THE STORY

Talking about the story ..................................................................... 105

Puzzling out the story ....................................................................... 107

Stepping into the story ..................................................................... 108

Experiencing a dilemma from the story .......................................... 110

What happened next? ....................................................................... 111

Imagining the story from another point of view ............................. 113

Putting the story in your own words ................................................ 114

Crafting the story .............................................................................. 115

Personalising the story ..................................................................... 117

Comparing interpretations of the story ........................................... 119

Asking questions about the story .................................................... 120

Updating the story ............................................................................ 121

Debating the story ............................................................................ 122

Analysing the story ........................................................................... 124

Interpreting the story ........................................................................ 126

Praying the story ............................................................................... 135

Using silence...................................................................................... 138

APPENDICES

Making connections .......................................................................... 140

A year of Bible stories........................................................................ 155

Bible index ......................................................................................... 165