Reconnecting God's Story To Ministry: Cross-cultural Storytelling At Home And Abroad

by Tom Steffen

Oftentimes, we think stories are for children. But using the Bible as evidence, we see that God communicated his truth to men and women of all cultures, time, and places by way of many small stories forming one large story. While possessing a rich heritage of storytelling, too many evangelicals have forfeited this vital skill. Tom Steffen’s aim is to help readers recapture the most natural, universal, and effective means of evangelism-discipleship that exists—storytelling. This book is not just theory—it provides practical help by identifying the roles and tasks that are necessary to become an effective storyteller in another culture. Steffen offers creative tools and introduces practical ways to increase many of the storytelling skills for evangelism- discipleship. He moves us beyond linear gospel outlines, Western logic and organization, and individual responses to traditional evangelism rituals, to a mode of communication that respects the audience, making it easy for them to grasp what they have heard and to pass it on to others with minimal loss of content. By reconnecting storytelling to ministry, readers will be more comfortable in sharing the gospel, both at home and abroad. • Helpful to those who feel they don’t have the spiritual gift of evangelism. • Each chapter closes with probing reflection questions and a helpful bibliography for developing deeper storytelling knowledge, skills, and context-specific curricula.

234 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1969

Reviews

[Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Foreward:
...this book "grows out of an extensive knowledge of subject areas absolutely crucial to effective missionizing such as worldview, world religions, contextualization, cross-cultural communication and narrative theology. It provides an in-depth analysis of those critical aspects of fulfilling our Lord's Commission to disciple the world's peoples by more effective teaching all that He commanded."

From the author: "I wrote this book to help readers recapture the most natural, universal, and effective means of evangelism-discipleship that exists - story telling."

He argues aggressively for a return to narrative in evangelism and discipleship p12

1 Storylands - who, what, where is imp't in the Bible Story; context and social meanings are important in the Bible Story.

2 Storyanalyst - knowing and appreciating and analyzing what precedes the introduction of Biblical knowledge helps the communicator to form the Story (Gospel message) in the other person's own language and culture: anthropologically (worldview, values, social environments), pedagogically (learning styles), theologically (religious beliefs and practices), curricular-ly (how learning best happens for the hearer),

3 The Storybook - Biblical illiteracy is growing in the USA which means the culture has a fragmented Biblical understanding.Result - people (we) are missing the Big Picture, theological categories of convenience are developed, literary genres of the sacred text are often ignored, effective evangelism may be divorced from effective follow-up

4 The Storyline - Christ is the center AND the circumference of Scripture; communicating the Storyline well helps listeners to value, accept, and practice it (like followers of Christ did). Ask the right questions: METHODOLOGIES - Who is the listener? What type of decision making pattern does the listener prefer? What will it cost the listener to become a believer? MESSAGE - What are the basic components of the Gospel message? What does the listener understand about these? How much foundational information is required by the listener? How should evangelism in this instance connect to follow-up? MESSENGER - What assumptions/values drive the evangelistic models selected? What 'delivery system' does the listener prefer? (comprehensible and reproducible) How will the speaker know if the listener comes to believe or start an intentional relationship with Jesus?

5 The Storyteller - less the 1/3 of adults share the Gospel in a year. Recital of the great events of the Gospel mean 'tellers would return to more of the narrative evangelism-discipleship: ways to do this include - recital of key Biblical ideas and images, events and characters, faithstories (testimonies),

6 The Storysmith - to be relevant to the listener, faithstories or Bible stories should must be contextualized; help from others to analyze, craft, and share personal testimonies and Bible stories can be beneficial and more effective p94

7 Miffing the Myths - How user friendly is your teaching style and/or telling of your faithstory? Faithstories are not just for entertainment, children, those living outside urban areas, professionals. Bible stories and theology are not unrelated.

8 Why Tell Stories - Storytelling is: a universal form of communicating, much of the world learns this way, imagination and emotions are connected this way, every major religion uses stories to socialize its followers, recruit and convert, indoctrinate its members, 75% of the Bible is narrative, it creates instant evangelists, Jesus taught theology through stories.

Storytelling and relationships and community often take precedence over time and task and efficiency. Emotions aren't unimportant nor is confrontation the priority. Contextualization is important.

Faithstory includes legal laws, is a solid foundation for the Gospel and provides a continuum for the new disciple.
Faithstory points to deep relationships, circular logic and context-specific stories. p130

[Seth Westhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone communicating cross-culturally and even inter-culturally. This book helps one to realize the cultural sensitivity needed when transmitting information and then how to communicate it in a way that is understandable to someone of another culture.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talbot Course: Evangelism and Follow up