Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way [Paperback]

Michael Novelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

A good story draws students in, engaging their hearts and minds---leaving them wanting more. God's story is like this...a captivating epic that stretches from the beginning of time, across our lives and into the future...calling us to find ourselves in it. We can help students to be captured by this amazing story, rather than seeing the Bible as confusing, boring or irrelevant. After ten years in youth ministry, Michael Novelli felt like he had tried everything to help his students connect with the Bible. Then, a missionary introduced him to a unique, ancient way to engage people with the Bible through story. Michael learned the art of 'Storying,' a sequential telling of Bible stories followed by a time of creative retelling and in-depth dialogue. God used this process to completely transform his youth group as they found themselves experiencing God in a whole new way. Take a journey into the amazing process of Storying, and discover how it can change your life and ministry. This new approach to learning builds a lasting theological foundation while challenging students to discover their unique identity and calling in God's story. Shaped by the Story helps you understand why Storying connects with students today, and provides all you need to introduce Storying to your group, including sample narratives and an interactive training DVD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Novelli is continually seeking effective ways to help people learn. This passion led him to explore experiential teaching methods for 13 years as a church youth pastor. Now he focuses on creating learner-centered events, resources, and curriculum for students, educators, and churches. He also founded Echo (www.echothestory.com), an organization that helps people discover the art of 'Storying,' a dialogical approach to Bible learning. Michael, his wife, Michele, and their children, Angelo and Abrielle, live in Elgin, Illinois. SPANISH BIO: Michael Novelli busca de continuo maneras efectivas de ayudar a las personas a aprender. Su pasion le llevo a explorar metodos de aprendizaje practicos durante 13 anos como pastor de jovenes en la iglesia. Ahora su enfoque es en actividades centradas en el aprendizaje creativo, recursos y curriculos para estudiantes, educadores e iglesias. Tambien es fundador de 'Echo' (www.echothestory.com), una organizacion que ayuda a las personas a descubrir el arte de 'Historiar', un metodo dialogico de aprendizaje biblico. Michael y su esposa, Michele, y sus hijos, Angelo y Abrielle, residen en Elgin, Illinois.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties; 1st edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310273668
• ISBN-13: 978-0310273660
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Novelli is continually seeking effective ways to help people learn. This passion led him to explore experiential teaching methods for 13 years as a church youth pastor. Now he focuses on creating learner-centered events, resources, and curriculum for students, educators, and churches. He also founded Echo (www.echothestory.com), an organization that helps people discover the art of "Storying," a dialogical approach to Bible learning. Michael, his wife, Michele, and their children, Angelo and Abrielle, live in Elgin, Illinois.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great evangelistic (and probably discipleship) tool!, October 29, 2008

By 

Kari A. Reed "lordyhwh" (Mount Desert, ME) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way (Paperback)

Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way

I run a youth group in a rural town in Maine where Christianity is not the norm. So my ministry is more about evangelism than discipleship. I have roughly 15 kids coming every week for pizza, soda, and hide-n-seek in an ancient church building. They love it!

What they don't love is hearing about God. I've tried so many different approaches, but nothing seemed to work... Until I came across this book.

Michael Novelli lays out a method that is great for both believers and non-believers. We tell the stories of the Bible, the ones we heard in Sunday School and forgot about, and then we retell them. Afterwards we discuss them. Then we key in on what we learn about God from these stories. Through this, the group will learn to see Scripture as one larger story. And then they will have a context for any further teaching (systematic, spiritual formation, etc.). I am learning so much - even after 23 years of being a Christian (and my time in Bible College).

I would strongly suggest to anyone working with youth - get this book (and check out Novelli's website with free stuff - [...])!We're only into our 3rd week of storying, but the group is getting more involved with the bible than I've EVER seen in 13 years of youth ministry.

There's only one caveat - Novelli seems to be friendly with the emergent camp. He points to the likes of Brian McClaren and others (he has a list of 4 or 5) as great teachers. I'm not sure what he means by that exactly, but it certainly makes me a bit leary. Fortunately, emergent theological leanings or not, Novelli's method works! And you can choose your own stories from the Bible to work with. I know I have.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Youth a Part of God's Story, May 15, 2009

By 

M. Holley (Bartlesville, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way (Paperback)

This is an amazing book and the DVD is such a bonus. It was great to see them go through the storying process and seeing the youth really get into God's story. It makes such great sense to me. We have not tried out the process of storying yet, but I am very excited about the possibility.

Here is a little snipit from the book that I really liked:

"We need to stop tryinig to fit God into our lives and stories and realize that God desires us to play a role in his Story instead. As subtle a difference as it may seem, the shift in perspective changes everything. When we see ourselves as a part of God's Story---as to opposed to God being a part of our stories--it awakens us to live in a broader reality, to live for and contribute to something bigger than ourselves.

Furthermore, fitting God into our own stories seems akin to trying to create our own realities--revolving around our own desires--as we ask God to bless our actions. We then invest time and resources trying to find out how the Bible is relevant to our lives instead of trying to discover and pursue how we might become more relevant to God's Story already in progress.

God doesn't have a relevance issue - -we do!

Again, Eugene Peterson describes this so well:

The Christian life is not about us; it is about God. Christian spirituality is not a life-project for becoming a better person, it is not about developing a so-called "deeper life". We are in on it, to be sure. But we are not the subject. Nor are we the action. . .The great weakness of North American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting in on the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. And the more there is of us, the less there is of God."

We're called to join God and his actions in us and in the world, participating in what God is doing. When we get a picture of how our lives fit into the encompassing epic of God's Story, we begin to see our path in God's activity as his people in the world. Our focus changes. We move away form our own agendas to join God in restoring things to wholeness- -the way God created them to be. It's a focus that moves beyond personal growth to participation in God's kingdom."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff..., February 21, 2009

By 

Good Stuff (Atlantic) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way (Paperback)

Great overview of storying with good ideas, a nice DVD pointing out the highlights using a live youth team leader and youth in a group setting. Very helpful!