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

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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.

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."

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!

a great book. e-mailed the author and asked if there is curriculum and he's in the process of writing it, so i had to write my own, but this is a WORTHY purchase for your collection. storying can be modified for any age group

We so enjoyed watching the DVD and then reading the book as it helped us grasp the power of using Biblical storytelling to engage young (as well as old) in growing in God's word. This approach facilitated meaningful engagement and interaction with the youth that I have not seen before.

Once again, Gods timing is perfect. We were looking for something that would help us tell God's story - this book goes above and beyond what we imagined. Thank-you!!