An Example of Bible Storytelling And Sermon

There's a tension when a pastor in a traditional church wants to incorporate Bible Storytelling into ministry. I find myself in that such a position.

Don't get me wrong, I love the traditional liturgy and I'm not complaining about it...it is biblical and theologically sound. As it stands you might say our worship is very oriented to the literate because we follow a "Bulletin". I would say though that there are enough fixed elements that an orally oriented person could learn the vast majority of it by heart and participate without being able to read. Can you say as much for your church? I suppose this would be an argument for the superiority of the Book of Common Prayer! By having mostly fixed liturgies, the orally oriented can learn to participate through memorization instead of have to read new content weekly. "Freestyle" worship does not favor them in that way - especially if the instructions are all on a power point shown up front. In fact freestyle worship can leave them "out in the cold".

But I digress.

In my audience on a given Lord's Day there are people who love the fact that I print out my sermons notes. They reread them during the week. Some people download them from all over the world and use them in their ministry. So for them a strictly oral presentation would be a let down... they might even think "The Preacher's just being lazy." When I tried repeating stories over several weeks, this segment found that very tiresome and too repetitive. It just proved that they're not "secondarily oral". So to reach them I print my notes and preach a more traditional sermon.

But on a given week I have work release inmates in the audience and others I don't know whom I suspect aren't great readers. And, Lord knows, I'd love to have more.

How do you reach BOTH in one setting?

Here's how I am TRYING to do that...and I'd love to hear what you're doing. Instead of commenting, would you join us here and tell us what you're doing?

You can see how this attempt went today as I am preaching through Matthew's Gospel and am starting the Lord's Prayer. I began by preaching on the meaning of "Our Father".

I've incorporated a Bible Story near the front of the sermon and allude to it throughout to attempt to "bridge the gap" between audiences.

Our Father

I'm not saying this is the perfect approach, but it's the one I can try to "manage".

Also on Wednesday nights I'm teaching through the stories of Genesis. Here are some sermons on Chronological Bible Stories

Frankly, I'm seeking improvement on them. I would like to add more oral elements while not being perceived as "falling down on the job" and reaching both audiences. But that's a matter for growth on my part.