One of the defining words for this digital era is interactive. We’re becoming accustomed to being able to access and create our own media at a moment’s notice. We desire to contribute to our own learning and entertainment like we would any conversation. We now yearn to be a part of shared experience.

This shift in values has significant implications for the way we approach education. Places where we’ve traditionally accessed information—schools, libraries, and museums—have identified this shift and moved to making their learning opportunities more interactive. There is a new set of standards for how we teach others. We are moving away from one-dimensional education with the teachers being the experts who hold the key to information.

Students already have instant access to most information. They’re becoming accustomed to being able to change, interact, and create while they learn.

We teachers and leaders then become guides to help students explore information and use it in the right context. This requires a new vision for our roles as educators. We become “experience architects,” creating environments that help participants dive deeper and explore further into the things of God. This new role requires a significant investment of energy into creativity.

Bible Storying helps us to explore our new roles as experience architects. The storying process encourages us to experiment with all kinds of creative exercises that will foster learning and formation in our students.

(Excepted from my forthcoming book Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way)

Last week I had the privilege to lead a workshop with some of the faculty from Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School in Brookville, New York. I lead them through a storying experience and training in the morning, and my brother Mark lead the afternoon.

Mark is co-owner of Imago Media, and has developed interactive training that he has  used to help ministries for a number of years. He focused on the major communication shifts taking place in our culture, and how we must now connect with people through teaching that is interactive, collaborative, image-driven, and story-centered.
Really good stuff!

We were so encouraged by the faculty at “LuHi”, especially Ron Gothberg who hosted us. Ron is the campus pastor and a teacher at the school. He is a wonderful person and deep thinker who is helping students to embrace new forms of worship and spiritual practice. It was great to connect with Ron and see his heart for students!

Ron also took Mark and me to the Yankees game… we had to see a game in the old stadium before they tear it down this fall!

It’d be nice if the Bible read like a novel from cover to cover. But it’s not a novel. It’s a series of books that have been grouped together—and many of them are out of chronological order.

In technological terminology, a mashup is a Web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. The Bible is like this—a mashup of different writings from different authors inspired to tell the unified Story of God and his love for people.

Let’s face it—the Bible is often difficult to read and to teach. We’ve got our work cut out for us if we wish to give our students a sense of its overarching story. That’s why storying is the best way I’ve found to give people, young and old alike, a Bible overview with context to all future Bible learning.

(Excepted from my forthcoming book Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encounter God in a New Way)

“Art is love creating the new world
and justice is love rolling up its sleeves to heal the old one”
– N.T. Wright

[from Fermi Project Blog]

– Excerpt from the book Searching for God Knows What:

“It strikes me, even as I type this, how distant and far our formulaic methodology is from the artful, narrative sort of methodology used to explain God in Scripture. It makes you wonder whether we can even get to the truth of our theology unless it is presented in the sort of methodology Scripture uses.

It makes you wonder if all our time spent making lists would be better spent painting or writing or singing or learning to speak stories. Sometimes I feel as though the church has a kind of pity for Scripture, always having to come behind it and explain everything, put everything into actionable steps, acronyms and hidden secrets, as though the original writers, and for that matter the Holy Spirit who worked in the lives of the original writers, were a bunch of illiterate hillbillies. I don’t think they were illiterate hillbillies, and I think the methodology God used to explain His truth is quite superior.

What I mean by this is I feel my life is a story, more than a list; I feel this blood slipping through my veins and these chemicals in my brain telling me I am hungry or lonely, sad or angry, in love or despondent. And I don’t feel that a list could ever explain the complexity of all this beauty, all this sun and moon, this smell of coming rain, the beautiful mysteries of women, or the truck-like complexity of men.

It seems nearly heresy to explain the gospel of Jesus, this message an infinitely complex God has delivered to an infinitely complex humanity, in bullet points. How amazing it is that Christ would explain that to be His followers we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and that He is the Bridegroom and we are the bride, and that we will be unified with Him in His death, and that we will live forever with Him in glory.”

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Here is a segment of a talk by Donald on Narrative Expression:

I decided to post a video that my friend Aaron Pedersen and I made a few years ago. It recounts a strange story from the life of Elisha, where he is jeered by youth from the town because of his baldness. Elisha calls on some bears to punish the youth… a harsh lesson. This is story is taken from 2 Kings 2. We used this video to discuss the complex nature of God and scripture… this story is tragic, humorous (to some), and mysterious all at the same time.

The past few days at the SHIFT conference were a wonderful time of connecting with new and old friends. I had several meaningful conversations with youth leaders were I could identify with their passion and struggle to help students walk in the ways of Jesus. (yes… that is root beer that we are drinking!)

Teaching a workshop on storying is always challenging… the challenges this time were trying to fit with in the time and expectations. I felt really crunched, and that caused me to rush through some things that needed to be given a slower pace. I did not allow enough space for feedback and questions. I also had a few brief interactions with youth leaders who shared that they expected something else from the session. This made me feel bad… or made me hope that I had frames up the session better. But it was still an energizing experience, and I feel privileged to help youth workers in this way.

I had a terrific conversation with two youth leaders… Gerald from Indiana and Jose from Texas. As we talked about our lives, ministries and stories, I could sense their sincerity – it was one of those conversations were you feel like you are talking with old friends even though you just met. I am grateful for this connection and the encouragement that came from it.

I also had the chance to connect with an old friend named John Witte. If you have ever heard me talk about storying, you have heard me talk about John – he is the missionary that inspired Caesar and I to explore and develop this process. John is a joy to be around – animated and funny, and of course a brilliant storyteller! John was attended the SHIFT conference with Chad and C.J., youth ministers from his church in Texas. I had many opportunities to spend time with them and hear about their lives and ministries. John even shared a few of his experiences with storying in Africa in my training session. It was captivating! We also recorded a podcast with John that I hope to post on this blog soon… in fact, it will need to be a series of podcasts!

If you were a part of my training session at the SHIFT conference, please let me know you thoughts (good and bad!) I am always trying to improve the ways that I help youth leaders embrace story in their ministry. Send me an email!

This week I will be doing an extended Storying training for youth workers at the SHIFT Conference. I will also lead a couple of “Cups of Coffee” discussion groups – one on Learner-Focused Ministry and another on Story-Centered Ministry. I am really looking forward to it! I will let you know how it goes soon!

In the past you were what you owned…. now you are what you share…

[Thanks to Jim Hancock for posting this]