Let me tell you a story!
Teaching in the old-fashioned way
Lynn Hotton is an accomplished storyteller. Here is her story:
Imagine sitting around a camp fre with some friends and family under a starry night sky talking and questioning about your family history. That’s what happened in the Middle East thousands of years ago as Jews retold their history, much of which became our Bible. Now, suppose you could sit around informally in twos and threes to listen to Biblical stories and, when the ‘telling’ pauses, you can talk and discuss the experiences of the characters within.
That’s Star Light. It is an invitation to enter and to engage with the Bible; both its mysteries and its God. You become not only a listener, but a critic discerning for yourself something about its chief character – God Himself.
This experience is for all ages although I mostly ‘tell’ to adults these days. Star Light can happen in small groups, large groups, clubs and café style set ups. There is always a theme, a question decided upon by the host.
My job would then be to pray and prepare to meet the particular group’s interests. This makes each ‘telling’ unique. I call it a telling as it is not a tight script of a dramatic production.
The pauses are important and worth emphasising as they give the opportunity for listeners to bring out their own thoughts to question amongst themselves. I sit back silently praying for the Holy Spirit to bring His revelation. After all I am a mere channel for His Word and it’s the Holy Spirit who brings it to LIFE!
I’ve found that this non-threatening approach suits those who do believe in God (they always fnd something new) and also those who don’t. It was interesting when an atheist man commented to me at the end that he had never ever had to think about such things. He’s in his sixties and he’s coming again. One lady in a club telling said afterwards that she had never thought about God since her childhood but now she would search in her garage where she has a Bible stored away somewhere! I’m passionate for people to fnd God in His book and urged on by Christians who say they don’t read most of it and certainly NOT the Old Testament! Yet when placed in a telling context they can surprise themselves and engage with it!
After thirty eight years of teaching Religious Education to teenagers who often didn’t want it, I knew the Lord had prepared me for this time. Story telling was something I did in church settings too, for over forty years. On retirement and following a recycling or wilderness period as some would call it this Star Light activity was born. Not only am I available to ‘tell’ but also to encourage others to do so either one to one or in workshops. (Lynn will be running a workshop at the Foundations 12 conference). Contact her at: lynnhotton@yahoo.co.uk.
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