Enter the Story

What is it?

Enter the Story is a workshop-based training event for anyone wanting to find a different way of engaging with the stories of the Bible. By ‘entering the story’, we have the opportunity to think about and explore feelings and events from the point of view of those we read about. 

Enter the story is a stand-alone workshop lasting about 2 hours, however there are also parts 2 & 3 available. More details below.

Who is it for…

Clergy – a tool for sermon or assembly preparation.

Teachers – a tool for lesson planning and for helping children and young people engage with the stories of the Bible.

Anyone – it’s not just for those who might use it professionally, it can be used by anyone as a different way of engaging with scripture.

A bit more detail…

Enter The Story is a stand-alone workshop but can also be extended up to three parts, and participants can chose to do either 1, 2 or all three (each earlier part is a requirement to move onto the next). The workshops can also be booked as just part 1, parts 1 & 2 or as all three. Each workshop takes about 2 hours and they can either take place over a few evenings (I would recommend not further apart than weekly as the continuity is important) or as a day long session. Parts 2 and 3 might have a particular interest for clergy or those wanting to learn more about storytelling but are by no means exclusive.

Below is a breakdown of the three parts:

Part 1: Getting into the story – Deconstruction

This will involve a led example and some group work.

By the end of this workshop you should have learnt some new tools to help with sermon/lesson prep or just for personal study (for clergy courses I try and tailor this to give you some material for the coming weeks, following the lectionary).

Part 2: Rebuilding

In this section we will look at how we take what we have done in part 1 and use that to rebuild the story, this may be for writing or storytelling. We will go through some useful techniques and questions including interaction with the audience and ways of illustrating the story. Then we will have a chance in our groups to ‘have a go’.

Part 3: A new story

While the first two parts look specifically at using stories from the Bible, in this last section we will look at writing our own story (a new or modern day parable) to help us think about teaching points we might want to use; please bring your ideas for subjects etc!

Want to know more?

If you want to find out more about Enter The Story or find out about running a workshop in your church, school, clergy CMD, conference or ordinands training, please use the contact form here to get in touch.

If you want to find out more or book an event near you please do get in touch.

God bless 

Simon

What people have said…

This workshop is a development of a one hour workshop entitled ‘The power of story’ run at Oxford Diocesan Clergy Conference in May 2018. One comment I received from that session was about the lack of time (hence now 2 hours) and the opportunity to explore more about going on to tell the story (so now 3 parts). The training has now been run in churches and schools and below is some of the feedback received (all feedback was anonymous).

In answer to the question “what will you take away from this session?”

“Lot’s of ideas, Thank you!”

“Tools for analysing a story”

“Great themes coming out that would not have come so easy with a straight reading”

“A new model for planning sermons and Bible study”

“How to ask questions of a very difficult passage”

“How to help young people begin to grapple with Scripture and Bible stories”

“Really helpful framework to approach a text – Easy to remember and inspiring results”

“Great! Very clear and exercise practically helpful – something we could all do with!”

“Would be good to have this session on a preaching course.”

“Would like to know much more about storytelling!”

“Particularly helpful to use this technique on a passage that is not a dynamic ‘story’.”