Earlier this year, I felt the Lord strongly prompt me to attend a workshop on storytelling. I resisted, because I was really busy, and besides, Aborigines are natural storytellers. But I felt the Lord show me clearly that they are not telling the stories in the church, but following the western preaching style of missionaries and others.
Dorothy Miller, writer and producer of God's Story DVD, has developed Simply the Story over the last few years, as growing numbers of mission organizations have realised that a different style is required with people whose communication is oral, rather than written. About 80% of the Bible is stories.
During the workshop, Dorothy shared some figures from a national survey in USA which showed that 30% of Americans cannot read, 30% cannot understand a paragraph when they read it, 20% prefer to get information orally, and only 20% like to read. The figures are probably very similar around the western world. Modern media, especially TV, are increasing the numbers of people who don't read. The number of indigenous people who can't or don't read is likely to be much higher.
Simply the Story is a simple means of sharing what God has chosen to put in His Word accurately in a way that people will know and apply what God is saying to them today. It consists of a method of learning and preparing the story, then a five-step presentation.
The story must be learned accurately, without adding or taking away any details that God has chosen to put in the story [Rev. 22:18-19]. God has even included difficult names that seem irrelevant to us – include them! The best way to do this is to read the story aloud, close your Bible and tell it to the birds, trees, or animals aloud in your own words, then read it through aloud from the Bible again to check on the details. Do this several times, and within 10 minutes you can learn a 10 verse story.
Other preparation includes thinking through what background information needs to be given to your audience, and what terms need explanation. These should be kept to a minimum. Thought and prayer also needs to be given to how the present the story: what actions can be done, and what emotions and feeling are expressed in the Bible in this story. Do not put in feelings like anger etc. that are not clearly in the words of the Bible for this story.

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