Tips for Telling

Sunday Morning Scripture Reading (Telling)

A pastor recently told me he tried something new, and had amazing results. He said, (now understand - I am just quoting him) “The Scripture reading in our church is the “downer” of the Sunday morning service. The passage is being read, but the people are thinking about something else.” He said, “It has become a ritual at our church that everyone expects, but they don’t really listen to it.”

He said, “Last Sunday, I took a recording of you telling the story of the Prodigal Son, and just played it over the loud speaker. There was no live person standing in front of the congregation, it was just a voice over the loud speaker.” He said, “John, everyone listened! And after the service, several people commented how much they learned just by listening to the story being told instead of being read.”

A few other pastors have told me that they are now asking a storyteller in their church to tell the Scripture just before the sermon. The entire story is told, and then the pastor reads the text of the sermon. They report that the people are listening better, and they believe they are learning more Scripture – simply by hearing someone tell a story from the Bible.

All of the sermons in the book of Acts were done this way. The preachers did not read the Old Testament Scripture, they told it. I am firmly convinced that churches need to once again return to having the stories of the Bible told in our adult services and Bible studies. Try this in your next sermon, Sunday school lesson, or Bible study.