Tips for Telling

Telling a Bible story

by Mike Lockett, The Normal Storyteller

1. Listen to your heart and soul when selecting a Bible story to tell. I heard a national storyteller playing the harmonica in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and thoughts of Gideon came into my head. The story and song I heard had absolutely nothing to do with the Sword of Gideon. Yet, my heart said I needed to work on this story and tell it. I tell most stories because I want to tell them. I told this story because I needed to tell it.
2. Know your story thoroughly. When crafting The Sword of Gideon, I read the story in the scriptures. I also read how the story was retold by various writers in a number of Bible story books for children. Then I put myself in Gideon’s place and tried to tell the story through as I saw it through his eyes – but in the third person. Because I know the story well, it is easier to tell the story to live audiences.
3. Decide how you want to start and end the story in your live performances. The written version that appears on Christianstorytelling.com and the recorded version of the story you are able to listen to differs greatly from the way I tell the story in person. The written story needs to be complete and included more detail than my usual live performances. My live performances start with my harmonica playing and the appearance of the stranger (God’s Angel). My ending is most often similar to the way I ended the story on this recording.
4. Experiment with the telling of the story in front of several small audiences (friends or willing victims) before telling the story in a larger setting. My good friend, John Walsh, recommends that one tell the story at least five times before performing it in public. I tried out this story with family and friends before telling it at a parochial school for children and their parents.
5. Don’t be afraid of trying to add music, rhythm or even poetry to a story. It does not “contaminate” your telling of a Bible story and make the story any less sacred. A fun filled and unusual telling of a story may help bring listeners to read the real scriptures
6. Revisit the story after each telling. Ask yourself what worked well and what elements of the story were less effective. Make any changes that you need to make to tell the story more effectively and to bring the true meaning of the story to the listeners. You may find it amazing how much one story changes after multiple telling. John Walsh asked me to record the story for this website. This required providing a written version of the story and an audio version. I went back to my original version of The Sword of Gideon in order to look at the written version that would appear on the web. I was surprised at how much the story had changed in the year I had been telling it. If you hear me tell the story live, you will notice how much the story I currently tell differs from what you are able to listen to this month. I went back to my original way of telling the story for this recording. (I hope you enjoyed this version, but I bet that like me, you would like the live telling much better.)
7. Enjoy sharing the story, and tell it on a regular basis to retain it in your repertoire. If you do not tell the story for a long time, you may need to go back to your written version that you recorded for your archives.