Story telling in the ministry and in preaching is an essential skill. Think back to the sermons you remember or sermons that changed your life. What do you remember about them? – The stories, the testimonies – not the “content”.
Look at the Gospels – Jesus was always telling stories.
Unfortunately, when we get into the pulpit, we are often lacking a story – or we are telling a story which is told poorly or is missing a point.
Here are 5 steps to developing a great set of stories. Remember, it is OK to tell a story more than one time and often you can use the same story to illustrate more than one point.
(This information is not original – it came primarily from I will teach you to be rich website.)
- Find a method to collect your stories. Often story ideas come our way and we have no way to store them. Use a notebook, google docs, or some other method to save these ideas.
- Cut out unnecessary details. Nobody cares about if it was on September 12th or August 8th. Write your story down and then get rid of the uninteresting details.
- Write down the point of the story. No, it’s not obvious – write it down in plain and simple language. If you want to use the story for a different point, write the story a second time and give that point. If there is no point, you should not use the story – preaching time is too precious to waste on telling stories without a point.
- No, you are not ready yet. Now, perfect the story. Do this by recording your story and then listening to it. Tell your story in front of a mirror and watch yourself. Keep doing this until you can tell the story without any hesitation and with the proper expression. DON’T tell an exciting story like you want to go to sleep. A sad story shouldn’t be told while you are laughing. You get the idea. Save these stories. You should have a number of them you are perfecting for the future – not just for the sermon tomorrow.
- Practice with a low-stakes audience. Tell the story to your spouse, to your kids, to friends and watch their reactions. Remember, rapt attention is not the same as a person’s eyes glazing over.
As you go through these steps, you will find yourself modifying the story, making it longer, adding and removing content, all in your quest to be a great story teller.
Don’t give up! Story telling is a craft – not a spiritual gift. Work on it and you can enjoy the fruits of people staying awake in your sermon and even quoting you weeks, months and years later.
Musings 