Innovative Ways to Encourage Learning

Church Stories

Story sharing is one of the ways that families pass on traditions, values, and a sense of identity. Churches can be similar. Over the years, a church weathers storms, finds surprises, and learns how to grow and adapt. By hearing the stories from the life of a church, the members are reminded that change and transition are normal and expected aspects of a church’s life.

The Church In Transition
Not only do individuals go through cycles and times of transition in life, but organizations and institutions do as well. Congregations go through phases and cycles that can be recognized and identified by its members. The life of a congregation moves and unfolds in a way that can be captured and expressed in the form of a story of a journey. Such a story can often be told by the local church “historians”– those members who have been an integral part of the congregation for a long time.

Just as getting in touch with and listening to our personal life transitions and stories is helpful, so it can be productive for a congregation to recognize and learn from its own transitions and story. In Church Stories, members are led to share stories from your church’s past, and through the sharing perhaps discover a perspective on where the church is in its present journey.

The Event
Your story-telling event can happen in one evening. Plan to have a cookout or potluck meal as part of the event.

In order to insure that several able “historians” will be present, provide special invitations for 2-3 people who have been involved in congregational life for many years, and the leaders who would benefit from the storytelling. Encourage these persons to think of one event each that they could summarize in 3-5 minutes.

Before the event, tape a long, double-wide piece of butcher paper to a wall in the front of the room you will use for the gathering. Lengthwise down its center draw a line the full length of the paper. This will be the congregational time line. Do not put any dates on it yet. Begin the event with food and relaxation, allowing people to talk freely and interact easily. When the time is right, call everyone together around the butcher paper you have placed upon the wall. This is the time of storytelling. Allow the invited “historians” to tell their brief stories as a way of spurring people’s thoughts.

The best stories are spontaneous and inspired by some memory. Try to avoid being drawn into a chronological history that simply reports events in order from beginning of the congregation’s life to the present (that is why you have not put any dates on the line yet). Begin by saying something like: We have gathered here to tell some stories and share some memories about the life of this congregation. I want you to pause for a moment, and reflect upon what story comes to mind when you think about “(name of congregation).” What year was it, who were the people involved, and what was going on? Ask for a volunteer to share a story, and as they tell it, place a title for it on the time line in the position you estimate it would fall in the overall history of the congregation. Ask for another and place it on the time line. Let the storytelling develop, filling in the line with events, and mark the years along the center line. If the storytelling flows, you should begin to get a full history of the church, not in terms of objective history, but in terms of memories and personal experiences. Interact as you feel it would help the process along, asking questions, clarifying details, filling gaps, and egging people into more storytelling.

You may also notice that consistent themes begin to appear in the storytelling. They may be themes of continued service, familiar love, struggle, conflict, growth, or decline. You may also notice that the story cycles in terms of seasons or points in a journey as on the Transition Spiral (or it may not, do not try to make it fit).

Distribute copies of the Transition Spiral to the group, and offer a brief explanation of it. As a group, consider the time line and ask, Are there any phases in our church story that fit the phases of the Transition Spiral? Look for times of Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter (or the other metaphors) in the time line. Then ask,

• At what point (or points) in the Transition Spiral do you see the church at present?

• What lessons do we want to learn from our story?

• What from our story do we want to carry into the future?

• What from our story would we like to leave behind?

• Where do you see the story leading into the future?

• What is the next step? How shall we proceed?

Plan to leave the time-line up in the room, and invite the group to continue to fill in the time-line as they remember events and stories. Call the group to a commitment, and invite everyone up to the time-line to sign their name at the point they became a part of the life of the congregation as a sign of their commitment to the future.

Resources
• A long, double-wide strip of butcher paper taped to a wall of the meeting room, markers.

• Enough copies of the Transition Spiral for each participant to have one. More on the Transition Spiral can be found in the leader’s guide for Transitions: Coping with Change.

Promoting the Event
• Promote “Church Stories” by inviting key members of your congregation to give a 2-3 minute brief story from the church’s past. These “Church Stories” can be offered in worship, or during mid-week services. If your church has a website, written stories can be posted there. After each story, invite the congregation to an evening of fellowship and remembering, and announce the time and place of the event.

• If your church provides the elective study (See “electives” in this month’s Annual Learning Guide) “Tranistions,” announce the event to these groups, and perhaps even plan the “Church Stories” event to occur at the conclusion of their study. Understanding a church’s transitions can be a positive way of approaching our individual transitions.