Part of the Glue

This weekend I got the chance to sit and hear from Michael Novelli, founder of www.echothestory.com speak about the practice of “storying.”  Novelli has been doing “storying” since 2004 and claims to be an experimenter who is trying to reclaim an ancient tradition.
Last year our youth ministry used this “storying” technique for a series we did that told the story of God from Genesis to Revelation. We creatively told the story in our large group setting and then practiced dialoguing the story in our small groups. The great thing about this method is that it really helps students to learn from the story instead of them learning several points you have prepared to teach them.  In august I flew to Mozambique with a mission group from our church to record a documentary of the trip.  During the trip we used the “storying” method as the content for the english speaking camp we held.  This method in my opinion is one of the best discipleship tools in the since that when students learn the story they learn the truth in a holistic way.  If you haven’t checked out “storying” you really should.

One of the things I remember hating about high school was being stuck in a class I knew I had no desire to learn about.  Being a creative person I really struggled with math/science courses and wished at some point I could focus more on what I was good at.  There is something about being a high school student where variety and options are important.  Teens at this age are almost considered an adult and are having to make more and more decisions and choices on their own.

Recently we had a meeting with several adults in our youth ministry who have been leading electives for our high school students on sunday morning.  We came to the conclusion that in the past “sunday school” had a bad connotation because it had the appearance of “school,” which meant boring and lectures. For nearly 8 months we have taken a different approach to teaching this age group by providing 6+ elective classes for students to choose from.  The elective classes last 5-6 weeks and then students come together for a month of lecture based teachings by one teacher.  The electives are interactive, discussion oriented, topic driven and give students the chance to decide what they want to learn about.   For our youth ministry, “Sunday Nights” is where our discipleship groups meet so we decided to provide an outlet during the morning that was not as deep and could reach students at an entry level.  Some of the topics consisted of Leadership, apologetics, film and faith, life after high school, evangelism, inductive bible study etc…I think there has been a lot of positives to taking this approach and letting students decide what they want to learn based on their particular bent.