The Art of Storytelling

A popular comment to pastors is, "Jesus used stories so you should use stories when you preach." That sounds great but being a good storyteller is a lot harder than it sounds.

A few "experts" have picked up on this and they have written stories rather than the dissertation format we usually get in their books. I recently finished just such a book and, while I will applaud the attempt, I have to say the writing was pretty lousy. I mean it is not like I'm going to go around telling people to read the book just because the story is so good. I would only tell them to read the book if I thought the knowledge gained would be worth it for them.

So my advice is to be careful about telling stories. Know that storytelling is an art form that takes work and practice. If you aren't that good at it be sure to use what you are good at until your storytelling skills have improved. It's not easy and unless you are naturally gifted at it you need to learn how to do it properly first.

I have a sudden urge to go read Dostoevsky now.