Topical Story
The most common form we are all familiar with is the topical story which is usually related to a Bible lesson topic. Topical stories are often used to instruct and disciple and are a good way to give corrective teaching as several story lessons are brought to bear upon an issue. Topical stories work best with people who already are familiar with the stories and where there is general acceptance of the Bible and its teaching as being relevant to their lives. One of the disadvantages of topical teaching is that, unless several stories and lessons are used, the stories may be reinterpreted or restructured negatively to support an erroneous view. In stories that dealt exclusively with God’s judgment upon a sinful people it could give the impression that God is an angry God that looks for opportunity to destroy people. These stories would need to be balanced with stories that explored the grace of God in providing an escape from the punishment of sin if the sinner would believe him and do what God told them to do. Topical stories are best used for discipling and training leadership.
Chronologically Arranged Stories
Chronologically arranged stories are those which are used in a timeline chronology so that each story leads into the following story or in some way prepares for the following stories. Why follow a chronological timeline?—The main reason is that it follows the pattern or order in which the stories happened, it is therefore a natural organization of the stories. Oral culture people like to begin at the beginning and tell the stories as they happened. That is how they remember the stories in the order stories happened. Jumping around in the order of stories can be very confusing to them. With those which the gospel challenges their beliefs, it is important to have the stories to lean upon one another. That is, a group of stories that are related tend to lock in the truth better. An example of this are the stories related to God’s promise to Abraham being carried out through the descendants of Abraham beginning with Isaac and not Ishmael. The themes which run through the stories as promises, actors in the stories, etc., all link the stories together making it much more difficult to change a story even if you don’t like what it teaches.
Gospel Preparation Stories
Situational Stories
It is important to prepare a people for hearing the good news of a Savior. The best preparation for this is the bad news of man’s sinful condition, accountability to God, and his inability to save himself from God’s wrath. So the Old Testament stories make the best backdrop for presenting the stories of Jesus as fulfillment of all prophecy and promise. There are two types of storying that are more often used in either acclimatizing a people for the hearing the Gospel. One is the situational story which is effective in ministry to individuals and families. It is simply a story which is chosen and told as fitting to some circumstance in which the Bible storyer has opportunity to use it. A typical use of situtational storying is an invitation to enter a home to pray for a family member or family need. This is opportunity to lift up Jesus before the people in a quickly told story before offering the requested prayer. Then the storyer offers to come again and tell more of the stories about Jesus from God’s Word. Bible stories may of course be used in weddings, funerals, and any other occasion when a story fits the occasion.
Fast-Tracking the Gospel
The other type is called fast-tracking the Gospel and will be covered in the next post.
