Vol. XVII. No. 28
Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019 http://colleagueslist.blogspot/.ca http://colleagueslistii.blogspot.com
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Dear Friends:
My Special Item this week focuses on storytelling, which is both deeply embedded in religious tradition and commonly used in preaching and teaching ministries. Thanks to Wood Lake Publications for this small, but helpful book.
The other pieces in this week's material are a collection of items that I have accumulated during Holy Week and Easter. I hope you find them to be helpful.
Wayne
Please Note - If a link below, seems to be dead, cut and paste it into the address bar at the top of your web page and it should work.
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SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
THE POWER OF STORYTELLING IN WORSHIP AND EDUCATION
A Practical Guide, by Jed Griswold
Wood Lake Publishing, Kelowna, BC. 2022.
108 pages. $12.00 CAD paper. $7.50 CAD e-book, $10.00 CAD Kindle
ISBN #978-1-77343-519-0
(available through Wood Lake and Amazon)
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Publisher's Promo:
A RESOURCE FOR PASTORS, RELIGIOUS EDUCATORS, TEACHERS, AND PARENTS
It is difficult to overstate the importance of storytelling. A resource for pastors, religious educators and parents
Think about how Jesus taught. And rabbis. How have Buddhist monks taught children and adults for centuries? How have Hindu swamis taught? And Islamic leaders?
And Indigenous elders in lands around the globe when it comes to our desire to pass along our values, our spirituality, our faith to the next generation. Or to teach and inspire our own generation. In this small book you will find perhaps the most concise and well-articulated guide to storytelling anywhere. Jed Griswold’s 12 tips for storytelling and his 20 original stories are more than enough to clarify and inspire readers to engage in the art of storytelling. The book's website contains a helpful lesson planning guide. To find it, click the link below to the book itself.
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Author Information:
Dr. Jed Griswold is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition and has served several pastorates of different denominations. He has also been a college administrator and professor, teaching in the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, and religion and has led many workshops on applying the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to educational and religious contexts. He also has a passion for theatre and film – which began with childhood acting and continues today – drawn to the art because stage and film are creative and powerful forms of storytelling. He has written stage scripts and has also appeared in a wide variety of TV pilots, independent films, and feature releases (primarily as an extra), including Goodwill Hunting, Moonrise Kingdom, and Spotlight.
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My Thoughts:
I have found - during many years of ministry - that a lot of my most important connections with people has been through the stories I have told. When I check the number of hits my Colleagues List issues tally, those with stories and biographical narratives are often the ones that receive a lot of attention.
Some of our most popular writers appearing here are storytellers. For example - our colleague Herbert O'Driscoll. But there are others.
Thanks to Jeb Griswold, the author of The Power of Storytelling in Worship and Education for providing us with tips and actual stories to work with. Here is a volume that should receive a lot of attention.
This book is not only for clergy. It is also a helpful resource for all who work in the church. The right story at the right time is often what draws people's attention and makes the point.
This book may be small, but it is very helpful.
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Buy the book from Wood Lake: https://tinyurl.com/5y8s7f8b
From Amazon.ca: https://tinyurl.com/2zkjk2uf
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COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Jim Taylor, Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log, April 21st, 2022
"Random Thoughts on an Easter Morning"
Philip Yancey, Colorado
Philipyancey.com,
"Music Amidst the Rubble" April 21st, 2022
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Ron Rolheiser, San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site,
"Fear of Missing Out" April 25th, 2022
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Mark Whittall, Ottawa, ON
Sermons and Blog,
"How Dare We?" April 22nd, 2022
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NET NOTES
ACC ARCHBISHOP MARK MACDONALD RESIGNS
He Faces Claims of Sexual Abuse
Religion News Service, April 20th, 2022
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THE FEAR OF PERFECTION HOLDS US BACK
A Reflection by Joan Chittister,
National Catholic Reporter, April 28th, 2022
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CHURCH LEADERSHIP FAILURE CAN TEACH US
Five Lessons to be Learned,
Religion News Service, April 15th, 2022
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METIS PRAISE POPE FRANCIS FOR LISTENING
They Hope for His Visit in Canada This Year
Catholic Register, Toronto, April 27th, 2022
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HOW RUSSIAN CHRISTIANS VIEW THE WAR IN UKRAINE
Only a Few Speak Out Against their Government
Christianity Today, April 22nd, 2022
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POPE FRANCIS CONTINUES TO APPEAL TO PATRIARCH KIRILL
He Advocates for Peace in Ukraine,
Catholic Register, Toronto, April 25th, 2022
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CANADA ACROSS THE RELIGIOUS SPECTRUM
Inter-faith Perspectives During Holy Week
Angus Reid Institute, April 18th, 2022
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ANCIENT ROOTS OF THE EASTER BUNNY TRADITION
A Popular and Continuing Spring Review
Religion News Service, April 14th, 2022
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EASTERN WISDOM FOR WESTERN CHRISTIANS
Rowan Williams Seeks to Free Us Up a Bit
Christian Century, April 21st, 2022
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WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
He Is Risen!
Mary and Mary Magdalene loved with such a perfect love that they shed their fear. Empowered by their faith and their encounter with the risen Christ, they ran on to proclaim what they had seen and what they knew to be true. They were among the first to know the truth that John later put into words: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). They challenge us to love and believe. To love Jesus with a perfect love and to believe in the power of his resurrection. Certainly they grieved and experienced their hope flagging during the dark moments surrounding Jesus’ death. But they never lost their faith. It remained a small, steady flame that was fanned to brilliant, bold new life in the light of that Easter dawn.
- Joyce Hollyday
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Resurrection is everywhere and all around us.
- Timothy McMahan King
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[T]he divine communicates to us primarily through the language of the natural world. Not to hear the natural world is not to hear the divine.
- Thomas Berry
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The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dares to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.
- Marian Anderson
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For Christians, knowledge of the past does not just put the present into proper perspective, it orients us to God’s metanarrative. All of our holy days are remembrances of the past that emphasize our hope for the future.
- Elizabeth Stice,
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Each tree, each ant and person rises and falls beneath an infinite sky; we may flourish on this day or that, but the passage of time will see to our physical annihilation. The virtuosity of life is all the more striking – it might even seem miraculous – when it emerges in a context which also foregrounds its fragility. Here we all are, for a few short minutes – tiny, brittle, ignorant, and unspeakably beautiful.
- Ian Marcus Corbin
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The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this: that the more distinct, sharp, and wiry the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art, and the less keen and sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation, plagiarism, and bungling. What is it that distinguishes honesty from knavery, but the hard line of rectitude and certainty in the actions and intentions? Leave out this line and you leave out life itself; all is chaos again, and the line of the Almighty must be drawn out upon it before man or beast can exist.
- William Blake
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It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should. So then, my brethren, live.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
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