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Story Telling and Role Playing

Posted on April 9, 2007

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As Henry Mitchell notes in his book Black Preaching: The recovery of a lost art, African American preachers often engage in a sermon that is “story telling.” sometimes they even change into the character that they are preaching and preach a first person story. Both of these approaches are steeped in the narrative approach. Sometimes a preacher in the Black tradition is judged by whether they can “Tell the Story.”

One of the interesting things about using the Bible as a source for story telling is that many of the stories of the Bible are in outline form. In order to tell the story the preacher must often use her or his “Sanctified Imagination” to fill in details that are not in the text. Kelly Miller Smith in his book Social Crisis Preaching talks about a “freeze-dried” process to explain this phenomenon. Basically the Bible story is “freeze-dried.” However to make it available and usable by the people, water must be added. Water in this case is details to help the story to be made real in the life of the people.

To fill in these details requires that the preacher get into the characters as well as the scene. In the preacher’s exegesis the preacher should attempt to enter the story to understand it not just mentally, but with eyes, touch, and sound.

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1 thought on “Story Telling and Role Playing”

  1. Evangelist D. Hodges says:
    January 15, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    Great program! I’ve been searching for a class or workshop(ON THE WEB) for way too long. I’ve read through much of your website/information and I do want to begin your 6 month study and preparation. I was truly happy to read what was written on “Behavioral Changes”. For the past 15+ years I have worked with women in recovery, in and out of prison including preaching in the prisons and I have found (for me)the greatest and most effective mode of teaching/preaching is to include oneself, with the goal to reach the mind and heart of the listener whereby true (inward)Change has taken place with manifestaion of that CHANGE seen in the life of that person who Heard Gods Message. (I do know it is God and He alone who holds the Power of Change).
    Also, I did not read in the disclaimer if (unexpectedly) your website closes, how will the students (myself) continue to recieve the weekly information? Is there a contact phone number that you or your organizaiton gives once I sign up? Please advise.

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