Thursday 26 July 2007

Here's my research...







This blog was started to chart my sabbatical, and the research I did while travelling. It ended up including far less research, and far more odd thoughts, than I expected - but that's OK. I've now written up my conclusions about retelling Bible stories to children. If you'd like to know what they are, please open up the pages above. (You can do this by clicking each page.)

By the way - this seems a very messy way of adding an article to my blog, but I haven't been able to find a better one. If you'd prefer a Word copy of the article, please let me know. And if I discover a way of adding a Word document to this blog, I will do so...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Alison thanks for sending this to me - all makes good sense. Neat, compact and practical (even at 6 pages length). Make sure someone doesn't steal it - although we give thanks that He has the copyright on good children's work!

I think many committed children's workers get enthused about communicating - and this comes first (closely followed with 'it must be fun') - and the Bible isn't always there as it should be. I do think you are right to stress faithfulness to scripture - otherwise we drive a wedge between the story we tell, and the account the bible tells. Certainly that's what I see in my area. I'm glad it isn't always the case.

Interesting perhaps to reflect a bit on use of the word 'story' which some say has effectively marginalised the bible - just another 'story' but it is history... and parable etc. Thanks for an encouraging piece of reading.

Alison Mitchell said...

Thanks James. I'm not really worried about people stealing the article - I just want it to be widely available and hopefully useful.

I think you're right that committed children's workers get excited about communicating - I LOVE telling Bible stories, and seeing children's eyes light up as they listen. But the thing I find exciting as I prepare is finding a way to communicate God's truth faithfully and effectively. Also - no matter how good a story we tell - we can't change a child's heart. But God's Holy Spirit can and does, as He works through His Word. How exciting is that!