By Janet and Jim Stahl, The Seed Company, Oral Strategies Coordinators
The Bible storytelling movement is growing rapidly and many organizations are getting involved.
Some organizations are carving their niche by developing technology so that the Bible stories can be shared digitally using hand-held players, new cell phone technology and radio broadcasts. Some groups are working mainly among communities of people who speak languages of wider communication and who learn to tell stories from already translated
Scripture. There is a growing demand to help communities though they do not have the full
Bible or portions of the Bible in their language to be able to tell many Bible stories well.
In The Seed Company, we acknowledge the need to combine oral and written strategies for communicating the Scriptures and encourage our partners to incorporate components of both modes of communication in all their projects where appropriate. For example, a written translation project might not be appropriate for some partners who represent very small language communities among whom the interest in learning to read in the vernacular is limited.
These people may have the goal of telling the Bible stories in their own languages while accessing the written Scriptures in the language of wider communication.
1.
As a Scripture use strategy
There are many advantages for including a Bible storytelling component at all stages of a translation project. Where the Scriptures have been translated and checked by a consultant in the target language, we consider the Bible storytelling strategy to be a Scripture use strategy and do not require the stories to be checked by a consultant. We do however encourage the storytellers to learn good practices for testing their story with an audience in order to make sure they are communicating well. For these types of projects we seek to partner with other likeminded organizations who are working in the area and who specialize in this type of training.
2.
As an initial or intermediate goal strategy
Where the Scriptures have not yet been translated and published or where only a portion of the
Scriptures have been translated and published in the target language, we appreciate the power of a Bible storytelling strategy to help people respond to the immediate need for sharing the
Scriptures. Bible storytelling can help create a desire to learn more about God through His Word and stimulate motivation to learn to read the Scriptures. And we have seen that folks who learn to craft, test, and check Bible stories have developed many competencies that will enable them to participate in written translation work. For these types of projects, we expect that the partners will employ a strategy including pathways for testing the stories for naturalness and clarity as well as checking the stories with a translation consultant for accuracy.

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling December 17, 2010
Storytelling is an art, which involves creative expression. So, storytellers develop styles that vary along the range of reciting the Scriptures verbatim to telling stories based on the Scriptures. And somewhere in the middle of this range, some tellers modernize or contextualize the story, or adapt it to make a specific point, so that the story connects to a specific situation. Storytellers shape their performance to fit their audience and the purpose for which they are telling the stories.
Dramatic readings or reciting Scripture verbatim may be a strategy employed for digitally recording stories; however, few cultures have traditions in which stories are memorized and recited verbatim. In most examples of this type of storytelling tradition, the stories are elaborate epics that are chanted and the tellers apprentice for years in order to qualify as approved tellers.
The reality is that most storytelling traditions allow tellers to develop their own personal style and to adapt the story for their specific audience and purpose for telling the story. This means that good storytellers use their intonation, facial expression, and gestures to help convey the story and build appropriate images in the audience’s mind. They will adapt their language for the age, gender, education, and background of their specific audience. In fact, most storytellers will acknowledge that the performance of a story varies to some degree from one telling event to the next. And in all cases good storytellers will adjust their presentation from the written text to reflect a more oral style. For example, they may use short and less complex sentences than in the written story. They will repeat crucial parts of the story and will change indirect speech to direct speech. Many will limit details such as proper names and the amount of dialogue if the details do not relate directly to the main point of the story being told.
With this in mind, we recommend that our partners employ storytelling strategies that include:

Training the Bible storytellers to learn the Bible stories well, including the context and cultures of the Bible stories being crafted so that they can make informed adaptations.

The Bible storytellers form a guild that takes responsibility for training others to tell the
Bible stories well.

Training opportunities for the Bible storytellers to develop their personal style with feedback from local audiences.

Crafting Initial stories that are close to the Scripture that limits the additional information from other parts of Scripture. This information is added to help build the story context, introduce the character, or conclude an event. In some cases cultural information from reliable Bible background resources may be added to help the audience understand the story.
2

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling

December 17, 2010
Once the storytellers have checked and revised and polished the Bible stories, good digital recordings are made of the stories and the recordings are made available as resources for people who want to tell the stories and as a tool for the Christian community.
Signs that the stories are having an impact on the community are that the stories are being told and retold, and an increasing number of people are learning to tell the stories.
A significant indicator of impact is when people include Bible stories in their own repertoire of stories that they accept as valid for informing and shaping their lives. We recommend that our partners employ storytelling strategies that lead to crafting stories, which are easily remembered and retold, and that help establish local storytelling guilds, which train others to tell the Bible stories well. These guilds are encouraged to discuss issues related to establishing boundaries and maintaining standards for telling these sacred Bible stories. Our experience has shown that these guilds take on this role with little prompting from outsiders.
A Bible storytelling project will only have an impact on the community if the stories are being told in increasingly wider circles. To this end, projects need to be designed in partnership with the local partners who will be the core story crafters and tellers. These people and the organizations that they represent should be involved in selecting the Bible stories to be crafted and checked, so that they help provide opportunities for the stories to be told.
The oral Bible storytelling staff of The Seed Company designed a method for training mothertongue storytelling teams to craft and test Bible stories in their languages. Not all Bible storytelling projects that The Seed Company sponsors need to use this method, if the partners wish to use another method that leads to quality results.
Language groups without translated and checked Scriptures or with only portions translated and printed.
The process was and is being designed so that it is quickly and easily transferable to local or regional partners who not only own the process, but also are able to customize it to fit their unique situations.

Train and equip teams of local storytellers who know the Bible stories well, including the context and background information and who will train others to tell the stories.
3

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling

December 17, 2010
Digitally record sets of tested and checked Bible stories that have been selected by local or regional partners to meet specific needs such as evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, topical studies…. Roughly 24-30 stories can be done in a four 2-week long workshop series and 40-50 in a six workshop series.

Establish local storytelling guilds or clubs in which people practice telling the Bible stories and where questions of standards and interpretation are determined.

Train and equip local story crafting and testing teams who can carry on with crafting, testing, checking and recording more story sets in their own language. Partnership with a Bible agency must be established for on-going help with translation consulting needs.
The people we tend to work with function well in community and so this process maximizes the use of group dynamics and minimizes the amount of individual work. If possible, projects should be organized with clusters of language teams all of whom are working on the same stories.
Each member of the team will internalize the stories rather than memorize them in the source language. This internalization process includes relating to the story in devotion, developing mental images for the story and discovering the essential parts of the story. This is carried out best in a group facilitated by someone knowledgeable about the Bible so that difficult issues are dealt with immediately before the team begins crafting the story.
Face-to-face storytelling has incredible impact and so this process includes lots of opportunity to tell the Bible stories so that the participants improve their storytelling techniques as well as orally revise the story numerous times.
A written documentation of the back translation of the story is produced for the consultant’s benefit and for archiving purposes. This occurs after the Bible storytelling team has tested the story with a variety of audiences.
We can minimize the work of the translation consultant by improving the quality of the story drafts.
Once people have a taste for the power of Bible storytelling, they will want to continue to add more stories to their repertoire. This process is designed to enable teams to carry on with crafting, testing, and checking Bible stories at their own initiative and in cooperation with the network of translation organizations.
1.
Facilitator
During workshops, this person is the trainer responsible for leading the Bible story internalization process, the group discussions about revising the stories based on gathered feedback, as well as the activities for discovering good storytelling techniques, local culture, and
4

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling December 17, 2010
Bible background. As soon as possible, local partners should increasingly be shouldering more of the responsibilities of this role.
2.
Administrator
This person is in charge of logistics for running the workshop, including handling and reporting finances.
3.
Typist / archivist
This person is responsible for typing the oral and handwritten story back-translations into a word template for the consultants to use. S/he is also responsible for archiving the teams’ Bible and original stories that have been recorded on the participants’ voice recorders.
4.
Language program planner
This person needs to be based in the region and have good networks with local communities.
Initially this person will liaise with the appropriate organizations, churches, or community leaders to set up the storytelling teams and help to select the target story sets. S/he will continue to interact with the local partners and the story teams to make sure they are able to carry out their story crafting, testing, and telling roles. Typically this person will meet with the teams during the workshops to discuss how the team is working and what their goals will be between workshops.
5.
Storytelling teams
Each team should have at least four members who are fluent in the local language and at least one of whom is fluent in the language of wider communication. They need to live in easy access to a portion of the language community in order to listen to local storytellers and to collect original stories in the local language and then to tell and test the Bible stories.
6.
Bible translation consultant
This role requires the most experience and training and therefore needs to be filled by a highly qualified group of people. These consultants need some orientation to the difference between
Bible storytelling projects and written translation projects.
1.
Key terms
The facilitators identify and research what might be key terms ahead of time, before presenting the story in the devotions for that day. Facilitators use Translator’s Handbook and Translators
Notes in Translator’s Workplace for researching these terms. The large group discusses the stories and key terms. If a translation is already available in the target language, in progress, or available in related languages, the facilitator highly recommends that they use the key terms or wordings in these Scriptures. In discussing these terms as a group, participants get ideas from each other. The facilitator presents and uses the standard translation techniques for dealing with difficult words. The teams test the stories with various audiences and get feedback on key terms. These key terms are also discussed with the consultant and can be revised at any stage of the story crafting process.
5

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling
2.
Telling stories to a variety of audiences
December 17, 2010
In order to get feedback about accuracy, naturalness and clarity of the story, the participants practice telling the stories initially with a safe audience, and later with a fresh audience (UNS).
The safe audience provides important feedback when the participant is initially telling and learning the story and gives the tellers opportunities to practice telling the story. Using team members and other language teams as the initial audience during the workshop provides opportunities for them to creatively experiment with the language, facial expression, intonation and gestures and to get informed feedback immediately. Throughout the workshop, the various storytelling teams tell their stories to each other. Not everyone is able to understand each of the languages, however, they have some degree of bilingualism in some of the other languages, and they are able to get the gist of each other’s stories. The benefit to each team is that they are hearing the stories in languages and cultures that far more related to each other than they are to a global language like English, which is often their source for the Bible stories.
During the workshop, the teams find fresh audiences to whom they tell their stories. They ask for and record retellings of the story and discuss key terms, idioms and other difficult parts of the stories with the fresh audiences. The feedback is processed in the small language groups and in the large group, and revisions are made to the stories.
3.
Back translations
Toward the end of the workshop, each team is responsible for back translating the stories. The facilitators ask for someone on the team who was not the teller to back translate the story if the process is happening during the workshop. If the participants are working on the back translation in their community, they find someone not on the team to do the back translation.
Some of the teams do an oral back translation into a voice recorder and some prefer to do a written back translation. Typically the project hires a local typist to type the back translations into a Word template that the consultant uses to prepare for the checking session with the team.
4.
Consultant training for storytelling
The project organizes the help of a Bible translation consultant to help check the stories at the end of each workshop. The best orientation for the consultant to Bible storytelling is to take part in the initial storytelling workshop for the project. The consultant is mostly looking for exegetical issues and making sure the difficult passages and figures of speech are accurate. S/he also asks for explanation for why the storytelling team may have left certain sections out of the story helping them to evaluate their decision based on their main point for telling the story. The team works on the revisions right there with the consultant and then goes away and re-records the revised story. This version then is downloaded on each of the team members' digital recorders.
This is not necessarily the end of revisions. Between the workshops, the team has the task of telling the stories in their communities. The project staff encourages them to continue to ask for feedback and to make appropriate revisions, which are discussed at the next workshop.
6

A Philosophy for Bible Storytelling
5.
Maintaining the oral stories
December 17, 2010
The participants record their stories throughout the process at each of the various stages. As they make their revisions, they re-record the stories. They use their recordings to remind themselves how to tell the stories. The project staff records the stories and archives them when they have been consultant checked and ensures that all team members get the consultant checked version on their recorders.
Each team learns how to establish and maintain local storytelling guilds. The guilds have the responsibility for training others to tell the Bible stories well and with integrity to the sacred text.
7