ArticleBlog | Story Power: the How, What and Why of Narrative Preaching
Story Power: the How, What and Why of Narrative Preaching
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 26.06.18
I can’t tell you the year, but I remember the place: St Andrew’s Church, Oxford. I was in the second row, right at the front, like the keen Christian minister I was. I’d grown up breathing Christianity like air. Now, in my twenties, I was tired of sermons: the slick rubric of three points. Watching Andrew Goddard come to the front, I sighed, just a little.
But what he did completely changed my future ministry: he simply retold the Bible story. My critical editor brain switched off. I saw the sweaty, dirty feet, felt the yearning for comfort, the disappointment after the crucifixion. For the first time in a long while, the Bible came alive in a church service as lived history. Although I’d been wrapped up in the storytelling, by the end I was crying. It had touched me.