Book Review: Story Journey- An Invitation To The Gospel As Storytelling by Thomas Boomershine

The Bible is about storytelling. The Gospels themselves were maintained in the Aural/Oral tradition for approximately 20 years between the death of Jesus and the Gospels being put to writing in the 50's A.D. This book is penned with the idea that the best way to get stories of the Bible across to people is to deliver them as stories to people. The people of the first century (and the Old Testament) were not hacks when it came to storytelling, they had it down to a science. Those that authored the Gospels were skilled storytellers that knew what they were doing. They did not make the mistakes of immature or beginning storytellers (mostly because of divine inspiration) by adding a lot of superfluous or $10 words where $5 words would work just fine. Since every added word adds to the length of a story, they knew that extra words bogged down story lines. They knew from experience how easily listeners could lose interest. They used words sparingly and precisely. Boomershine refers to them as "misers" of words.

This book breaks down specific narratives such as the infancy narrative in Luke and offers suggestions on how to retain the entire story in memory. How to break it down in bite-sized chunks so it is totally digestible intellectually and in memory. In terms of techniques it really does not break any new ground. Its called hard work and a labor of love. We spend a load of time memorizing professional teams members, stats, etc. We could at least dedicate as much time to retain things of eternal value for us and those around us. It behooves us to at least try.

Where this book really stands out is when Boomershine dwells on dissecting the text. It tells you to focus in on the keywords and verbal threads and what their value is to the story and the overall context. It this respect this book is extremely valuable. You will not be able to look at the text the same again. Such as Luke 2:1-3 which is a complete exegetical unit referring to Caesar Augustus' decree.

(1) Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. (2) This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. (3) And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city

The Keywords?: (1) "in those days", "decree", "Caesar Augustus", "census", "inhabited earth"(2) "first census", "Quirinius", "governor of Syria" (3) "everyone", "register", "census", "to his own city"

Once you have this you need to do your homework in word study.

The Verbal Thread?: Census

Once you have this you need to understand contexts such as physical, historical, psychological, cultural, etc.

This book also shines when it comes to advising on how to breakdown the structure and visualizing it. In other words it helps you figure out how to decipher the text in a way that allows you to put yourself in the mind of Luke who more than likely had to put himself in the mind of people like Mary (infancy narrative). It "puts you in the action" so to speak. It shows how to get inside the heads of the authors sources, etc. It goes into explicit details on other hermeneutical skills but I will not for the sake of brevity in this review.

The really amazing thing that you begin to pick up from this book is how it shows you, as a reader of the Bible, just how cohesive and plenary the nature of the Scripture really is. All the way down to the explicit wordage and explicit structure of the text to convey a meaning and picture to a reader 3000 years after it was put to stone, scroll or other medium. My appreciation for the continuity of the Bible is magnified by having read this small 203 page treasure trove.

Anyone that wants to be a good storyteller teacher or preacher needs to at least try to give this book a look. If not for purpose of helping others by storytelling, at least get it so that you have a better understanding of general and in-depth interpretive skills that every Bible reader should have. To be able to tell a good story, you need a good story. In the case of the Bible you already have the story...all you need to do as the storyteller is understand it and retell it and pass on the "good news" properly. Jesus even said as much. Jesus' exact words in Matthew 28:20 were:

"teaching them to observe all that I commanded you"

"Observe" [Greek: tereo] meaning "to be keeping (from loss)". The way to keep a story is to continue to retell it (so it stays in your long-term memory), which means you need to pass it on to others. The more accurate you pass it on, the more accurately it will embed in people's minds...including the storyteller's. The more you tell the story the better you get at it. A win-win situation (especially for talkative people like me ;)

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Equipped for every good work...including storytelling of the Gospel. You don't need to be a college professor or a pastor to be a good storyteller.

Rating 95 of 100

Also for your reading pleasure a SoulJournaler post on Jesus and storytelling here: The Master Storyteller & The Master's Story