TELLING THE GOSPEL THROUGH STORY
Evangelism that keeps hearers wanting more
By Christine Dillon
IVP. 224 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978 0 830 837 946
There are very few people who find evangelism comes naturally to them. This can be exacerbated when you work in a community which has little understanding of the Bible and the stories within it, and little time for reading.
Christine Dillon in her book Telling the Gospel Through Story shares her passion for sharing the gospel through telling the stories within the Bible in a connected overview which helps people see God’s gospel of grace.
Foundational chapters
The book begins with two foundational chapters in which Dillon shows us the need to tell stories and then shows us how often the Bible itself uses storying. In the sections that follow Dillon helpfully takes us through the practical steps necessary to share the gospel through story, from selecting which Bible stories we will build into the set we use, to being faithful to the text, to advice about introducing discussion following the stories, to training others in storying. Throughout, the chapters are sprinkled with anecdotes and stories from Dillon’s experience of telling the gospel through story, which helps embed the lessons learnt in the chapter.
The book was helpful as an introduction to storying and in providing a practical framework for preparing a story set. The appendix, with its possible discussion questions, is also a helpful starting point. This book is particularly helpful for those involved in children’s work and with communities less confident in reading. However, everyone loves stories and in our culture in the UK many people have never heard the Bible’s stories before, certainly not told with passion and in a way that engages them. But Christine’s book is not the silver bullet for evangelism, quite simply because there isn’t one. The challenge, as with anything designed to help us share the gospel, is learning the lessons, doing the preparation and then actually getting out there and doing it.
