Several years ago, before a speaking engagement, I arrived early and was able to attend worship that Sunday. I entered the sanctuary and noticed the stained glass windows. Each window portrayed one of the Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; each holding a book and quill pen and looking up to the sky as if the words were being dictated directly from God.

Although the windows were beautiful, what troubled me was that many Christians carry a similar image in their minds when they think about how the Bible came to be.

While it might be comforting to imagine that the Scripture was dictated directly from the mouth of God to the hands of the writers, that is just not the way it happened historically. The stories that are collected in our Bible were shared by word of mouth for years, decades, or even centuries before they were written down. This process of telling and retelling these passages from the religious life of God's people is called oral tradition.

An ancient Jewish prayer begins with the sense of hearing Shema Yisrail, it begins in Hebrew, "Hear, 0 Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4). When it comes down to the most important things we need to learn from God, we are called upon to listen.

You participate in that oral tradition when you tell a Bible story. Perhaps you experienced this same process of passing along God's stories from your teachers, pastors, parents, or grandparents. Not only is oral tradition the way that the Bible historically took form, it also has some very important advantages to you as a teacher.

First of all, oral tradition is personal. It takes place directly between you and your listeners. The stories from the Bible that your group learns from you both depend upon and are creating a relationship between you and the group. God created the whole universe out of a desire for relationship, and Jesus came so that relationship between God and us could be deepened. Jesus told his disciples that he would call them friends. Oral tradition helps to build that friendship with Jesus through the relationships you build with your group.

Though oral tradition is a very ancient art, it always happens in the here and now. Even though you may be telling a story that is 2000 years old or singing a song that is even older, your group is hearing it right now. A story "happens" in the imaginations of your hearers while you are telling it. Your words call the images forth in their minds, and they create their own mental movie from those pictures.

A third advantage of oral tradition is that a shared story or song helps create community. Whenever you hear a teacher or preacher begin a story, you know it is like sharing a secret with that person, even if they tell it in a little different version than you have heard. Christians are a community of shared images and stories. We don't always agree on how to interpret them, but we all agree that they are important.

In employing the oral tradition, we are being true to the Bible and the way it came to be. Those biblical lessons were meant to be learned by ear. They were meant to be taught orally. Jesus is only portrayed as writing in one story in one Gospel, and even then we are not told what he wrote (John 7:53-8:11). Throughout the rest of the Gospel passages, he is portrayed as telling stories. So when we reclaim oral tradition, we are being true to our first and best teacher, Jesus.

Not all of you will see yourselves as bearers of an oral tradition. I was fortunate to have a great-aunt who told me stories and sang me songs. I inherited an oral tradition before I ever learned to read or watched a television. Even so, I didn't recognize what gift I had been given until I was in graduate school. Before that time I never thought of the teaching I experienced as oral tradition. I now realize the gift I had been given.

The easiest way to begin to create an oral tradition in your classroom is to tell stories and sing songs. Perhaps you already do this. If so, keep up the good work. If you want to improve your storytelling skills, here are some suggestions that might help you.

All you need to be a storyteller is a body, a voice, and an imagination. You now just need to find a story and tell it. In the Christian community, we have two Testaments full of wonderful stories.

Storytelling Building Blocks

Where does the story take place?
Every story takes place somewhere. Each setting is like the settings for the play that you will create in your listeners' imaginations. You may find yourself on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee or at the Temple in Jerusalem. Imagine yourself in each setting, then ask what would be important to your students. Kindergartners will be interested in different things in each scene than sixth-graders.

Who are the people in this story?
Every scene in this play will be populated by a cast of characters who lead us through the story. They tell us about themselves and other characters. They point out what is important in each scene. Listen to each character. Which character do you identify with? Which characters will your group find most interesting? Again, there may be a difference in those characters that interests younger and older listeners. The characters become our companions on the journey of faith.

What are the things that give the story its sense of reality?
Every story has a collection of things that appear in the story. Some stories don't have a lot of objects while others are as full as an antique store of things that your listeners may or may not recognize. It may be important to have pictures or examples of certain things that appear in your story. Without these, listeners will not have an image to create when they hear the item you are describing. In our day and time, you might even have to show an example of the sort of sheep that are raised in the Middle East, and a shepherd's staff may very well be an unfamiliar object. Objects are important to the stories we tell. Can you imagine Jesus' birth without a manger and swaddling cloths, or his death without a crown of thorns and a cross?

How does the story move from beginning to end?
Finally, pay attention to the way the story moves from scene to scene. Each scene is a step along that path. The characters lead us down the path, and the things that surround us help give the journey the feel of life. The important thing about this journey is that you take your listeners along with you. You may need to repeat certain phrases or even sections of the story in order to make sure everyone is on board with you.

Every time you tell a story or sing a song you stand alongside those ancient singers and storytellers as a bearer of that same oral tradition that shaped the Bible. Those stories, once planted, will continue to grow in the imaginations and lives of your listeners.