Are You a Sermonteller?
My name is Danny Nettleton. I am a Pastor in the United Methodist Church. I love to preach and I love to listen to and tell stories. I started this newsletter to provide the sort of content I am always looking for but can never seem to find: content that merges the craft of sermon writing with the art of storytelling. I call it ‘sermontelling.’ I believe each discipline can inform the other. The sermon writer’s attention to theology and design can result in stories that are transformational vessels of meaning. To this end, each week I send out a ‘sermontelling guide’ which consists of two parts.
Curated Stories
Each post will contain three stories which I have curated for telling in sermons. By ‘curated’, I mean that I have thought about these stories theologically. I take seriously the cold hard truth that our stories are remembered long after the sermons in which they are embedded. Therefore, they must carry the weight of their truth. These stories are written in an oral style. and are meant to be internalized then told. They are not meant to be read from a piece of paper. Each post will contain one of each of the three basic types of stories used in a sermon:
Bible Stories. These are retellings of the Biblical stories. Sometimes these retellings hew close to the text; other times they may be more creative takes on the Biblical narrative such as modernizations or midrashic interpretations. You may use these retellings in your sermons or use them as springboards to inform your own retellings.
Life Stories. These are stories that come from every day life. They bear authentic witness to the ways sin and grace play out in lived experience. They may be stories from my own life or they may be stories from the news or anecdotes from the lives of real people. My hope that my personal stories spark your own memories and connections that can be formed into stories for your sermon.
Wisdom Stories. These are those parables that come from the great faith traditions that every sermonteller should have in their repertoire. They are not all ‘Christian stories’ but each is selected because they can be used to communicate Christian theological truth. I also glean stories from the shared tradition of popular media because I believe doing so helps congregations to think parabolically about the media they consume.
All of these stories are lovingly curated and presented because they will work well in a real sermontelling. I’ve picked them because they have that elusive ‘that’ll preach’ quality to them. These stories didn’t all originate with me but they are all my retelling unless otherwise noted.
Sermontelling Notes
Come for the stories; stay for the notes! Each story comes with a robust set of sermontelling notes. In these notes I reflect on each story from the standpoint of a sermon writer and storyteller. In these notes, I explore the theological dimensions of the stories, suggest ways that it can function in the larger sermon, and offer practical storytelling advice for performing these stories and crafting your own. I’ve chosen a footnote format because it allows me to riff more directly on the story presented and unceremoniously jump from topic to topic. Perhaps one day I will give amore systematic account of my ideas but the goal here is practical stuff you can use. My hope is that you will read the stories through first, then go back and read it with the notes.
These posts will follow the Narrative Lectionary. That means if you follow the Narrative Lectionary in your preaching, when you open your email on Monday morning, chances are you will find three stories will help you in your sermon this week! But even if you do not follow the narrative lectionary, these stories can be added to your repertoire and the sermontelling notes can help you as you develop as a preacher and storyteller. Think of it as a devotional for sermontellers that follows the Christian year and the arc of the Bible. My hope is also that each of these posts will be the beginning of a conversation where likeminded sermontellers can share their hard-won wisdom. Please feel free to comment and share your own thoughts and techniques. And stories! Share your beautiful amazing stories! Just don’t get mad when one of them winds up in my next sermontelling.
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