Biblical storytellers share Scripture in its true form

When a group of biblical storytellers presents The Gospel of Mark in area churches over the next several weeks, audience members may find some comic moments.

They may hear Jesus exclaim, “You ain't seen nothing yet!” to one of his future disciples.

This is Scripture as it was originally passed on around campfires and dinner tables, told as stories filled with emotions, human frailties and infused with the presence of God, said the Rev. Beth Galbreath, coordinator of Chicago-area Prairie Wind Guild: Tellers of Sacred Stories.

“We are trying for our day to tell it as it was originally told to people, verbally, by memory,” she said. “The thing that they (audience members) usually say is, ‘Wow, you really bring it alive.'”

Ten guild members will make presentations of The Gospel of Mark to eight area churches — including ones in Carol Stream, Villa Park and Woodridge — from February through April. Mark is the shortest and most action-packed of the New Testament's four gospels, with presentations taking two hours with an intermission.

Learning by heart

Audience members will find hearing the unedited words of the biblical text spoken as a story a far different experience than listening to Scripture read, said Galbreath, a United Methodist deacon in digital culture ministry and wife of James Galbreath, pastor of Woodridge United Methodist Church. The ancient art of storytelling is a more appropriate way to reach a post-literate society, she said.

“What frequently happens as soon as someone starts to read, everybody's brain checks out,” she said. “Hearing someone read to us from a document is not our idea of entertainment, not our idea of fun.”

Biblical storytellers learn the text by heart rather than a word-for-word memorization, said Galbreath, the vice president of Network of Biblical Storytellers International.

Studying the Scripture to gain a deeper understanding of its meaning and the times in which the events occurred, they add inflections in their voices and portray emotions in their body language. They work from one Bible translation, but use other translations and colloquiums to bring home meaning.

“When we learn by heart, we want the whole story to sink into the center of our being,” Galbreath said. “This is spiritual discipline because you don't learn these things by heart without being brought closer to God yourself.”

Formed about two years ago, the Prairie Wind Guild draws members from throughout northern Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. The Rev. Linda Braggs, a Chicago resident, joined after being involved in other storytelling groups. She was thrilled to find one devoted to biblical storytelling, she said.

“A lot of people don't read Scripture. When, for the first time, they hear it, when they hear it, that's the first time it comes alive in them, in their heart,” she said.

Jesus himself taught by parables and explained the meaning later to his often baffled disciples, Braggs said.

“It is a delight to be able to relate in the same way Jesus did,” she said. “This method of spreading God's Word is a joy.”

Storytelling journey

Galbreath herself might not be a storyteller today if only she had been a nurse. She explained that, as the wife of a pastor in the United Methodist Church, when her husband was transferred to a new location, she often had to find a new career.

“This is about my sixth career,” she said. “It's much better if you're a nurse. Pastors' wives who are nurses usually can find a job anywhere.”

Galbreath began her career as a journalist and worked for United Press International in Chicago. After they were transferred to Rockford while their children were small, she became involved in Girl Scouts, first as a volunteer and then as a staff member. When the Girl Scouts needed to computerize and the software wasn't available, Galbreath taught herself computer programming.

She eventually formed her own business and stayed in the computer programming field through subsequent moves and positions with other organizations.

Then one day — she doesn't remember how — she learned about Lumicon Institute, founded by Tom Boomershine, who had started the Network of Biblical Storytellers. The institute, which no longer exists, had been created to educate pastors and others in the church about the change from the literate to the digital culture.

Already passionate about the need to use technology in ministry, Galbreath signed on.

“Little did I know that the first thing they taught you was storytelling,” she said. “It was the most intense educational year of my life.”

Galbreath went on to graduate from seminary and was ordained a deacon with specialized ministry in digital culture in 2009. She moved to Woodridge about 1½ years ago when her husband became the pastor of the United Methodist Church.

By now, deeply involved with storytelling, she helped found the Prairie Wind Guild for the Chicago area after attending the Network of Biblical Storytellers' annual Festival Gathering two years ago. She teaches biblical storytelling online and in person.

One of her current projects is to deliver video storytelling lessons by cellphones to make them accessible to young people in the Philippines and other countries.

Simply relating the stories of Scripture without telling people what to believe is powerful, Galbreath said. She recounted when some of the storytellers decided to have a joint event with a group of Muslim believers that meets in the United Methodist Church.

They fretted over telling the story of Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham's second wife, and the son he had by her. According to the biblical story, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away after his first wife, Sarah, was jealous for Isaac, the son she bore Abraham. God's angel comforted Hagar by telling her that her son would also become a great nation. Christian teaching says Ishmael became the father of the Arabic people, while the Jews descended from Isaac.

The Muslim listeners were impressed, rather than offended, Galbreath said.

“We didn't know your Bible says that God made a great nation of Ishmael,” they told her.

After Prairie Wind Guild finishes its presentations of The Gospel of Mark, members plan to create videos of healing stories from the Bible and make them available to hospitals for their internal TV feeds, Galbreath said. Anyone interested in biblical storytelling is welcome to join the effort.

”We're extremely ecumenical,” she said. “The purpose of the Network of Biblical Storytellers and its associated guilds is to encourage everyone to learn and tell biblical stories.”

For information on the Prairie Wind Guild, see www.prairiewindguild.org. For details on the Network of Biblical Storytellers International, go to www.nbsint.org.

If you go

Prairie Wind Guild: Tellers of Sacred Stories will present The Gospel of Mark in the following DuPage County churches. Freewill offerings will be taken. For information, contact <a href="http://prairiewindguild.org

">prairiewindguild.org</a>.

Ÿ 4 to 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at Heritage Presbyterian Church, 965 Kuhn Road, Carol Stream

Ÿ 3 to 5 p.m. Feb. 26 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 545 S. Ardmore Ave., Villa Park

* 6 to 8 p.m. March 18 at Woodridge United Methodist Church, 2700 W. 75th St., Woodridge