When Jesus got into a boat...
Reader's Theater, your OneStory story, Children's Spirituality Summit
In this issue…
// Reader’s Theatre: When Jesus Got into a Boat…
// What’s Your OneStory Story?
// Help Us Present at the Children’s Spirituality Summit
Dear fellow story-dwellers,
Some of my earliest memories are of working jigsaw puzzles with my mom around the coffee table in our living room. She taught me that there was a strategy to it: sort them facing up, inside vs outside. Then, do the outside first.
Problem-solving and strategy became a downright fixation as I graduated to logic problems, calculus, ministry administration, and eventually, figuring out how to tame the chaos of a household animated by four little kids who didn’t understand that I needed sleep.
A few years ago, my fixation with problem-solving was really messing with my mind. But I didn’t realize it until I went forward for prayer at a church where no one really knew me. As he was praying, the pastor told me, “It’s like you are holding a problem-solving puzzle, and you are trying to figure it out, but Jesus just wants to take it out of your hands.” I realized he was right.
The thing about following Jesus is that he has solutions we could never conceive of. All he asks is that we follow him and do what he teaches. Except his ways often defy our logic.
That’s what we see happening in this week’s story. No one in these stories could strategize their way out of the problems they faced. So Jesus did what only God can do: he calmed the quintessential chaos of the sea, he cast out demons, he healed a paralyzed man.
And yet this section of stories concludes as the last section did: with a simple invitation. “Follow me.” To invite a tax-collector to become a disciple was yet another defiance of logic. But Matthew accepted. And we are still experiencing the ripple effects.
We never know what following Jesus will lead to.
In grace and peace,
Amber
Reader’s Theater: When Jesus Got into a Boat…
We’re following along with BibleProject’s Sermon on the Mount series this year. This month we’ve been focusing on understanding Jesus’ most famous block of teaching in its context. Therefore, we’ve been exploring the stories on either side of the Sermon through reader’s theater Bible studies. Part of the beauty of reenacting these stories is how it attunes us to continue to live into this grand narrative in our own contexts.
Last week, we accompanied Jesus Down From the Mountain to discover how Jesus began making the message of his Sermon a reality to the people around him. It ended with Jesus inviting someone to follow him. This next group of stories ends the same way. And this week begins by following Jesus onto a boat…
Here’s how it starts:
Narrator 1: When Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves; but he was asleep. The disciples came to him and woke him up, saying,
Disciple: Save us, Lord! We are dying!
Narrator 2: He said to them,
Jesus: Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?
Narrator 1: Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. The men marveled, saying,
Disciple: What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
There’s more story where that came from! Until our new website is ready, you can download the full story here.
What’s Your OneStory Story?
Did last week get away from you before you could send in your testimony for our updated website? It’s not too late! Tell us the funny/profound/confounding things your students have said. Tell us about your experience using OneStory materials to teach them!
Like we shared last week, we have absolutely loved opening up our messages on social media and reading these stories, but those DMs are hard to search. Could you email them to us? Please send your testimony to amber@onestory.bible.
Help Us Present at the Children’s Spirituality Summit
If you read last week’s newsletter, you saw that Nicole and I were invited to present at the Children’s Spirituality Summit taking place this May. Our topic is The Bible as Adventure: Cultivating an imaginative approach to the real story of the Bible.
However, in order to accept the invitation, we need to raise $1000 by February 1. Many presenters represent organizations that can financially sponsor them. OneStory, however, is fueled in part by curriculum contracts, in part by small donations, and in even larger part by additional personal investments of time. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to get us to the Summit.
If you have been blessed by OneStory’s resources in the past few years, would you prayerfully consider clicking the donate button below to help get us to the Summit?
We are excited for the opportunity to partner with you in this. It’s an amazing opportunity to collaborate with Christ-centered “scholars and thoughtful practictioners dedicated to promoting informed practice regarding children's spirituality.”
If we either surpass or fall short of the $1000 needed to cover travel, meals, and registration costs, received funds will go toward designing family guides to accompany all of the videos in BibleProject's Read Scripture book overviews. You can read more about that project here.