A missionary does not live and function in a vacuum. On the one hand you represent God's story and are a part of communicating the ongoing good news of God's love in the world. You also represent and communicate the church’s mission back home, either during your trip or on your return.

This is about you telling the story – God’s story, Christ's story, your story, our story.

Why communicate this? Global mission is about our interconnectedness - you are not alone as we share the joy of God's mission. But we are up against all kinds of other attention-getters in the media: sex, violence, humor. What we want to do is be a church in mission, and to communicate as we create awareness, knowledge, and action, all while deepening our faith.

Communication is about being a storyteller, whether that be written, oral or visual; using newsletters, e-mail, story-telling, web pages, photos, video.

Become a storyteller
Keep a notebook/journal
When you see something you want to remember, write it in your book. You hear, you read, you think, you experience things you want to remember -- write them in your book. Techniques that work for you as a storyteller (e.g. other people's storytelling techniques), write them in your book. Keep sources of stories, as well as classifying your stories (the ones you tell) according to subject (and even age level). One never knows when one will be called on to tell a story: carry this book.

Listen to other storytellers
Storytellers are all those people with whom you will come into contact. These are not “professional” storytellers. But they are those around you who have stories to tell and they may tell their stories in various ways. Some may have wonderful ways of telling their stories. Listen, read, watch, see: how listeners/viewers/users are involved, what special devices of methods are used. Others may be “bland,” but they are stories nevertheless and may evoke some emotion just by the content of their stories.

Selection of stories
Ask WHY you are telling a story
to set mood to entertain
to help see things in a new way to quiet
to inform or make a point to prepare for an experience

Among the most evident purposes of storytelling are:
To keep alive the art of storytelling
To kindle the imagination and spark creativity
To provide entertainment, pleasure and enjoyment
To satisfy the play spirit of your audience
To develop new appreciations
To develop new understandings and new insights
To motivate desire to explore more
To help change attitudes
To set standards of behavior
To supplement units of study
To develop group togetherness through a common background -- a good story

Learning the story: taking ownership
If verbal, read the story aloud ... many times, then read it again (100s of times).
If in writing, read over again and again, edit.
Think about it ... note theme and central idea, visualize the setting (time and place), sequence of events, and characters.
Feel it ... live it: with your creative imagination become each of the characters, in order to have a better understanding as to why they did what they did.

At the same time you are learning the story, you also need to practice telling the story (if verbal):
Tell it to a mirror, see what it looks like.
Tell it to a tape recorder, hear what it sounds like.
Slow down, take your time.
Don't be afraid of SILENCE -- do not use unnecessary words or sounds.
Tell the story again and again, over and over, many times. One day you will wake up to find that you have ownership to the story. You will also discover that you have been developing personal and technical mediums of expressions:
1. Voice -- well-pitched ... good diction, breath control ... sense of timing; learning to listed to your own voice.
2. Vocabulary -- words with color and quality to arouse imagination
3. Movement -- the body should be responsive ... action is the spontaneous expression of though and emotion.

If writing the story:
Tell the story as if you were verbally telling the story. Don't be too afraid of grammatical rules if it enhances the storytelling.
Color your vocabulary ... hearing and reading others' stories helps this
Own the story.

Hints to you as storyteller, communicator
The art of storytelling lies within the storyteller, to be searched for, drawn out, made to grow. It is compounded by certain invariables which include:
1. Experience: try, try again
2. Build up a background, a setting, a context for the story
3. Creative imagination
4. The power to evoke emotion
5. The sense of spiritual conviction
6. Love the story you tell

More hints
Be relaxed and natural, be yourself.
If using dialect, practice (if verbally telling the story) or find ways to bring it alive (if writing a story)

Especially for verbal storytelling
Make eye contact with the audience, have the group close together, be friendly
Use drama, pantomime, sign language, imagination; improvise
Decide if you want to use props:
“magic” box -- have props that relate to the story
puppets
music (recorded or live)
pictures
films, slides, PowerPoint

Involve your audience (even readers of a written piece can be “involved”)
Use things that may punctuate the story for you: sound effects from animals, use of objects, provoking a thought through gesture or mind images.

Use repetition -- have listeners complete a sentence and/or a statement that is a repeat.
Employ responsive facial expressions, easy manners, informal helpful gestures, simplicity and sincerity. Evoke those same things in a reader.

AVOID MORALIZING: the story conveys its own message/truths to each listener/reader. Give your audience credit for being able to think and discover for themselves.

“Whoever tells the story defines the culture”
- David Walsh

By Y. Franklin Ishida, Director for Leadership Development, ELCA Global Mission