Every book, even non-fiction, has a ‘story behind’ the book. ‘Telling the Gospel Through Story’ is no exception.

1. Learning about Bible storytelling

In 2004, I was introduced to Bible storytelling. I was a reluctant convert but once the Holy Spirit pressured me to learn my first story (Creation) it was the listener response that inspired me to continue. I spent the next years adapting and learning and increasing my story repertoire.

In 2008, I was invited to share at a Pacific region university student training conference in Canberra, Australia. I shared about storytelling (I’d only had 4 years of experience at that stage). During breakfast one morning, I met one of the speakers and in the course of our conversation he asked to hear a story. I think he also came to hear me present my seminar. Afterwards he asked, “Would you be willing to stand up in front of 100 people and do a seminar?”

I didn’t think any more about his question, but a year later I received an invitation to do a seminar at the 3rd Lausanne Convention in Cape Town. As there were only 135 seminars in total for the 4000 participants this was an amazing privilege. Especially as I was a complete unknown. There was much debate about the seminar title. Eventually we chose, “Evangelism Everyone Enjoys – Especially the Unbeliever.” When I saw the title, I thought, “that’s a book title.”

2. Writing the book draft

I set myself the task of writing the draft of a book to match my seminar title.

Although, I’d already had the experience of publishing one book it still was a hard slog. 6 months of early mornings and evenings.

In Cape Town, there were 4000 people. They had made the wise decision to simply have people’s names on their name badge and no titles or organizations. This meant that you sometimes talked to people you wouldn’t have dared to approach. Among the many names, I saw one I recognized because he had written an excellent book on ‘singleness’ (The Single Issue, Al Hsu). I had no idea that he worked for IVP (a publisher) and simply thanked him for his book and told him why I appreciated it. Then I gave him a copy of my 1-2-1 discipleship book as a thank you. I certainly would not have done so if I had known he worked for a publisher!

3. Publication

So when I submitted my manuscript it just so ‘happened’ to cross the desk of Al’s wife. She brought it to his attention. Actually I didn’t think my manuscript was the right fit for IVP but as they published so many of the books I liked, I applied to them anyway. To my surprise and delight, IVP didn’t agree with me. They decided to take the risk for my book. A risk, because I was a woman, a missionary (we’re often written off as irrelevant even by Christians), a non-American and an unknown. A publisher needs to do more than break even.

So far the book has exceeded everyone’s expectations. The website designed to give people extra resources continues to expand. www.storyingthescriptures.com

Search for ‘storying the scriptures’ on Facebook to find the forum/accountability group. That forum allows people to ask questions, request prayer, advertise trainings and share resources.