Ruth Gilmore has gathered together bright, brief patterns for communicating core truths of lessons in the Revised Common Lectionary.
As worship itself engages more than half our senses, so sound, sight, touch, motion, and discovery–and the near presence of the storyteller–all draw children, Sunday by Sunday, chapter by chapter, into the one real story of our salvation.
Here are little stories. Here are suggestions for tactile interaction. Here are frameworks for your own personal stories.
But the proclamation itself waits for you and for the dramatic moment when you engage the senses, the fierce interest, and the hearts of children.
Two things only will fill Gilmore’s bright patterns with the power of a living Lord, and both things are called by the same name: love.
If you love the Lord of the story with your entire being, your telling will find its most persuasive style, your style, the manner you use when there is nothing more important to tell another soul than this. In you, the story will flare and live–and you, your presence and your person, will become the manifest evidence of it.
And if you love the children arrayed before you, you will design and tell that story specifically for them. You will watch them and be alert to their tiniest signs of attention. You will rejoice when the story goes home to their hearts, and they will see your joy, and their delight will grow even keener.
As Ruth Gilmore invites you to proclamation in these pieces, accept the invitation with love!
