2010
Gene Bentley Manning
A Wandering Storyteller was my Ancestor: Listening to and Preaching God’s Story
This thesis explores the importance of honoring “story” within the context of the sermon. Drawing from narrative theology and several modern day homileticians, the work offers one preacher’s journey in search of an authentic storytelling voice. The purpose of this work is to heighten the preacher’s understanding of the importance and the effects of using personal story to draw listeners into God’s ongoing story. Written from the perspective of an Episcopal priest, it relies upon the sacramental life of the congregation wherein the story of God’s saving act in Jesus Christ is recounted Sunday by Sunday at the altar. The responses to a survey given to individual members of the congregation support the thesis that the person in the pew engages more fully with the sermon when a story or illustration is used to tie our present life to the life of Scripture.