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Inside ML
Out-of-this-world storytellingThis issue of ML has a touch of a futuristic theme to it. (See “‘To Boldly Go?’: The Pastor for the Next Generation” by Peggy Lovrien on page 8 of the printed edition of ML and “Ministering to the Ministers of the Next Millennium” by Donna Cole on page 14.) That caused me to wonder what would happen if, some time in the future, one of ML’s readers wound up on a distant planet where no one had ever heard of Jesus. What would you do?First thing might be to tell some stories about Jesus. Maybe even gather a few people around to tell stories to. If you were a really good storyteller, you’d have a pretty good buildup to the climax of the story, which is the death scene. Then you’d wow them with the surprise ending: Jesus being raised up again. As part of your storytelling in this distant place, you might recall for those gathered that Jesus gave the folks back on Earth a little ritual to do to remember what his life was all about: take some bread and wine, bless it, break it and pour it out, then share it. Some of those to whom you tell the story might want to tell others, so you would need to teach them the important parts of the story, where to put the pauses, where to build up the excitement, and so on. Maybe you’d need to start a storytelling school or hire a DRS (Director of Religious Storytelling). You would want to take special care that the younger folks gathered there would be able to hear and tell the story in a way that made sense to them, so you might also need a Director of Youth Storytelling. If you eventually had enough staff and maybe a couple of buildings, you might need to hire someone to handle the administration of all that stuff so you could stay focused on just the storytelling — because the story and its telling are the most important thing. ML has changed its name from MODERN LITURGY to MINISTRY & LITURGY in order to help make the point to all the ministers of the parish how telling the story better — and that means celebrating the liturgy better — can help them do their ministries better. That is ML’s goal as it embarks on its second 25 years of publication. If you are a catechist, a youth minister, an administrator, or just a good storyteller, ML should be one of the resources you rely on. Especially if, in the future, you find yourself dealing with people who seem to be from another world. ML What do YOU Think?
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