Description: StoryRunners’ vision is to start spiritual movements among unreached language groups, enabling believers to be involved in growing communities of faith. When you participate in the StoryRunners SR500 vision of developing 42 Bible stories in 500 languages that have little or no Scripture by 2025, for each language group with which you are working, you travel twice over a 6-month period to an international location to conduct a 3-week School of Storying (SOS) workshop each time. You equip local speakers to produce 42 Bible stories in the language of their people and to use the stories in evangelism, church planting, and discipleship. The goals for the SOS participants are:
- Translation: Develop Bible stories in their heart language.
- Evangelism: Tell stories in daily outreach in the community.
- Discipleship: Interact with God as they engage devotionally with the stories.
- Church Planting: Use the stories with individuals and groups, and equip others to do the same.
Communicating through translators, the four-person SOS team works with 18 local speakers of the focus language, leading the group through a six-step process to develop each story in the local language. Using an interactive learning-by-doing approach, the SOS team guides the SOS participants through one cycle of the process, enabling the participants to acquire the needed skills as they develop six Bible stories. Each week, while being coached by the SOS team, the participants repeat this process of story development, producing a total of 36 stories during the two workshops. Every day participants spend time telling Bible stories in their community in order to start story groups. In between the two SOS workshops, participants lead their new story groups as well as develop another six stories on their own, for a total of 42 stories.
In the Church Planting week of the second module, the SOS team coaches the participants as they integrate oral Bible storying into their ministry strategy. They’ll decide how to engage in increased evangelism with a goal of starting additional story groups in their community, groups that will be the foundation of a church planting movement among their people.
The SOS team works cooperatively with the local hosts, the translators, and other people involved in the SOS. When regional trainers (people from that area of the world) join the SOS team, the experienced SOS team members mentor these trainers to help them progress towards being certified SOS trainers.
The SOS trainers share the responsibilities of training participants, mentoring regional trainers, recording stories, translating stories back into English, evaluating the Biblical accuracy of each story, and documenting the workshop through photos, videos, and written reports.
When not on an international assignment, a StoryRunners staff or intern trainer lives in the Orlando, FL area, working at the StoryRunners office in Lake Hart, Cru’s international headquarters. In addition to fulfilling responsibilities related to StoryRunners’ ongoing ministry efforts, SOS trainers receive ongoing training specific to the role, as well as training to continue the development of a personal ministry, of leadership skills and of growing spiritual and personal maturity.
Volunteers live wherever their home is.
Qualifications:
- Faithful walk with God.
- Willingness to learn new skills.
- Commitment to working in a team environment.
- Willingness to experience new cultures.
- Desire to equip others to reach their own people group.
Ability to:
- Mentor others.
- Interact with diverse groups of people.
- Communicate effectively cross-culturally via a translator.
- Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
- Manage multiple tasks with attention to detail.
- Travel internationally multiple times per year.
What you will learn:
- How to start and lead an ongoing Bible story group.
- How to equip others to start and to lead Bible story groups.
- How to develop Bible stories and lead others through the development process.
- How to facilitate a School of Storying workshop.
- How to develop a ministry partner team to fund your salary (staff and interns only) and ministry-related expenses (staff, intern, or volunteer).
Essential duties and responsibilities:
- Coach SOS participants to develop stories, lead story groups, use stories in ministry.
- Use electronic equipment.
- Record stories in the field.
- Develop stories in English.
- Lead an ongoing story group in English.
- Participate in summer missions.
- Mobilize for StoryRunners at Cru Winter Conferences and other events.
- Develop and maintain adequate financial support sufficient to meet ongoing salary and ministry needs.
Interested? Questions? Contact us.