Emotion, Intellect and Connection
This past week a fellow Storyteller from my church's Storyteller's club asked me . . .
Something like this:
This was just an initial question to get some discussion going but, I've been thinking more about it and thought I'd put some of them down as they come to me.
I need to give this some more thought and would appreciate your thoughts on this one.
Here's what I'm thinking so far . . .
I suppose there are many emotions that I work with but, I think it is more than emotion. It has to do with the intellect as well. Somehow the two come together to make the story connect with the person in the audience. This doesn't happen automatically. It takes work. I have to know my audience, perhaps (in Biblical Storytelling) know the audience the story was originally told for. I need to figure out what things I need to do that will engage their thinking and emotions. I am not there to manupulate their thinking but to lead them into the story. This has to do with leading and facilitating people . . . hopefully more on this later.
I can't explain this in just the few words that a posting like this offers but, from my previous postings on Internalizing, Reflecting on the Beatitudes, and On Remembering I'd like to make a connection between learning and leading.
Something like this:
"What emotion do you work with
or try to express when you tell a story?"
or try to express when you tell a story?"
This was just an initial question to get some discussion going but, I've been thinking more about it and thought I'd put some of them down as they come to me.
I need to give this some more thought and would appreciate your thoughts on this one.
Here's what I'm thinking so far . . .
I suppose there are many emotions that I work with but, I think it is more than emotion. It has to do with the intellect as well. Somehow the two come together to make the story connect with the person in the audience. This doesn't happen automatically. It takes work. I have to know my audience, perhaps (in Biblical Storytelling) know the audience the story was originally told for. I need to figure out what things I need to do that will engage their thinking and emotions. I am not there to manupulate their thinking but to lead them into the story. This has to do with leading and facilitating people . . . hopefully more on this later.
I can't explain this in just the few words that a posting like this offers but, from my previous postings on Internalizing, Reflecting on the Beatitudes, and On Remembering I'd like to make a connection between learning and leading.
posted by Phil English at 7:05 PM
2 Comments:
I'm interested in your thoughts about "not being there to manipulate their thinking but to lead them into athe story" and the connection with leading and facilitating people with integrity. This speaks to me of the responsibility that I believe is involved in leading worship of any kind...storytelling a scripture, leading musical worship, preaching, waving a flag, dramatic expressions. All of who I am is brought to that situation. I can perhaps easily or quickly pray that my emotions and intellect be submitted to God in that situation, yet God keeps revealing fresh "layers" of personal wholeness to embrace, or presenting fresh challenges in my path, asking if I will follow Him in new ways. So hopefully I am continually "evolving" to become more like the person He wants me to be. So at any moment of leading worship, it seems to me that I bring a "snapshot" of who He is making me to be at the present moment, some refined and some unrefined.
Another point I'm seeing more and more along these lines is that the few minutes that I lead worship during a service is deeply impacted by the choices I make throughout the rest of the week that seem unrelated...eg. how am I stewarding my marriage, my work, my relationships with my children and friends, and of course the "history" that God and I are developing together in secret.
I'm not sure this is answering your question, but as a worship leader, or part of a group that leads worship, I do my best to be real. I don't focus on what emotion i am feeling, but I do somehow explain through singing the songs, and expressing myself through singing and signing. I might now be the best person to describe emotion and the connection between that because I don't always understand what i am feeling... However, I somehow manage to make that connection somehow... i might be able to comment more after i have thought about it for a few more days.
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