Narrative Pedagogy In Congregation Life Summary

Christian educators are seeking for new methods to communicate God’s Word, creating a deep connection between the stories from the Bible and our personal stories. Benjamin D. Espinoza is a research assistant in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education program at Michigan State University, who focuses on some areas concerned with leadership, adult education, and transformative learning. Through his article “The Christian story and our stories: Narrative Pedagogy in congregation life” published in the Christian Educational Journal in 2013, Espinoza proposes the narrative pedagogical as a mechanism of teaching. The purpose of using stories is to generate empathy not only with the educator’s story, but also to help us to understand our own story.

In his work, Espinoza has offered a definition of what a narrative story is about, “[It] is about allowing God’s story to transform our own stories so we can live up to our full potential as people made in the image of God who are conforming into the image of Christ.” (Espinoza 434). It is a mechanism which pursues to influence our personal story and allow us to live completely in the world. Also, people have the opportunity to form their identities through the knowing and understanding of their own story and God’s

Espinoza suggests some ways in which Christian educators can implement narrative pedagogy as a tool of teaching in their congregations. To open a space where people can share their life stories about love, forgiveness, mercy, hate, judgment, and more emotions that can be transmitted through written paper. To know the stories and see the different perspectives and how they manage emotions is reciprocal learning. This is also the way to recognize how Christ perceives those emotions and how He is teaching us through the Scripture to face those feelings. It is important to remember that everyone expresses themselves in different forms, and there are people who are very artistic. Music is another manner that we can use to transmit our background and their current experiences with God. Espinoza encourages us to teach through narrative and not to have a closed mind because this technique opens an ocean of opportunities to know our stories, someone else’s stories, and God’s