Understanding the Story
The word story is used in many ways in this series, but in all cases it refers to the narrative nature of human experience. Our personal lives and the lives of communities are made up of a series of encounters—some within one's own heart or mind, some with others, some with nature, and some with God. When described in words, music, or art, these encounters become stories. By listening closely to these stories—both our own and those of others—we discover who we are and what we are about. When we hear or experience the story of others, we may recall similar stories in our lives, or we may imagine ourselves in the experience of others. Because of that, we may change.

The Bible reflects this narrative nature. It includes inspired accounts of God's interaction with people, communities, and nature. Proclaimed, experienced, prayed, played, and retold, these accounts are stories. As we hear, learn, and retell these stories, they become part of our experience, our story. Bible Quest invites learners to experience the Bible stories and to discover how those stories may shape and change us.

The Bible contains many literary forms: poetry, letters, prose, prophecy, history, etc. All these are based on underlying stories. Bible Quest covers all these literary forms under the umbrella of story. Each story in the Bible has its own theological integrity: each story expresses particular understandings of God and God's world. Together those stories become the woof and warp in weaving the overall story of the Bible—the story of God's good news.

Each session is designed in four movements that address specific concerns:

1. Prepare for the story: Create an environment in which the story is presented; how does the space reflect God's presence? How does the space connect to the story?
2. Tell the story: Give learners direct access to the story; what does the learner know about the story that's different than before hearing the story? Invite learners to retell the story.
3. Connect with the story: What does the story mean for the lives of the learners? What have other cultures and traditions said about the story? What does the story mean for the faith community?
4. Celebrate the story: Affirm new understandings of the story; celebrate God's presence in learning the story.

• Children, youth, and adults can seek meaning from the Bible through questioning, playing, praying, wondering, acting, relating, and stating beliefs.
• All people who engage the Bible, regardless of their theological understanding or experience in the church, are interpreting the Bible as they seek to understand its meaning for their lives.
• The Bible itself reflects a history of ongoing interpretation. The Bible includes stories, accounts, and writings that often build on or interpret other writings in the Bible.
• One's ability to engage the Bible story is not dependent on one's ability to read a text. One can engage the Bible story through a variety of experiences and methods. People come to understand through ways that touch the head, heart, and imagination. They discover meaning through the arts, prayer, discussion, action, and other means. These approaches provide opportunities to enter or express the story, not merely to reinforce a predetermined meaning or moral of a story.
• The Holy Spirit makes the biblical story contemporary in our lives and faith communities. Faithful encounter and interpretation require prayer and openness to God's revealing spirit. Through prayer; we invite God, whose way is revealed in the ancient story of the Bible, to make God's way known again today.
• We can be in tension with the story and with one another as we interpret the story. The story may challenge the faith community and individuals to new insight, to repent, to act. Sometimes the community challenges individuals to new understandings and to growth in their interpretations. At other times, individuals challenge the faith community to re-examine its interpretation.
• Interpretation connects understanding from the Bible to living in our contemporary world as disciples of Jesus Christ.
• Encountering and interpreting will lead the faith community to embody the story as communal pictures of the story in the world.

What does this learner as interpreter approach mean for leaders? It is more important to teach people to ask critical questions of the text than to provide answers. An individual's life experiences shape the way he or she hears or responds to a text. Rather than beginning each session with a focus statement that summarizes the meaning of the story, the leader's guide is written to help leaders elicit meaning from the group. This means that Bible Quest is more learner-directed than leader-directed.

In a Bible Quest session, the learners gather and hear a Bible story through a variety of presentations, retell the story, and describe how that story fits with their lives; they hear how others understand the story. As a group; they tell the story again, perhaps with a different intonation or understanding. When they experience the story together, that story becomes their story in a particular way; perhaps different from the way another group has experienced the story. As they leave, the learners may or may not have the same understanding of the story that they came with. But they have heard the story, experienced the story, tried on the story for themselves, and celebrated the story.