📜 [EN] Brief summary of Lecture 8

Wise Counselor Questions: Preparing and Leading Oral Bible Stories

This session gathers practical tools for learning, preparing, and facilitating oral Bible stories so that people discover truth for themselves. We review a simple learning process (“put the story in your heart pocket”), a memorable set of discovery questions (the Wise Counselor Questions), and facilitation tips that help a group find the “treasures” God has placed in a text.

Learning a Story: From Page to Heart

• Practice a clear, natural telling. Learn the scene and sequence (not a word-for-word script). Keep all essential details.
• Retell aloud with actions and emotion. Use face, hands, and movement; embodiment clarifies meaning.
• Use partners and a gracious atmosphere. Invite an immediate volunteer retell; if needed, pair up to lower the barrier to speaking.
• Keep reviewing. Retell to family members; rehearse mentally (e.g., at night) to retain details.
• Right-size your first stories. Start with short narratives; break long stories into sections and learn them in parts before joining them together.

Why This Works

With focused practice, even a new storyteller can internalize a short narrative quickly enough to use it in ministry. Consistent retelling keeps the story “in the heart pocket” and ready to share.

The Wise Counselor Story (A Memory Hook)

A parable of two communities in conflict over water introduces a “wise counselor” who draws out their story by asking simple, repeatable questions. This pattern becomes our toolkit for any Bible narrative.

The Wise Counselor Questions

1. Background/Context: What key information helps us enter the story (setting, culture, recent events)? Keep it brief and relevant.
2. Main Issue (Summary): In one sentence, what is the core problem or question?
3. Walk the story in parts with four probes:
   • What was said?
   • What was done?
   • What choices were made? What other choices were possible?
   • What were the results? (note immediate and long-term consequences)

Why these work: Choices reveal the heart. As people name options and outcomes, motives surface and application becomes concrete.

Preparing to Facilitate a Story

• Walk slowly to find treasures. In preparation, list as many “treasures” (insights) as you can. You may not use them all, but you will guide more wisely.
• Use context sparingly but helpfully. Offer background the text assumes (e.g., why Jesus may be exhausted after a long day; fishermen among the disciples; the ancient “sea = chaos” motif). This unlocks understanding without replacing discovery.
• Guide without hijacking. Ask questions that move toward key treasures, but allow unexpected, valid observations from participants. Discovery changes people more deeply than delivered conclusions.
• Focus on accuracy before interpretation. If the group hesitates, supply a factual detail briefly and keep moving.

Case Study in the Method: 2 Kings 4:1–7 (The Widow’s Oil)

Background/Context (examples)

• “Sons of the prophets” = students/trainees in a prophetic community.
• Debt laws could endanger children; creditors might seize sons for servitude.

Walking the Story with the Questions

• What was said / done? The widow pleads: her husband (a God-fearing student) has died; a creditor threatens her two sons. Elisha asks, “What shall I do for you? What do you have?” She answers, “Nothing…except a jar of oil.”
• Choices (and other choices):
  • Widow’s actual choice: seek help from the man of God.
  • Other possible choices: do nothing; run away; appeal to neighbors or other religious figures; try to sell assets; pray alone; despair.
• Results (immediate/long-term): She receives counsel, participates (borrows vessels, shuts the door, pours), experiences provision (oil fills every vessel), pays debts, and lives on the remainder.

Treasures Discovered

• About the widow: humility (asks for help), faith (obeys unusual instructions), perseverance (borrows publicly, models trust before her sons), accountability (returns to report).
• About Elisha: approachable and safe (a vulnerable woman comes to him); compassionate yet wise (enters the problem without becoming “the solution”); empowers participation (“What do you have?” points to her resources rather than creating dependency).
• Leadership insight: healthy leaders are safe for the vulnerable, invite participation, and help people discover God’s provision in what they already have.

Applying the Questions to Other Stories

• Mark 4:35–41 (The Storm): Background may include the sea-as-chaos motif and Jesus’ long day of ministry. Treasures include an implied promise (“Let us go to the other side”), fear vs. faith, and Jesus’ authority over creation.
• Acts and beyond: The same question set works for any narrative. Prepare your questions, then let the group do the discovering.

Facilitation Tips You Can Use This Week

• Open with a one-line introduction: “This true story comes from God’s Word.”
• Keep a visible Bible while telling; invite an immediate volunteer retell with actions.
• Use the four probes (said/done/choices/results) in short segments of the story.
• Affirm courage; create a gracious culture where learners can try, miss a detail, and try again.
• End with specific obedience: one action to take and one person to tell.

Summary

• Internalize stories through tell → retell → walk back through—embodied, accurate, and natural.
• The Wise Counselor Questions surface motives and consequences: background, main issue, then (said, done, choices, alternative choices, results) part by part.
• In the widow’s story we see humility, faith, and wise leadership that empowers participation rather than dependency.
• Guide discovery with well-aimed questions; let Scripture read the room and the Spirit form hearts for obedient action.