Questions to focus on: Parables in Communication

These questions can be used at different levels. You can take 30 seconds to think about one or two. You can discuss them in a team or group of like-minded Christians. Or they can be used in a college class, including assignments and research projects, and answered in writing at any depth. They may be freely reproduced for this purpose. Please email us additional questions that could be added to this page.
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  1. Why do stories communicate so well?
  2. Memorization techniques rely on creating a series of inter-connected mental pictures. Discuss why this makes short stories so easy to remember.
  3. How many of the names of Jesus' parables are now embedded in the English language - for instance, the 'good Samaritan'.
  4. What proportion of leisure time do people in your culture typically spend in the world of story: watching TV soap opera and films, reading magazine stories and books, and going to the movies?
  5. Discuss how truth is embedded in stories, as compared with an abstract list of propositional statements.
  6. Make a study of TV adverts. How many of them tell a short narrative story? Which ones are the most memorable, and why?
  7. Why is story-telling so important in a non-literate aural culture?
  8. What proportion of the Bible is narrative story - i.e. history?
  9. Imagine Jesus telling parables to the crowds. Picture the two-way dialogue, the heckling, his humorous replies to questions. Do you think that Jesus would adopt different voices for characters in the stories? Do you think he sometimes used people from the crowd - perhaps children - as volunteer 'props'? How close do you think it was to street theater?
  10. How many of Jesus' parables are intrinsically humorous?
  11. Discuss the significance of a personal testimony as story?
  12. Has the Church as a whole taken on board the significance of story as a means of communication, as compared with teaching and evangelism with propositional truths?
  13. Is there a perception that 'stories are for children' - so that we use stories in children's evangelism, but discount their use for adults?
  14. In the field of adult learning, giving participants the opportunity for role-play is extremely effective. How is this an extension of the parablel technique?