Word of Mouth: Using the Remembered Bible for Building Community

Word of Mouth presents a method of using remembered (oral, not written) versions of the Bible with people of all ages and abilities. It describes remembered Bible study sessions that the author has conducted and gives examples of the liturgy, stories and prayers that have grown out of them.

A closer look at the life of Jesus and the fullness of his humanity reveals that he was someone who spent his life with marginalised people, ‘on the edge’ of society. When a group of people remember his story together, they begin to recognise the connections between the gospel and the ordinary events of their daily lives. As a result, their own stories gradually emerge from silence. Telling the story and interpreting it become inextricably linked.

In her work of doing Bible studies without written Bibles, Janet Lees is practising a ‘world-shaking’ pedagogy rather than a ‘world-maintaining’ one. It aims to disrupt deathly habits and patterns with new, life-giving ones, and in embracing a contextual theology it opens us up to recognising the God we meet every day.

Janet Lees is a speech therapist and an ordained minister of the United Reformed Church. She has been developing the remembered Bible method for several years through worship and training events both locally and around the UK.

Also see the sequel, Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.