God gave us hearts and God gave us minds.

Our worship should engage both. To do that, we need the stories and songs, a reflection on those stories and songs, and some thoughtful connection to our own lives and God's call to us. If one of those ingredients is missing, the worship experience will leave us wanting.

If you would like a more complete description of my "take" on Bible stories, click on this connection for an essay titled, "First You Fall In Love."

Falling in Love with the Bible Stories

In some instances, I have simply provided an introduction to a reading. In other cases, the presentation involves more roles. You will find links to all of those below.

I have also written many "aggada" -- imaginative tales based on Bible stories. These are not available for every Sunday, but when they are, they are also listed below.

The purpose of this project is to help us use stories as our primary scriptural resource. My part of this project is to present those stories – those readings in such a way that worshippers will hear the story more powerfully and be able to relate to it more fully.

To do that, I arrange the Bible stories into a style called "Reader's Theatre." This way of presenting a drama is widely used in experimental theatre and colleges, as a way of getting to the heart of the story without going through the work and expense of a theatrical production. It has often been used in the church and is sometimes called "Chancel Drama."

The method is simple. Two or more readers stand behind lecterns and read the script with dramatic intensity. There are no costumes and no movement. The play is rehearsed but the script is not memorized.

For a fuller description of this technique, and other suggestions on worship preparation, click on this link.

Here is a list of Ralph's readings