NOBS Academy for Biblical Storytelling
Purpose
The purpose of the NOBS Academy for Biblical Storytelling is to provide a process of support and training in both performance and teaching, helping students to achieve a significant degree of skill and experience in each, ultimately allowing participants to function as certified biblical storytellers and, consequently, commended resource persons able to offer services on behalf of the Network of Biblical Storytellers.
Structure
The Academy of Biblical Storytellers will be a “school without walls” under the direction of a Dean and staffed by a faculty of Mentors from within the NOBS community — those who have undertaken advanced degrees, evidenced a depth of knowledge from training and independent study, demonstrated significant experience in teaching and leading workshops, distinguished themselves as performers, and shown themselves to have attained a level of spiritual awareness through the discipline of biblical storytelling.
Two face-to-face meetings are also required: the summer Festival Gathering (as well as the immediate 2.5 days afterwards), and a late-fall, two-night meeting TBD according to the geographic location of that year’s students.
Process
The Academy offers two levels of certification: a one-year (January to December of even-numbered years) program culminating with the granting of a Biblical Storytelling Certificate (BSC), and a second-year program (January to December of odd-numbered years) concluding with a Master of Biblical Storytelling Certificate (MBSC). Candidates in each program commit to a process of reading, course work, coaching, reflection, repertoire development, and training in pedagogy.
Candidates, and subsequent graduates, of both programs will be expected to be members of the Network of Biblical Storytellers and to participate in, and contribute to, the NOBS community and attend the annual Festival Gatherings. Both the BSC and the MBSC will require annual certification renewal which will be based on review of continued demonstrations of documented experience in the public telling of biblical stories, narrative teaching opportunities, and evidence of further educational development.
For more information please visit the website.