Java Club – What Is It?

Simply put, Java Club is a set of interactive Bible studies that use stories to draw us into the truth and beauty of God's Word. For thousands of years, the stories of the Bible have been passed down through generations and cultures. The Bible is the greatest story ever told. Java Club is a simple, reproducible (and free!) way to connect you both to storying as ministry and to how God is spreading His glory worldwide through the telling of His Story.

Java Club – Who Made It?

Java Club is a creation of , a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. StoryRunners is a ministry to unreached people groups with an oral tradition, meaning they either have no written language or choose not to use one. In addition, StoryRunners is a founding member of the OneStory partnership, a strategic alliance of five mission organizations committed to finishing the task of reaching the remaining unreached people groups of the world.

As we travel to different parts of the country telling people and churches about the effectiveness of Bible stories in oral cultures, we are consistently asked this question: "Do you have any resources for us to use in our Bible study (or home group,Sunday-school class, youth group, etc.)?" We have developed Java Club as a response to this question. Now anybody can use Bible stories in their ministry!

Java Club – Why Bible Stories?

Good question – we are glad you asked. Here are some benefits of using Bible stories in ministry:

   1. It's strictly based on Scripture.
   2. It's the way Jesus ministered - it's a tried and tested method.
   3. It’s more socially natural to tell a story than to bring out a booklet or something in print.
   4. Stories are WAY more memorable than outlines, and the person may remember both the        story and the point of the story.
   5. Outlines and bullet points are emotionally flat. People connect with stories.

Anyone who learns a Bible story will reap the blessings of hiding God's Word in their heart. You will be amazed that you have memorized a whole passage of Scripture and how easy it was because it was in story form. Also, as you read or hear other stories you will connect them back to stories you have learned easily because they are there in your heart.

Perhaps one of the reasons storytelling so engages listeners is because minds are not chained to the observation of a text composed of letters, sentences and paragraphs. Listening to a story allows the visualization of events. This may provide more fertile soil for the Holy Spirit to prompt thoughts regarding the deeper meaning of the story. Could it be that the Lord has hard-wired humans to be more receptive to the hearing of a story than to the reading of a story?

Java Club – What Are the Levels?

We know that different people have different levels of comfort with telling Bible stories(and leading discussions), so we set up three different levels.
The first level, house blend, is for beginners. For each story, we have provided the text and the suggested discussion questions, as well as audio and video. The second level, called latte, has everything the first level has-except no videos. For the final level, espresso, we have only provided the text of the stories. Our hope is that as you learn more about using Bible stories in ministry, you will rely less and less on the curriculum. Pretty soon, you will be crafting your own Bible stories, and creating your own story sets. Good luck!