Beans means Narrative

Important News for all Beaners:

We have put together the last three years worth of material from Spill the Beans called Overspill: every word, every thought, every idea, every activity that worked and some that didn't this time round. We've done this because people have asked for back issues but also because we have thought and thought and thought and finally chosen to move onto the Narrative Lectionary from September this year.

The Narrative Lectionary is a newer lectionary than the RCL that we have been using. The Narrative Lectionary focusses very much on stories and takes us through broad sweeps of the Bible and we felt this fitted well with the ethos of Spill the Beans. There aren't as many online, bolt-on resources for the Narrative Lectionary but Text Week and Working Preacher and Rev Gals to name but a few, mainline, online resources support the Narrative Lectionary, so we're going to go with the adventure and see how this journey develops as Spill the Beans develops a resource for that Lectionary.

We realise this will not suit everyone especially those who are locked into the Revised Common Lectionary, so why are we moving to the NL?

Spill the Beans is written by a group of a dozen or so volunteers each issue (no one gets paid for writing a thing for Spill the Beans: it is a work of love!) and our primary focus has always been our own congregations. Spill the Beans came together because there were a number of local people writing their own material and we realised it was daft to reinvent the wheel individually but we could do it better together. The original group of people have been with Spill the Beans for up to six years now and we are attracted by the freshness of writing the adventure that is the Narrative Lectionary. We believe it is a way to spark new ideas and experiences into our congregations. We hope you will travel with us. Putting yourself in a new-ish space is a mark of faith and adventure and risk and desire to explore, but then, perhaps these are all the same thing.

We have therefore put together all the past issues of Spill the Beans over the last three years for those who many not be able to travel the Narrative Lectionary route, but also for those who have joined us recently and may wish to see where Spill has come from. There are holes in it, there will be future Sundays not covered by the back issues, but enough to keep the ideas flowing for those keeping to the RCL.

We hope you won't need it for that however, but come along for the ride of the Narrative Lectionary. We ask users who came to our conference last year what they thought about this. Half wanted to change and half didn't, so, as writers, we thought long and hard and decided for freshness of ideas and writing, we'd go with the Narrative Lectionary and when we met last week to begin writing, that is exactly what happened, it seemed like a new place for us.

The complete edition of Overspill is three years worth of material for £50 and can be bought and downloaded from the sidebar. It is a great archive for all those who have lost pages, misplaced worksheets, left things in the photocopier etc.

We are all looking forward to dipping our toe even more in the story of faith, the adventures of God's People and journey together into the unknown... We hope you'll trust the adventure and travel with us.

Comments

[David Walton]

I have not looked at the NL before, but it certainly looks interesting and worth exploring, so looking forward with an extra sense of excitement and anticipation to the next edition of Spill the Beans. Thank you to all the team for their work and contributions.