‘The Original Storyteller’ by Robert Carnes [Saturday Morning Review]

The premise of this book is simple: because God is a storyteller, we have been created to tell stories, though we may not all be professionals, and because God is a storyteller, we can also learn a lot about how to craft a good story by looking closer at God’s great story: the Bible.

The Good

Author Robert Carnes has done a lot of research for this book, weaving dozens of biblical, literary, and film allusions together to present a very solid case that we can all tell stories and can all do it better by looking closer at how God is telling His story. To be clear, this is a 30-day devotional, with day being based upon a concept or literary tool that any and every writer could benefit from using. Using these concepts or “big ideas” as a daily theme, each entry into this devotional is made up of a passage of scripture, a devotional reading that blends spiritual truths with insights on the process of storytelling, a prayer, and an action step.

The Bad

There’s nothing really bad about this book. It’s a devotional, an addition to your regular Bible reading and prayer, and it’s a very practical one. So, as long as it’s used in that context, which I’m sure Robert would agree with, it’s fantastic. In fact, it could be an incredible way to help bridge your spiritual growth with the growth of some of the gifts that God has given you.

Wrapping Up

I am a firm believer in developing talent within the Church, and I also firmly believe that there far too many creative people, too many servants in the Church who spend all of their time working to advance the world of the Church, the Kingdom of God, and leave little time for their own spiritual and practical growth. Devotionals like this are a great way to meet that need, to ground true kingdom servants in their gifting and in the presence of their God.

The Original Storyteller is an excellent devotional that wants to help the reader better understand their gift and the Gospel.

– Readability (5.0)

– Breadth/Depth of Content (4.5)

– Helpfulness (4.5)

Recommended? – Absolutely, especially if you’d like to depend your understanding of both key elements of the Gospel and the craft of telling stories.

The Original Storyteller is by Robert Carnes, and you can buy it from Amazon.

A copy of this book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review, which is what you just read.

Phil Schneider

Senior Staff Writer

I'm a teacher and discipleship pastor. More importantly, I'm husband to the greatest woman in the world and father to a ridiculously cute daughter. I also occasionally scratch out a few blog posts.