Experience Transformational Storytelling

Each year I lead an (online and in-person) intensive certification program in community storytelling for those interested in the transformational power of stories. This training is personally renewing and professionally practical–ideal for community builders of all kinds–educators, faith leaders, nonprofit staff, healthcare workers, activists, social workers, etc. The Certificate in Community Storytelling offers a variety of experiential exercises, individual skill-building, practical teaching, online discussion groups, and written and online resources. Individuals who complete the certification course will:

• Understand how stories function in our personal and public lives.
• Learn how to create transformative events that deepen relationships within a local community or organization.
• Explore narrative practices that promote individual growth, social awareness, and community action.
• Learn how to create a variety of public story-sharing platforms that engender trust and vulnerability.
• Gain concrete skills for community storytelling including story recruitment, event promotion, audience building, public participation, media integration, and fundraising.
• Learn how to craft personal stories for speaking, teaching, and facilitation.
• Increase skills for coaching groups and individuals in personal storytelling.
• Discover methods for amplifying the voice of marginalized populations.
• Learn how to apply storytelling techniques within personal, professional, and community settings.

Find out more about these offerings here.

Conversation with NYT Bestselling Author Anne Lamott

Interview with Jefferson Public Radio

Listen to interview on Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us with Geoffrey Riley on Jefferson Public Radio. Link is here.

My New Book Is Out!

I am so excited to announce the release of my new book Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, with a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott. This book is a labor of love that seeks to distill the essential insights I’ve learned from over two decades of working with story and community, story and healing, story and the struggle for meaning. It’s a deeply personal work that shares images from my own life as well as the lived experiences of so many people I have encountered over the years—from farmers in North Wales, to refugees in Calais, to climate scientists in Colorado, to local folks from here in Southern Oregon. It’s a book rooted in the community building work of The Hearth, and one that I believe will give you greater empathy and hope for humanity.

To celebrate the new book and the work it represents, The Hearth is sponsoring:

• Oregon Small Town Tour. Workshops, conversations, book talks and other events to help folks across Oregon experience the power of story. See tour listings here.
• National Tour. The Hearth’s Stories on the Road Tour with workshops, trainings, retreats, and other events to help folks across the U.S. experience the power of story. See growing list of towns and events here.

Story as Medicine

A couple of weeks ago I met with national book award recipient Colum McCann to discuss the medicinal qualities of stories. We began by piling up anxieties: political divisiveness, catastrophic climate change, wealth inequality, systemic racial violence. “We’ve become morally homeless,” Colum lamented. “Our lack of affection for others is at dangerous levels.” I shared his concern, but then remembered all the ways I have watched walls fall, prejudices dissipate, enemies grow in respect and understanding for one another. I thought of the recent workshop I led with participants from sixteen states and three countries. I remembered heads nodding among this diverse gathering as one participant confessed with emotion, “You all have given me hope for humanity.”

Story can save us. We step into the reality of another person’s existence and instead of judgement we feel a kinship. This happens in Hearth workshops and groups every time we meet. Someone gives testimony to their struggle and those gathered nod heads, “Yes. I feel you. I know what you mean. I’m no different than you.”

Story can save us because exchanging experiences is the most accessible, effective, democratic practice for fostering genuine, empathic connection. When I say “tell me your story?” what I’m really asking is can I re-live your experience with you? Can I try and see as you have seen, feel as you have felt, know the world as you have known it? Stories can save us because the honest listening and telling of personal experiences naturally endears us to one another. The illusion of separateness dissipates. I see myself in your story and am no longer able to demonize, ridicule, oppress or neglect. What’s so wonderful is that this is an instinctive, hardwired, human activity that anyone can engage to heal our families, our world, ourselves.

My work at The Hearth is to increase empathy and compassion in order to heal a troubled world. Despite the climate catastrophes, pandemic, increased political divisions–all is not lost. There is medicine for what ails us. It begins with cultivating trust. It begins with the listening and the telling.

Story as the Practice of Relationship

How do you strengthen, heal, and bridge relationships? Story can be an accessible, creative, built-in practice for helping families, colleagues, and communities become more connected. Each year The Hearth produces a five-month certification training in community storytelling. The program includes two, three-day intensives, individual coaching, and monthly webinars led by Mark Yaconelli. There are both online and in-person tracks. Special early bird reduced pricing through December 31, 2021. For more information go here.

I Hear You: Creating Listening Spaces with Youth

A little silence. Some heartfelt stories. Reflective exercises. And some real conversation about young people. It’s free. It’s online. Join us.

Register for The Certificate in Community Storytelling

The Hearth is offering an intensive certification program in community storytelling for those interested in the transformational power of stories. The Certificate in Community Storytelling offers a variety of experiential exercises, individual skill-building, practical teaching, online discussion groups, and written and online resources. Individuals who complete the certification course will:

• Understand how stories function in our personal and public lives.
• Learn how to create transformative events that deepen relationships within a local community or organization.
• Explore narrative practices that promote individual growth, social awareness, and community action.
• Learn how to create a variety of public story-sharing platforms that engender trust and vulnerability.
• Gain concrete skills for community storytelling including story recruitment, event promotion, audience building, public participation, media integration, and fundraising.
• Learn how to craft personal stories for speaking, teaching, and facilitation.
• Increase skills for coaching groups and individuals in personal storytelling.
• Discover methods for amplifying the voice of marginalized populations.
• Learn how to apply storytelling techniques within personal, professional, and community settings.

The Hearth Certificate Program is a one week concentrated intensive held April 19-24, 2020. Six months of additional teaching and coaching with Mark Yaconelli is available from May through October 2020 for an additional fee. You can register here.

Learn how to use story and story facilitation to bring more compassion, connection, and beauty into your life, your family, and your community.-Lucinda Moeglein 2019 participant

Whether you do this course for personal or professional reasons, it will give you hope for humanity.–Khaliqa Baqi 2019 participant

You will be empowered to impact and love others through the practice and power of storytelling.–Ted Hammett 2019 participant

 

The Power and Practice of Personal Storytelling: A Public Workshop in Seattle

Some people thing we’re made of flesh and blood and bones. Scientists say we’re made of atoms. But I think we’re made of stories. When we die, that’s what people remember, the stories of our lives and the stories that we told.–Ruth Stotter

Join the SPU School of Theology, Office of University Ministries, and Pivot NW in a morning training in personal storytelling with Mark Yaconelli.

This morning training will be an exploration of personal storytelling in ministry. Through presentation, contemplative exercises, theological reflection, and a variety of narrative practices, participants will encounter the power of personal storytelling for spiritual formation, outreach, social justice, and other ministries. The workshop will give participants practical skills for telling stories, creating narrative events, and assisting others in “giving testimony” to the work of the Spirit in their lives.

-Coffee and light pastries will be served.
-Child care can be provided upon request by February 1st to martinjimenez@spu.edu or leave a message at 206-281-2654
-Proceeds from the event will be used to support storytelling events for local churches.
-Parking will be free on streets or on lots as there is space. Passes will be emailed out to ticketholders the week of the event.

REGISTER HERE.

The Gift of Hard Things Wins INDIES Book of the Year Award

WESTMONT, IL—InterVarsity Press is pleased to announce that The Gift of Hard Things by Mark Yaconelli was selected as the 2016 Silver Winner in the Self-Help category of the nineteenth annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

 In The Gift of Hard Things: Finding Grace in Unexpected Places Yaconelli uses extraordinary stories from his own life and the lives of others to offer a narrative journey through ways in which disappointments have turned into gifts. Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies, said, “To my thinking, Mark Yaconelli is one of this country’s most important and articulate spiritual teachers. Anyone seeking knowledge and union with God will be informed, edified, nourished, and utterly charmed by The Gift of Hard Things. I savored every story and was nurtured by the expression and depth. It is a book absolutely after my own heart.”

 Each year, Foreword Reviews shines a light on a select group of indie publishers, university presses, and self-published authors whose work stands out from the crowd. Thousands of books are entered each year, and a panel of over 120 librarians and booksellers take part in the judging, narrowing it down to a group of finalists and winners that represent the best books, all independently published, in over sixty categories. Winners in each genre—along with Editor’s Choice winners and Foreword’s INDIE Publisher of the Year—were announced during the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago on June 24.