“Prompts” is the name we give to the little slips of paper we hand out at the beginning of every Gilead service (or to the question we drop in the Zoom chat). The practice is ripped off from live events put on by The Moth, but story prompts belong to every writer or writers’ workshop ever offered. At Gilead, each week the prompt is a half-sentence, almost always ending with the word “when.” “When” drives people to think about moments (the building block of stories), rather than ideas or topics.
“I knew they had my back when…”
“I did a 180 when…”
”I (finally) felt at home when…”
“I headed into the unknown when…”
“I felt fully seen when…”
People complete the sentence anonymously (with only as much text as fits on a small piece of paper — typically one or two sentences) and we read them as part of the welcome. We also use this practice at almost all storytelling events, church or otherwise, often reading them in between storytellers. The anonymity offers safety. The option of participating, open to everyone, offers the chance to hear many voices (metaphorically).
Whether in church or a broader public, the intention of a prompt is to invite participants into the theme by considering a moment from their own lives. A prompt pre-figures the theme, before folks even necessarily know what it is. Figuring out a prompt starts with the question “What do we think this [service, event] is about?” The prompt aims to come at that sideways, through participants’ personal experiences. At Gilead, we often brainstorm a list of ideas based on the theme for the night or service, and choose the one that feels like it’s the most specific to the event.
Some prompts are quite straight-forward: “The best meal I ever had was when…” (The “when” there means we got stories, not menus!) or “I was grateful when…” Others require more interpretation or imagination by folks filling them out: “Shit got real when…” or “It was a miracle when…”
The best prompts are evocative, clear, and answerable. Can you come up with an answer for the prompt you just considered? If not, maybe change it.