In Linnea Good’s career as a  “traveling minstrel”, she has released more than ten acclaimed albums of original music of faith, including the multiple award-nominated Swimmin' Like a Bird. With sales of nearly 30,000 units and multiple hymns published in global song resources, Linnea has been called the “contemporary musical voice of the United Church of Canada.”

 

Linnea had long included telling her own stories in her concerts. Once she started telling Bible stories - especially in their actual words - by heart, she found audiences responded in new, deeply powerful ways. “People claim these stories as their own,” she says, “and these stories can stick with them for life.” Linnea soon found her way to the Networks of Biblical Storytellers International and Canada, where she’s been active among “her people” ever since. 

 

Linnea’s storytelling ministry has taken her into congregations all across Canada, into the United States, Australia/New Zealand and India. Her mission, as she sees it, is to tell Bible stories, teach and be a “music animator” - helping the church “come back to its life”. She regularly leads workshops, including her signature class on music in storytelling. Her online worship resource subscription service includes biblical storytelling videos, songs, and more. She and her drummer/spouse David Jonsson maintain strong friendships with staff and students at a Christian school in India, where they serve yearly with song, games and child-size biblical story. And she is the co-founder with Rev Catherine Stuart, of Ukulele Church - a weekly online ministry combining worship, biblical telling, art and ukulele lessons. 

 

Linnea has come to regard biblical storytelling as “a spiritual discipline of growing up into the Bible - of letting it be itself, of letting the Story do its work, of letting the Holy Spirit do God’s work. I’m not the one who’s going to single handedly fix this messy world, but God’s Word carries great power. Biblical Telling somehow allows us to both stand up and be noticed and yet get out of the way - to allow the Word to do what God is doing.”

 

Linnea holds a Master of Religious Education degree from Emmanuel College, Toronto. She and David live in Summerland BC and have three adult children.

 

In this 2025 Festival, Linnea will help us explore the theme, “The Wonder of the Word: Spirit in Biblical Storytelling”.

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- Michael Poteet