How stories change nations.

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By Bryan Thompson ⋅ July 2, 2007 ⋅

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It was another hot day in Las Palmas. I had just explained to my new teammate that we needed to hold back sharing the Gospel with our Muslim friends until we knew more about them. Later, heading down in the elevator, we were dazed at what had happened. God had showed up to do something different than our plan allowed!

As we arrived at the apartment, overlooking a breath-taking view of the sea, my Sahara friend took the opportunity to introduce me to a local man. I learned he was a pilot and heard my Muslim friend say I was a teacher of the Bible. When he said I believed in a religion something like his, I saw a way to tell the Old Testament story of Abraham when God told him to sacrifice his son.

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence after. Awkwardly my friend felt he had to break it, saying at the end of time God was going to judge our good deeds against our bad ones. His wife, who was standing beside him, slapped his arm, saying, “No, no, that’s not it! Bryan said—”, and proceeded to accurately retell the entire story in their dialect of Arabic, and then very clearly tied in the Lamb’s provision to take away our sins, as I had done.

It was not the first time my mouth stood open with amazement at how a story could get under the defenses, with powerful results. A few years earlier in Port-au-Prince I had been teaching a group of church leaders. I told a story illustrating the power of God, and suddenly a woman towards the back of the crowded room began to shout how she had been healed! God was messing up my plan once more, and somehow I heard Him speaking (loudly) inside that there was good reason why Jesus chose narrative as His style of communication to the people of Israel, and why “He did not teach anything except by means of a story” (Mark 4:34). A story tells truth that sticks.

In our world there are four billion people who cannot, do not or will not read (oral learners). They have a preferred style of receiving, learning and processing information. Most of the world cannot comprehend the literate way we present the Gospel. It’s more than not reading or writing but a whole way of thinking. And it does not just concern the ‘primitive’ tribesman in some remote land, but it also concerns post-moderns living on our doorstep.

We, in story4all, have launched a podcast and website focused on informing, mobilizing and resourcing the Body of Christ to make disciples of oral learners. You can subscribe to the podcast at: story4all.com….

Bryan Thompson is the podcast producer and director of story4all. He lives in Ireland, with his wife Amarilis and their 3 daughters.