But she is ready. Ana is always the first one to learn her story, Ana of the Mixe people group of Southern Mexico. She has that ability, that untapped talent she never knew about before this week. She surprises herself in the bright Oaxacan morning. No, she does not need more time to learn her story. She watches the others in their different corners of the huge room. She feels a breeze and looks up and out the windows at the amazing purple flowers on the jacaranda trees and beyond to the mist laden layers of mountains to the east. A cringe of homesickness comes upon her. How many times has she ever been away from her highland village tucked in middle of that mountain range? Less than a handful in her long life time.

“Ana! Ana!” She is startled out of her reflections by Victoria, the pastor’s wife who watches out for her and teaches her new stories. Victoria can read and she is the mentor/coach for two or three non-reading women. She helps them learn new stories and choose the best stories for the women of Yacochi. “The group is gathering back at the big table”, whispers Victoria in her gentle, smiling way. “Come, Ana, it is time.”

Juana, Ana’s elder by just a few years, a slight woman not over 4 feet tall with an expansive grin and a sparkle in her eyes, will begin with the first telling. She has learned the “Widow at Zarephath” from I Kings. It is a story chosen for the first learning sessions for several reasons. It is short. It has a powerful message, it deals with a woman, a widow, and except for the name of Zarephath, is not a hard story to learn. Juana’s tongue trips up over the word Sarepta from the Mixe Bible, as it has every time she says it, but she goes fluently on to tell the story of the woman used by God to feed Elijah much like the Ravens did.

Juana finishes and without coaxing, without waiting, Ana’s voice emerges in a slow, soft toned telling of “Elijah and the Ravens”. Her mother tongue, Mixe, is a difficult language for outsiders but from Ana it flows beautifully. The women’s eyes shift from Juana to Ana. They are surprised at the spontaneous way Ana begins just out of the blue to tell her story without coaxing.

The story ends. Everyone has chuckled quietly during the telling of Elijah and the Ravens. They remember day one of this training workshop when one of the storytellers put the wrong tone on the Mixe word for Meat and it came out as the Mixe word for Bananas. That had created quite a sensation among the oral communicators. It was not bananas that the raven dropped, they had exclaimed. Much discussion had followed about the dangers of telling the story wrong, even with one tone, the meaning can change and Biblical accuracy is gone. Now as Ana tells the story completely accurately they nod with approval. They have learned how important it is not to change a single word.

Almost without a pause Ana goes on to tell another story, the “Widow’s Offering”. Ana is clearly in her element and finding a niche for herself. Her head is still downcast as she tells the story in the cultural way, unlike the proud, determined, forceful delivery of the African storytellers who boldly face their audience and maintain eye contact, the Mixes lower their head, refuse eye contact and tell the story in a monotone. It would be unsuitable, culturally disconcerting and inappropriate any other way. The distraction of a variance would take away the meaning of the story.

She moves on without coaxing to a new story, the “Woman of Sunem”. When her last narrative is over, Ana, looks up to see if she has told the stories well. She waits for the approval of her accuracy team and the nods are given. Not a word was changed. Not a word was forgotten. No bananas.

Emilia moves the group into dialogue about the last story Ana has told. Ana smiles. It is the first time in her life she has ever really had the Word. The book had been locked up to her. She had never owned the Word, spoken the Word. Had she ever really understood the Word through all these years?

Oceans away, Asharphi, a Hindi speaker of Uttar Pradesh, India is also learning to tell Scripture stories accurately. Her teacher Monica has emphasized Biblical accuracy from the beginning. “Some traditional storytellers or chanters of cultural or religious narrative have been known to change words”, says Ashaphi’s teacher “Each time they may say it differently. Their devotees have in turn changed words and in this way the story is distorted. That must not happen with us, the Scripture storytellers”. And so Asharphi, with attention to this admonition chooses new stories to learn each night. As Monica says, “Asharphi takes the help of her son who reads the story at night for her. She memorizes it at night in preparation for the next day, She is satisfied that she has chosen the right story relevant to the need. She has learned to remember a whole story without leaving out or changing a single word.”

Yes, there are risks with oral communication. Even with a literate mentor, or a recording of the story, someone could retell it wrong. It is our mandate as trainers in Oral Communication methods to emphasize, in fact to demand, Biblical accuracy.

Bio on Carla Bowman Scriptures in Use Bridges for Women department

Carla Bowman is with the Scriptures in Use Bridges for Women department. After receiving a master’s degree in education from the University of Arizona Carla worked for many years in Bilingual Education as a language and literacy specialist in the Tucson area. Along with her husband Jim she helped develop the ministry of Scriptures in Use starting in 1987. They began their work in Mexico working as missionaries among un-reached indigenous people groups. Through many years experience in Mexico, first as a literacy trainer and then as a trainer in Oral Communications of the Scriptures, Carla helped author the training series Communication Bridges to Oral Cultures which has been taught around the world. SIU is dedicated to training native believers to communicate the Scriptures in their mother tongue among traditional, oral cultures through Scripture storytelling, music and drama.

My initial “pipe dream” was to return to DTS to train others as I had been trained. However, after meeting a missionary to Thailand, that dream was changed to a strong desire to teach at the Bangkok Bible College (BBC) After arriving in Bangkok and taking a year of language study, the time came for my interview with the area director to determine my anticipated designation to BBC:

Larry: “David, I’m ready to begin teaching at the Bible school. When do I start?”
David (laughing): “We have no policy to send new workers to the Bible school.”
Larry: “Then where will I be working?”
David: “If you really want to train nationals, you must first understand what ministering in rural Thailand is all about. We are going to send you to Lamnaria, Central Thailand.”

The core group of believers in Lamnarai was leprosy patients who were at best semi-literate. They were not at all impressed with my degrees, nor were they overly enthusiastic when I preached my expository sermons taken from outlines I had used in the United States They did, however, respond to stories. When a poster was pulled out or the Jesus Movie was started, I noticed a visible change in their demeanor. They would inch closer to the speaker or screen and seemed to hang on every word. The most intense interest was reserved for the periodic visits we received from a Christian likae troupe.

Likae is a Thai dramatic and musical theatre production that is performed on a stage in an open square or temple site. Lay members of a rural church performed the first one I observed before four hundred captivated Thai. The actors, bedecked in colorful costumes, told the story of the Bible from Genesis to the resurrection using traditional musical instruments, chants, songs, and dialogue. The climax came when a sequin encrusted Jesus (played by the best actor - a woman) was raised dramatically from the ground on a rough wooden cross. That dramatic moment proved to be a kind of cultural and missiological epiphany of sorts. For the first time I saw how powerful a culturally-relevant narrative presentation can be. A story told with passion and drama does not need lengthy explanations of its meaning or application to life. I was surprised to find that theology and life applications are actually imbedded within stories.

After six years I was released to my “dream job” at the Bangkok Bible College. As academic dean, I quickly learned how our status as an accredited school forced us to provide courses that matched the accepted western curriculum. Our lecturers taught as they had been taught and as a result promoted a western teaching style, which proved inappropriate in the Thai context where the learning style is very different. Years later, when it was apparent that Thai churches were not receiving our graduates as we had expected, we did surveys to determine the cause. One underlying reason was that we were not matching our teaching style with Thai learning styles. Although officially a highly literate culture, Thailand at its core was an oral culture, which preferred narrative, drama, proverbs and music to propositional and analytical thought patterns common in the West.

This educational mismatch was most pronounced when we took young tribal converts, who grew up in a rural, illiterate area and transplanted them to our mega city where we taught them systematic theology in a classroom setting. After convincing them over three or four years of the “right” way to study and proclaim the Bible, we sent them back to their home village. Although they had our “coveted degree” they lacked the seniority, experience, or communication style that was acceptable in their villages.

After six years of church planting and six years of Bible teaching, I longed for a sabbatical in order to sort out my misgivings about Thai biblical education. It just so happened that Dr. Tom Steffen was starting a new class on Narrative at Biola University. This course came into being because of Dr. Steffen’s personal frustration while reaching the Ifagao tribe of the Philippines. Dr. Steffen (2005) said, “The Ifagao wanted stories and I gave them systematic theology, they wanted relationships and I gave them reasons, they wanted characters and I gave them categories”. Dr. Steffen reminded me that at least 65% of the Bible was narrative while only 10% was propositional. I discovered that 70% of the world either cannot read or prefers to communicate using oral methods.1 A few classes with Dr. Steffen were sufficient for me to conclude that what was needed to reach the vast majority on our planet was a much better understanding of orality and the power of stories.

Jim Bowman (2005) substantiated the pressing need to reach oral learners with these sobering statistics:

“Over one-third of the population of the world receives information only through oral communication. Traditional western models of communication really have been relevant to only about 10% of the population. And we are doing a very good job with that 10%. And if you look at statistics, we have reached about 10% of the world. But what about the 90% of the four billion that have not had a chance to really hear appropriately?”

In my mission career I had naturally gravitated to the 10% that Jim Bowman referred to and had taught the Thai in the systematic and abstract way that I had been taught. My narrative course with Dr. Steffen was a new revelation to me and gave me a new direction for my doctoral studies.

With Dr. Steffen’s encouragement, I chose the Walk Thru the Bible (WTB) approach as the subject for my thesis. The beginnings of the Walk Thru method can be traced back to 1963, when Ralph G. Braun began a home Bible study using a chronological approach, hand signs, and a map laid out in his living room. Braun called this unique method, An Old and New Testament Walk-Through (1970).

As a first year student at Dallas Theological Seminary, I had a chance to meet Bruce Wilkinson, who had taken Braun’s prototype and stretched it into a day-long teaching seminar he called Walk Thru the Bible. In 1975 I attended my first Walk Thru seminar with Bruce. I had taken survey courses in seminary, but none of them were able to put the Old Testament together so coherently in such a short time frame. Bruce was able to cover a 110-point outline of the Old Testament in six hours by placing us in the geography of the Middle East and physically moving us from point to point. I was intrigued at this approach but never realized the impact that the WTB method would have on my future ministry in Thailand.

While church planting in Central Thailand I was appalled at the level of biblical illiteracy among Thai lay leaders. This concern was heightened when, as a teacher at the bible college, I discovered students who were unable to piece together even a rudimentary picture of the plan of God as found in the Old and New Testaments. Steffen finds this to be a universal problem, “Bible training institutes often promote fragmentation . . . A fragmented grasp of the Bible often results in some people missing the big picture. Caught up in the details and minutiae, Bible students often fail to see God’s overall plan” (1996: 45,46). This disjointed view of scripture by leaders has had a direct affect on the laity. A Thai leader commented, “Thai Christians are unable to put events in the Bible into any sort of a timeline. This affects negatively both their ability to understand sermons and to do their own personal study” (Jaengmuk, 1992, 23).

Dr. Steffen had convinced me that a “missing link” in the training of Thai ministers was narrative storying of the bible. WTB method was a time tested and international model, which put together all the best aspects of a narrative presentation. It had been used on every continent with favorable results.2 I wondered if the WTB method could be part of the answer to the Thai’s disjointed and piecemeal understanding of the Bible? Would the Thai see it as a relevant seminar or just another novel farang (foreign) method, unsuited and untested in Thailand? There was only one-way to tell: translate the seminar, research the method and evaluate the results.

After seven years, forty seminars, numerous interviews and group testing in all parts of Thailand, I was able to publish my results. My initial hypothesis concerning the Thai’s interest in narrative was substantiated—the Thai simply love stories. The way that WTB packages key stories in the Bible only enhances the Thai’s natural propensity to narrative. Bruce Wilkinson describes it best in his own four point summary of WTB which he gave in a interview to Hunt and McCauley (1988):

• Synthetic - gives an overview of the “forest” (broad sweep of Bible) with little stress on the “trees” (details);
• Participatory - teacher accepts responsibility for the student’s learning;
• Memorable - contains a variety of mnemonic aids, and
• Fun.

My research allowed me to test these four aspects in the Thai context.

Synthetic

A simple test that I used on numerous occasions before teaching the class was to have 15-20 Thai stand in a line holding pictures of key Bible events. I would then ask them to rearrange the pictures in their proper chronological order. I discovered that the majority of Thai believers could identify isolated characters or stories from the Bible but were hopelessly lost when asked to put them in order. The WTB method is especially helpful to the Thai since it creates mental pegs for major people, places and events of the Bible and arranges them in the right order. Instead of a disjointed line of confused Bible events, the participant in the seminar is given a composite picture of the whole with each piece placed in its proper chronological position.

Participatory

One thing I have learned from my study is the need to honor adult learners and allow them to participate in the learning process. The lecture method may be the most efficient in delivering volumes of material, but it does not engage the learner holistically. During a six-hour seminar it is especially important for the teacher to keep the students actively involved. Wilhoit states: “Educational research has shown again and again that students learn best when they enter into class activities and take an active role in learning as the teacher does in teaching” (1990, 67). One key WTB activity is hand signs, which accompany each point in the outline. For instance, the first hand sign is to form a ball with your hands (creation), followed by a downward motion (fall), and then hands raised (flood). The Thai are highly expressive and graceful with their hands and take a special interest in this part of the seminar. Such hand signs, however, must be checked carefully to make sure they are appropriate. The book “Dos and Taboos Around the World” states: “Gestures pack the power to punctuate, to dramatize, to speak a more colorful language than mere words. Yet, you may discover that those innocent winks and well-meaning nods are anything but universal” (1985, 39).

Memorable

People in oral cultures are able to memorize vast amounts of material. That is why we can talk of an “oral Bible”. Jim Bowman (2005) describes it as: “50 to 225 stories that fit the world view of the people group.” A pastor or evangelist who masters these stories can apply them to a given situation at a moment’s notice. While evangelizing in Central Thailand it would not be unusual to encounter spiritual warfare, demonization, sickness and leprosy patients. Just knowing the key stories in Mark chapter 1 would allow the Thai evangelist to address these issues through a narrative approach, rather than a logical apologetic based on systematic theology. The Old and New Testament outline of WTB has over 140 points, which can be memorized in just a few sessions. The Thai are taught from their youth to learn orally and to recite facts to their teachers in a group setting. This fits in well with an integral part of the seminar, repeating the outline out loud together. The outline and key words are reviewed throughout the seminar using different oral and visual memory aids. To insure variety, a teacher can choose from numerous review methods. Students stop often to review the outline and hand-signs in groups of eight or with a partner. Acrostics, songs, pictures and object lessons are also used to improve retention of the story line.

Fun

Without the element of fun, a six-hour seminar can become quite boring. This is especially true in Thailand, which is known as “The Land of Smiles.” The concept of fun or enjoyment is a core Thai value that they call sanuk. Mole gives this description: “Happiness seems to be the apex and sum of the other Thai qualities, values and behaviorism. It is descriptive of the noncompulsive enjoyment of life, which is the ideal of the Thai” (1973, 85). Ukosakul shows why it is important to maintain a sanuk atmosphere: “The concept of sanuk is closely tied with the level of interest in the activity at hand. If the Thai do anything and do not feel sanuk, they will become bored and have no desire to continue with it” (1994, 79). In the same way as with gestures, cross-cultural humor is tricky and should be spontaneous and transparent, not contrived or canned.

Flexibility, Adaptability and Transferability

Besides the above four aspects that Wilkinson relates concerning WTB we could add flexibility, adaptability and transferability. People often ask me, “How long does it take to teach the Walk Thru?” I usually answer, “What length do you need? WTB is like a sausage which can be cut to most any length.” It is usually taught as a 5-6 hour seminar but can be reduced to 2 hours and 30 minutes if necessary. I have also expanded it to a forty hour TEE class. The adaptability of the method can be seen from the numerous cultures and climes it is taught in. When WTB was first taught in Russia the handbook was only two pages long and the outline was cut in half due to a scarcity of materials and time. One innovative WTB teacher in Australia taught the Old Testament to aboriginals using picture graphs hung on large sheets under the trees.

At least 50 participants are preferred to create group dynamics, but the seminar has been taught to only a handful or to thousands, as at Willow Creek Community Church. WTB is easily translated into other languages as evidenced by the over 40 languages and 85 countries in which it is taught. John Hoover, who was instrumental in the expansion of WTB internationally described further adaptations: “It is used as a tool in illiterate contexts (Africa); an evangelistic tool (Kenya); a church planting tool (India); a seeker sensitive tool (aboriginal tribesmen— Australia); a 77 Step Thru the Bible (Russia) and a long-term curriculum tool (Ukraine).”

Twelve signal systems

In my studies I puzzled at how such an American method could be so effective in so many diverse countries. Often the outline and handbook was simply translated word by word from English and taught according to the American model. Yet people of different learning styles and ages have affirmed its cross-cultural appeal. Smith in his study on the twelve signal systems of communication gave the most satisfying answer (1992, 144). Smith maintains that all human communication occurs through twelve signal systems or “pipes.” Using several signal systems in combination is similar to adding more pipes to a water system. A larger number of pipes carries more water. Similarly, each added signal system increases the information load carried. If one system fails to be understood, there is not a total loss of communication, because other signals systems are carrying the same or related information.

When you compare the WTB method with the twelve signal systems you will discover that WTB uses the vast majority of the “pipes” needed for effective communication:

1. Verbal—speech the majority of the 6-hour seminar is speaking).

2. Written—symbols (the manual has both text, charts and diagrams).

3. Numeric—numbers (periods of years and dates are mentioned).

4. Pictorial—two-dimensional (the manual includes colorful pictures and graphs).

5. Artifactual—three-dimensional (object lessons).

6. Audio—nonverbal sounds and silence (music, reflection times).

7. Kinetic—body motions (hand signs).

8. Optical—light and color (the four color manual and overheads).

9. Tactile—touch (attendees sometimes give each other a back rub - in Thailand it is done only with the same sex)

10. Spatial—utilization of space (layout of room as a map).

11. Temporal—utilization of time (schedule of the day, breaks, lunch).

12. Olfactory—taste and smell

WTB works cross-culturally because it uses eleven of the twelve pipes (exception: olfactory). In order to include all twelve pipes, Walk Thru at one point actually considered adding a “scratch and smell” page to the manual. One might also include a reenactment of the Passover meal in order to include the senses such as sight, touch, and smell. Many teaching techniques are one-dimensional, stressing only one or two pipes. The broad appeal of WTB is found in the large number of teaching styles, which are bound to match at least some of the predominant learning styles in a given culture. This explains why a largely western method can “cross-over” into other cultures.

Another element, which helps WTB adapt to other cultures, is the emphasis that can be given to any one Bible story. Buddhism is a philosophy (as opposed to a religion) and as such is often analyzed by westerners from an abstract philosophical viewpoint. A small minority of educated Thai may be able to follow a philosophical apologetic, but the vast majority of the Thai can follow the apologetic embedded within a well told biblical story. Take suffering for instance. In the West this is a popular topic for deep philosophical discussion as discussed in a myriad of theoretical books. The Thai, however, will grasp the biblical teaching on suffering more quickly from a story, than from an intricate and logical argument.

When the life of Joseph is taught in the West, the most usual emphasis is placed on the sovereignty of God or forgiveness. However, in Buddhist Thailand a better stress would be on how Joseph responded to suffering. Guatama Buddha was seeking to find the source and solution to suffering. His answer was the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. The scriptures give a much more satisfying answer to the problem of suffering and evil, which is why the life of Joseph can be used so effectively with Thai Buddhists. Another example is the book of Judges. The ending of the book, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (21:25) fits with the Buddhist idea of working out your own salvation in your own way. The fallout from such a philosophy in the period of the Judges can be easily applied to the Buddhist context. Stories that speak to idolatry and slavery can be treated with a similar approach.

WTB has a basic story set which incorporates over 140 key people, events and locations. Such a story set is a good starting point for a generic panorama of the essential narrative elements. However, when working in an illiterate or semi-literate culture it is possible to contextualize the story set to that specific people group. The basic process is as follows:

1. Study the language and culture and gain a grasp of their world-view. Isolating their belief system will help when it comes time to pick appropriate stories that fit the way they look at life.

2. Develop a more exhaustive story list that addresses the key world-view issues.

3. Narrow the full list down to around thirty key stories that touch on essential doctrines and truths. There are many stories that would be appreciated in a culture, but it is the job of the teacher to understand the culture, language and world-view well enough to isolate the most relevant stories to make the greatest impact.

4. Field test the story set for suitability. The key is to send out a significant number of trained nationals who will share the stories in a variety of settings.

5. Evaluate and debrief the results of field-testing. When the testers return for debriefing, statistics can be gathered and patterns can be recognized, which will help in the goal of identifying the most effective stories.

6. Finalize the story list and set up a training program. The key to the training program is to have a group of nationals master 4-5 stories and then share them over a two month period before returning to be trained in another 4-5 stories. Over a couple of years you will end up with fully trained oral communicators who have a set of core stories ready to share at a moment’s notice.

Paul and Tereswa Koehler who work in India have a program which incorporates many positive aspects of effective training in storying (2004). The Koehlers do not use WTB, but their approach would be a step that could be taken after the foundation was laid through a WTB presentation:

1. Participants sign up for a four-year program, which requires four days of residential training per month. In these four years the students will learn a total of 125 stories (Genesis - Acts 28).

2. During the four days of training the students learn from 8-10 stories. They study in groups of 4-5 students and practice telling the stories in groups of two. The content of the training is reduced to only one sheet of paper.

3. All participants present their stories and are evaluated by their teachers and peers.

4. In the three weeks between training sessions, the students share their stories as often as they can in a variety of settings - family, neighbors, in church and public places.

5. After three weeks they return for more training and stories. The group of 50 that are in this program have shared in as many as 3,000 different settings in a 21-day period.

Conclusion

For most of my missionary career, I unconsciously pushed a literate agenda and bias. The TEE and bible school training I was involved with was heavily tied to the printed page and western thought patterns. The Thai went along with this emphasis since they felt that western educational models with a stress on logical, abstract ideas and systematized learning were somehow more academic and thus superior. Their term of respect, ajarn (professor), substantiated my role as their enlightened western scholastic guru. But on my journey to narrative I learned that there was a better role to play.

Larson popularized the idea that we enter a new culture as Learner, Trader and Storyteller (1978). Basically he was encouraging us to enter the culture in a learning mode and to strive to find acceptable roles and communication channels within the target group. In Thailand it is hard to follow that model since from the moment you arrive you are expected to act like a western ajarn. This term is quite flattering and can subconsciously tempt the missionary to bypass the rather “infantile” stage of learner and story teller in order to portray oneself as a experienced scholar. As an ajarn the tendency is to communicate in the expected western mode of abstractions and ideas and thus overlook the unadorned power of a simple bible story. As familiar as I am to being addressed by the Thai as ajarn, I would much prefer to be known by the Thai as phu laow reung – story teller.

Notes

1 See www.oralbible.com…

2 Walk Thru the Bible had spread to 85 countries and 40 languages by 2004.

References

Bowman, Jim. 2005. “A Story for the Nations: Making Disciples of Oral Learners” Workshop on Training Grass Roots Workers, at International Orality Network. Anaheim California Sept 13.

Braun, Ralph. 1975. Old and New Testament Walk-Through. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Dos and Taboos Around the World. 1985. Elmsford, NY: The Benjamin Company.

Hunt, Angela E. and Laurie McCauley. 1988. “Bruce Wilkinson Makes the Bible Come Alive.” Fundamentalist Journal 7:7-13¸Å.

Jaengmuk, Manot. 1992. Walk Thru the Bible Study Program and the Local Thai Church. Unpublished bachelor’s thesis, Bangkok Bible College, Thailand.

Koehler, Paul and Teresa. 2004. The Oral Bible: Biblical Storytelling for Today DVD. www.fullfaith.com…

Larson, Donald N. 1978. “The Viable Missionary: Learner, Trader, Story Teller.” Missiology: An International Review 6(2): 155-163.

Mole, Robert. 1973. Thai Values and Behavior Patterns. Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Co.

Slack, Jim. 2005. “Findings from Field Research into the Effectiveness of Oral Strategies.” Workshop at the 4th Conference on Reaching Oral Communicators. Anaheim, California July 13.

Smith, Donald K. 1992. A Handbook for Christian Communication across Cultural Landscapes. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Steffen, Tom. 1996. Reconnecting God’s Story to Ministry: Cross-cultural Storytelling at Home and Abroad. La Habra, CA: Center for Organizational & Ministry Development.

Steffen, Tom. 2005. “My Reluctant Journey into Orality.” Address to the 4th Conference on Reaching Oral Communicators. Anaheim, California July 13, 2005.

Ukosakul, Chaiyun. 1994. A Study of the Patterns of Detachment in Interpersonal Relationships in a Local Thai Church. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Wilhoit, Jim and Leland Ryken.1990. Effective Bible Teaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.

This article is used by permission, and was originally published as “My journey into the world of narrative” in Mission Round Table: the Occasional Bulletin of OMF Mission Research, August 2006, Vol 2. No.2., p. 15-19.

So what are some of the differences between the two tasks, and how can the Bible translation process benefit from oral interpretation strengths and thereby involve non-readers in the Bible translation task?

Oral storytelling is the bridging of images from the mind of the teller to the audience. Doug Lipman, a highly regarded storyteller, claims that, “Stories are made of images, not words.” Cognitive scientists claim intelligence is best measured by the ability to recall knowledge when it is needed. Human memories function by indexing and recalling images stored as stories.

Good tellers use visual, aural, kinesthetic and verbal/conceptual clues to help stimulate the images. They use intonation, facial expressions and gestures along with words to help enhance the images. Essentially, written communication aims to communicate images as well, but the letter symbols, words and punctuation are the medium and are often perceiving the images requires a very high level of reading fluency. It seems that thinking in images arranged in stories is a familiar process for oral communicators and may be better integrated into the translation task.

The Bible is full of images that need to be studied in order to translate it from one language to another. For example, take the concept of ‘hell’. What images do you think of when you hear this word? Do you see hell as a fiery furnace, with tortured souls crying out for relief? What inspired your images—stories from the Bible and/or Hollywood films? One approach to gaining an accurate understanding of the Biblical image of ‘hell’ (as well as ‘heaven’) is to look up the definitions in a Bible dictionary and check out the cross-references in the Bible. Of course, this is a very literate approach that requires being able to think of words in isolation.

Another approach might be to share the stories from 2 Chronicles 28 and 36 that describe the Valley of Ben Hinnom, where idolatrous Israelites offered up child sacrifices to the gods Molech and Baal. You could also read the prophecy in Jeremiah 7: 30-34, where he says the valley will be a mass grave for the dead bodies of people of Judah who are killed by an invading army. To amplify the images of carrion-eating birds and animals and the unceremonious dumping of bodies to indicate that the dead are under God’s curse, the storyteller can use intonation, facial expressions and gestures. An additional step would be to tell the story from Mark 9 where Jesus describes hell.

But what if local practices involve ceremonially burning the dead or allowing the bodies to be ravaged by wild animals? Good stories often remind us of our cultural stories, so exploring Bible stories about ‘hell’ will most likely inspire listeners to share their own images and stories of ‘hell’. Before the translation process can be continued and words found that best fit the concept ‘hell’, the images have to be explored and discussed. People have to discover that their images of these concepts are not necessarily the Biblical ones that God uses to teach us.

A very literate person might say that this process can be made more efficient by giving the definitions and a summary of the OT stories of child sacrifice to Baal and prophecies about mass graves and defiled bodies and then searching for an explanation of cultural beliefs and words. However, we must ask ourselves if the people we are working with are building the appropriate Biblical images and can compare them with their own images, particularly if they haven’t had the opportunity to interact with the Bible stories and tell their own stories. Who of us doesn’t get drawn into a well-told story of a current event in the Middle East more so than with a brief summary of conflicts?

Images are powerful tools that aid us in our learning, processing and remembering information and experiences. Good storytellers conscientiously work to help build the appropriate images in their audience’s minds, knowing their audience is already developing mental images, whether they are accurate or not. Typically telling stories is a non-threatening way to stimulate discussions. Storytelling can help train Bible translators who are working in their own languages and engage the wider population to help them check the accuracy and naturalness of the translated Scriptures.

Janet Stahl has been a member of Wycliffe since 1989. She and her husband have worked in Vanuatu, South Pacific since 1991 during which time she worked as a literacy and Bible translation trainer. She is currently working with The Seed Company as oral strategy consultant.i

Translating the Bible into the languages of the world continues today at a rapid pace. Wycliffe Bible Translators and partner organizations have a vision to begin a translation project for the world’s languages by 2025. At this time, of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken across the world, an estimated 2,000 have Bible translation needs. Wycliffe and others are looking at how the translation process can be accelerated and shared.

At the same time, various organizations are focusing on the oral communication of the Bible and promoting an oral telling of Scripture stories. Some oral approaches focus on a chronological series of stories that become a set for a particular language group. Other oral approaches compile a chronological Bible set, but focus on accompanying theological teaching that accompanies these stories.

This article focuses on how oral approaches can augment a Bible translation process, with scenarios for various situations and stages of language development. These scenarios range from language communities with little language development to those that have written literature, including a current Bible translation. Oral approaches can also augment language development in groups that have a body of literature and literate people.

Generally, Bible translation work is done in language communities that are multilingual and mainly oral communicators. Moving a language community from being predominantly oral to literate is a huge endeavor. Not only is a new technology, written language with an alphabet and punctuation, being introduced, but in many cases the message being conveyed is new as well. Developing an oral approach for an oral community can be a step that will benefit the language community and help them understand the message without having to first transition to becoming literate. The multilingual aspect is also an important factor in oral approaches especially when there is no written translation available in the vernacular. Since the vast majority of language communities in the world are multilingual, there are likely to be people who can access scriptures in another language and tell that message to speakers of their own language.

Beginning stages of language development

Supposing a language community has requested help to translate the Bible into their language or mission agencies or local churches have decided that a language community needs a translation of the Bible, what better way to initiate the project than to begin telling the Bible stories? At this stage the language community can designate translators to be trained to tell Bible stories in their own language. If this language group envisions a Bible translation, the Bible storytelling training can be coupled with a strategic planning workshop, where all stakeholders are present.

Having this introduction to translation, the community can immediately get a sense of where they are going and how they can be involved. The oral Bible storytelling training will get them started dealing with translation issues in crafting the stories and at the same time open opportunities for immediate feedback from community members. Translators should be involved in the storytelling from the start, as it will help them process their translations.

This approach could also be used for language groups where there is no intention to support a written translation effort immediately, especially for very small language groups (with populations under 500 people). Telling the Bible stories in their own language will not only expose the community to Scripture, but it will also help them identify with the stories in their own language and cultural setting. This approach will give them a head start if a written translation project is in their future.

To craft the Bible stories, somebody in the language group will need to have access to the Bible in another language, such as a related language or a language of wider communication. At some stage during their crafting and telling, the stories will need to be checked by consultants.

An oral approach to translation training

Training for indigenous translators who do not read and write, can be enhanced through Bible storytelling and an oral approach. Scriptures can be presented and processed as ‘story’, making the exegesis process less literate and more oral. A survey of the Old and New Testament could be taught by telling key stories or turning-point stories from the Scriptures.

Storytelling during the course of the project

A storytelling approach could coincide with a Bible translation approach, especially in a predominantly oral context by helping the community be more involved in the translation effort at various stages. People would be learning and internalizing what is translated by telling these stories to others in the community. This interest of the community could also provide constructive feedback that would help the translators in their revisions and could provide motivation as the translators continue their task.

Storytelling at the end of the project

When a community values their language as spoken and not written, a Bible storytelling project may inspire people to access the already translated Scriptures. A storytelling approach could help people access their language scriptures in ways that seem comfortable or typical for their oral society. It could also motivate them to learn to read the scriptures as well, to delve into and discover relevant applications. It is also true that storytelling or public reading of Scripture is a community event and the likelihood of more people hearing God’s Word in their language is greater through storytelling than through individual reading.

Several methods of storytelling have been researched and widely used. The Network of Biblical Storytellers (NOBS) has a method that combines an approach that is faithful to the written translation and added approaches that appeal to current modes of performance, including drama, contextualization and the use of parallel cultural stories.

Karl Franklin, an SIL member, emphasizes studying oral traditions to help determine how the teller would craft a ‘good’ story that could be applied to a Bible story. His method begins with cultural and linguistic observation and appreciation. He is careful to explain that his approach is not translation.

Conclusion

Many possibilities exist for Bible storytelling augmenting a Bible translation project. Bible storytelling can enhance the quality of the translation and promote community involvement and support. Storytelling can also encourage community literacy and cultural appreciation.

Jim Stahl is the Oral Approaches Coordinator for The Seed Company.

A different approach

The team needed a more fluid, organic method that would take advantage of natural opportunities as they arose. Surveys in the student union weren’t working extremely well, so they tried to focus more on conversational ministry—encountering people after class, etc. When someone came to Christ or when an existing Christian was discovered, that became an important opportunity to take the gospel back to the person’s group. Realistically accomplishing that required two commitments:

1. To equip people quickly and effectively to begin to live a solid Christian life and to minister to the others in their groups.

2. To not pull new people into “Campus Crusade’s world” (weekly meetings and other activities) so exclusively that they were pulled out of their groups of friends before they could make an impact.

These commitments created a need to disciple new people with more pace and intentionality than in the past. The standard was set to equip them to begin to walk with God and form some foundational Christian habits and ministry—all within one semester. It sounded audacious, but the need was real if they were to have a good chance to reach their groups.

One barrier to quicker discipleship was the failure to fully account for the natural learning styles of students. They wanted to learn through high amounts of discussion, not by listening to lectures. They liked stories more than lists of points. They were more open to application and sharing than we were calling them to do.

All of this led to the development of the “Essentials of Spiritual Growth and Multiplication” project. In September 2005 David Pezzoli, four student Bible-study leaders and I started from the essential content Campus Crusade had refined through the years. We tried more engaging ways to promote learning and regularly sought feedback from the student leaders.

What developed was so much easier to use that the student leaders twisted my arm to help develop 12 more sessions to follow the initial 12. (That happened despite my objection that I had a “day job” of leading Campus Crusade.) Two of the student leaders were so happy with the approach that they converted their 1 John study into the same format, while they waited for the new sessions to be developed.

A new resource developed

“The Essentials of Spiritual Growth and Multiplication” is a small-group discussion series designed to help students grow in Christ and become involved in ministry and multiplication as soon as possible. “Life change” and “talking about God” are two very visible indications a movement of spiritual multiplication is occurring. All 24 lessons encourage students to see change in their lives and tell others about what they are learning. The series is designed to be much easier for today’s college students to understand and use.

One second generation group leader said, “This is so easy, anyone could lead it.” A major contributor to the ease of use and transfer to others is that the series takes into account two key facts about today’s students: first, they are “post-modern” in philosophy; and second, they are “secondary oral learners”. That means they can read but they don’t prefer to learn by reading.

“Essentials” focuses on experience, story and discussion to understand biblical truth. It does not require a Bible scholar to teach it, because the leader’s role is to guide the group in discovering truth together. Group members pray and consider what the Scriptures say and how they apply to daily life.

“Essentials” is an evangelism and discipleship strategy but works differently than many other strategies you may have used. It spreads among the student body of a campus along the natural relational network that already exists. Second and third generation groups do not form mainly by large-scale promotional efforts. Instead new group leaders are asked to invite their friends and acquaintances to attend. Hopefully some of these people have begun to see life change and excitement about Christ in the life of the new group leaders.

Growth of the project

To give some sense of the numerical results, the original two small groups started with 20-25 students involved (total) in September 2005. They had grown to 35 students involved by the end of January 2006 and had split into four groups.

More importantly, from the two original groups 12 students became involved in teaching their own groups. Four of the new groups (they teach in teams) had a total of 25 more people involved, not counting the leaders.

One of the members of a second generation group expressed a desire to start something in her sorority within a few weeks after becoming involved. The fall of 2006, 21 groups were formed. By February 2007 there were 35 groups altogether with a total of 290 students involved. This represented almost 1.5% of the traditional, undergraduate students at UCF.

Here is a quote from Emily, a new second generation group leader: “Kevin’s and my group is going really well. Right now we have six people. I could see them leading their own groups soon.” By April 2007 two strong third-generation leaders committed to start their groups in the fall.

Where to download a copy of “Essentials”

If you are interested in taking a closer look at the “Essentials” series, you can download it at www.godsquad.com….

When the police pushed open the door and charged into our training center I knew my time in China was finished. After the five days with police “protection” I was deported to Hong Kong. Figure that one out? Little did I know God had another plan for me. He redirected me to an unreached people group that is incredibly hungry for God and simply waiting for someone to bring them the good news.  After being deported I thought my world had fallen apart, but God taught me many lessons concerning who I am and why I am here, and showed me He can put me on the shelf whenever He wants to. As my wife and I sought God’s will we heard clearly that we were to relocate to Thailand.

During a vision/research trip in a restricted access country, God burdened me for the peoples of that area. You can ride for hours in the back of a truck and see village after village without any churches, without any missionaries working amongst them and without even one Christian who could tell them of God’s love and plan of redemption. My passion has always been to go where the needs are greatest or where there are unreached peoples who are not engaged or who are being overlooked. So, when I saw these people groups without anyone working amongst them, I knew what God was saying.

I tried to argue with Him, saying the populations of people groups in that area are so small it would be better to use my efforts among a bigger people group. However, He made it clear we were to target the Kao Bu people. I was a bit confused since I only spoke Chinese and didn’t speak the Kao Bu language, but I did know there were near-culture peoples who were Christian who spoke both Chinese (my language) and their language.

We prayed and asked God to send us a co-worker. He sent us a fine Christian man with a heart to reach the lost. Many Christians in this particular group only think about how they can get financially supported, but this man wanted to see the gospel spread. With him came two other brothers who had experienced a revival in 1996-97, where the Holy Spirit fell and brought conviction of sin, repentance and power encounters of many kinds. These guys are humble servants of God and I have learned so much working with them.

I had already begun researching where the Kao Bu live, how many of them there are. I was planning a strategy of how to reach them. I took these men into Kaobu land for their first ever trip outside of their country and showed them where their near culture neighbors lived. Over the next few months we put together the first cycle of oral materials that would be used to evangelize and teach the first believers.

We started with a standard 40 chronological bible story list and evaluated what was most appropriate for the target culture. The redemptive story of Christ told from Creation all the way through the Bible to the resurrection, ascension and promised return. We never spoke of Jesus but only of the redeemer that God has promised. We traced this promise through the Old Testament highlighting what each story taught us about God, about mankind and his inability to save himself, about Satan and his plan to destroy humans-and the most important point, sometimes called the “scarlet thread of redemption,” that we trace to the New Testament revelation of Jesus the Christ. After developing a four tape set of oral materials, we made a fast-track tape to be used by the prayer teams we were arranging to come and prayer walk and strategically and prayerfully leave these fast tracks in the villages.

We have found certain stories to have the greatest impact. With those who are heavily influenced by demonic activity and spirit propitiation, telling about the creation of angels and their fall is very significant. The Ten Commandments always brings about lively debate as the people are happy to point out where the guy next to them has fallen short. By the time we get to the end of the old Testament there is truly a sense of frustration and loss of hope. They see clearly their sin and inability to save themselves. We have even had heated discussions about where they might get a lamb, although they have never seen a lamb before.

When we get to the part where the redeemer is born, that is truly “Good News.” The people are so very happy to know that all we taught them about God’s faithfulness and love for the people of the world is true and that He would fulfill His promise and send a redeemer. In the New Testament certainly Jesus’ power encounters are very meaningful to animistic people, but I think without any question the story of Lazarus and the rich landlord is the most impactful.

The Kao Bu have always followed the ways of their ancestors, but when they understand that there are only two options of where they can go when they die and that their ancestors would be pleading with them to choose wisely and not end up in the same situation as the rich landlord, the people almost always choose to follow Christ.

They have seen their sin and inability to save themselves. This has historically been a problem with animistic tribal peoples coming to Christ: they don’t really understand who God is and their true spiritual need. One fellow missionary told me he has seen people from one particular people accept Christ in just 10 minutes, but it takes 10 years to find out what they were actually thinking when they made that decision. Unfortunately the motivations are not always the right ones if appropriate worldviews are not adequately addressed in the teaching/conversion process.

The amazing thing we have seen is how the Holy Spirit works in these people’s lives even without access to the written word or very much training. One young man who was to be evicted from his village because he had become a Christian stayed up all night and wept tears of joy as he walked around his village. When we heard this we were so sad, but he said not to be sad, because they were “tears of joy because the Lord was counting him worthy to suffer for Jesus”. We had never taught him this, but the Holy Spirit had.

Another exciting event was when a man in a village had a vision three days in a row of the risen Christ. The Lord told him, “I am the risen Lord and I have called you to be a witness to your people.” The man exclaimed “Okay, but I don’t know who you are!” The Lord then told him to “go down river to where My servants are teaching about me.” It just so happened that we were down river teaching people how to know Jesus.

Another man was very sick, so we took him to the hospital. He was so angry that he shouted at the doctor and tried to escape from the hospital because as he said “I came to hear the word of God, not to be treated for my physical ailment”. The man went home knowing the Lord.

Just recently we had a delegation from a village come out of their remote area because they wanted to know who God is and how to worship Him. They have been worshipping the sun and the moon, but felt very dissatisfied and empty in their hearts, so someone suggested, “Let’s go out to “a nearby country” -there must be someone there who can tell us who God is.” They had not traveled far when they met some of our disciples, who led them to our training center. They were told they had come to the right place! Five people went home three days later believing that Jesus is the true son of God and only redeemer for the sins of the world, and that they were going to obey Him. They began by being baptized and now they want to go to other countries to tell their relatives there about the wonderful news of a loving God seeking and finding those who desire Him.

We have had so many miraculous things happen these past three years-but by far the greatest is that we can verify 250 people have come to faith and expressed their faith through baptism. These people know that they will face persecution for their faith. We teach them immediately how to face persecution right after they receive Christ and are baptized. The gospel is spreading in this restricted country through these people and flowing into other peoples and countries. Near culture groups are being challenged by these young Christian lives to live their faith more genuinely in those countries where there is more religious freedom. The Lord is being glorified and to think what I thought was the end of a ministry was actually just the beginning of an exciting time watching the Lord reach an unreached group for Himself.

He’d tried distributing tracts there and said, “You can’t hardly get into the place, and if you do, no one will listen to you, take anything from you, or receive you in any way. I’ve never seen any place harder than that hill country.” We would come to call it “Hazard County” Southeast Asia.

A few years later, ethnic cleansing in another part of the country sent 100,000 refugees on the move. An enormously powerful mystic-Muslim preacher in Hazard County came to me, telling me all the area’s social and religious institutions were overwhelmed by these destitute newcomers’ remarkable needs. Any aid that was coming was getting pilfered off by powerful politicians and clerics. The refugees were desperate.

“If you can do anything to help me help my people, then I’ll endorse you going in there and aiding them. Only, give aid directly to the refugees and don’t trust anyone else.”

It was a huge, complicated mess, too far from my home to easily manage—and an opportunity that we simply could not refuse.

Learning on the way

My partner—a gifted evangelist—and I started helping them, learning as we went. We consulted to put together chronological oral stories, starting with Genesis and leading local leaders right through the Old Testament toward Isa Al Masih (Jesus the Messiah). My partner told the stories in the local dialect.

He started out telling these water-starved poor that when God created the world he made everything “good.” That meant they should not sit around defeated by their lack of water—as if God made some mistake when he made this hill country. God made it good—meaning that everything they needed for their basic needs was there—including water. We just needed to work together with anticipation to find it.

The local leaders’ interest grew as my colleague told one God-revealing story after another from the Script. Their enthusiasm also grew to dig wells, build rainwater retention tanks, and even to start building a sizable dam.

After three years of hearing the Scripture storied orally, three local leaders came to us. Each said, in so many words, “We love your stories! But we see that you have this Holy Book that we don’t have. We know the stories come from your Holy Book. Please, let me have a copy of it so that I and my people can read it when you’re not here.”

When working in the most fanatic place you’ve ever seen, one thinks twice before leaving behind physical evidence of your influence. So, initially we didn’t give them anything but more oral stories. Besides, we didn’t even have spare copies of the Script with us. We’d planned it that way.

But these three men kept asking. They seemed sincere in their desire to read the Truth for themselves. My partner and I prayed, talked in the jeep, and finally decided to sell copies of the New Testament to these three men.

On our next visit they each bought their copy (at a greatly discounted rate—90% off), thereby verifying that it was on their own initiative that they obtained them. No one forced them to take a copy.

We drove home, and a few days later my partner’s cell phone rang. One of the men—an old ulama—laughingly complained, “I can’t get any sleep! Every night my living room fills up with people and we hand the Kitab Suci Injil (Holy Book the Gospel) around to the good readers who read it out loud to the group. Eventually it gets late, and I’d like to go to sleep. But inevitably someone in the back says, ‘Keep reading,’ and a while later, ‘Don’t stop!’ I can’t get any rest because no one wants to stop hearing this message.”

A couple weeks later he called again, this time agitated. “My Injil turned up missing a few days ago. I looked all over for it, but couldn’t find it. Then I learned it had been stolen and had fallen into the hands of a radical preacher-politician who is now trying to bring charges against you in the county seat.”

The next time we visited we gave our best effort to create understanding and solve this conflict. Local government leaders privately confided to us they knew the locals loved us, and knew we hadn’t done anything wrong—but radicals from nearby villages stirred things up. Politicians, always out to protect their backsides, complied with their demands.

We were arrested, accused of mass Christian literature distribution. The only physical evidence against my national partner was that stolen copy of the Injil.

As it turned out, the old ulama who’d had it stolen was one day called into court to witness against my partner. But it didn’t play out as the prosecutor had planned.

The judge held up the Injil asking the ulama, “Sir, have you ever seen this before?”

The moment his eyes lighted on his Injil his face lit up, and he exclaimed, “Hey, there’s my Injil! I’ve been looking all over for that! How’d you get it?”

“This is yours?! Where’d you ever get this?” she asked.

Pointing toward my partner—the defendant—he said, “I got it from that man over there. I asked him for it.”

“You asked him for it?”

“Ya, I asked him repeatedly for it. He wouldn’t give it to me because he said the copy he had with him was the only one he had. But I kept after him, and eventually he brought me one.”

The judge, mystified, asked, “Can you explain something to me? You are a teacher of Islam. Why would a man like you ask this man for this book?”

Our ulama friend sat there for several seconds, looking at his stolen Injil and considering the question. Thoughtfully he pointed at the Injil and said, “That is an important Holy Book. I’m just getting to know it, but already I can see I need to know what’s in that Holy Book. In fact, I’ve begun to see that everyone needs to know what’s in that Holy Book. In fact, I think even you here in this courtroom need to know what’s in that Holy Book—”

The judge quickly interrupted, “Thank you for coming today, sir. You are free to go home.”

The thin little ulama stood, turned his back to the judge and started to leave. That’s when he was surprised to hear her voice behind him saying, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

He turned back and approached her. Amazingly, she held out that Injil to him—the only piece of evidence in a high profile felony trial. He took it, held it to his chest like a beloved little baby and just stood there for a little while. Slowly, with his head lowered, he turned back to the courtroom—the rear full of Muslim theologian-observers.

When he raised his head, his eyes were bright and he was smiling from ear to ear. Looking the stern experts straight in the eye, he slowly, confidently walked down the isle right between them and out of the courtroom. On the loose, with a copy of the Injil to go back to his village to keep on doing what he had been doing—reading the Injil, trying to figure it out and telling all his followers about it.

Eventually my partner received a long prison sentence. He was released on parole a year and a half later. As far as we know, the dam was never built—but a few refugee leaders have access to living water.

Lessons Learned

What do we learn from this? How does it enlighten us about the importance of orality?

If we had it to do over, we wouldn’t change much, but we’d probably tweak our approach a bit. Despite the pleas from leaders, we probably would have been better off resisting the urge to give them copies of the Injil as early as we did. We had been getting away with some major Injilizing without a major hitch for three years. We probably could have gotten further if we’d never left hard evidence.

Yet, sooner or later what happened was almost bound to happen. As one friend had predicted, “They’ll leave people like you and me alone until we begin to see results, then they’ll move with everything they’ve got to get us out of here.”

We’re greatly encouraged that we got as far as we did in such a challenging place. And now, having been forced out of that region and unable to return, we’re relieved that they have a few copies of the Script. We’d feel sick if the people were left with nothing but the memory of our oral stories.

It all goes to prove the adage: oral movements are crucial for the spread of the Message; written Scriptures are critical for its preservation.

Roy Slone is a pseudonym for a field worker with 17 years experience on the ground in Muslim contexts. He enjoys getting front-line dirt on his shoes whenever situations and wisdom permit, and he dabbles in missiology. He serves with CrossWorld.

Q: What is “different” about this approach?
A: Storytelling is as old as mankind, so it has been around since the story of God’s creation were first told. However, this approach assumes that when preliterate or largely oral societies hear God’s message, as revealed in the Bible, it is best told and retold in a oral format as well.
It also does not assume that every language group needs a Bible translation, especially small languages that are in danger of becoming moribund or extinct. Depending on various factors, such as literacy and motivation to hear and retell stories in the vernacular, a storytelling approach may be the best starting point.

Q: But why not simply begin directly with translated materials?
A: A translation project assumes a literate audience, an infrastructure for electronic recording and printing the materials, and a distribution plan. If the language has a high degree of people who use an oral approach, the translation program largely bypasses them.

According to world experts, some 70% of the people in the world do not read and write with any degree of sophistication (such as the Scriptures require). But telling stories is a cultural phenomena that builds on the oral dexterity that is already present in the culture. In addition, telling stories does not require the same kind of training for a selected few—everyone tells stories.

Q: How can you be sure the Bible stories are told accurately?
A: The same way that we can tell the Scriptures are translated accurately; namely, by asking questions, requiring back-interpretations into a common language, and by training storytellers. We ask questions like: What is the point of the story, why did (Jesus) tell it? Who are the main characters and what are the main events, etc.? However, storytelling is not translation, so Bible background, redemptive and cultural analogies, as well as other helpful supplementary information can be added.

Q: What serves as the source for the stories?
A: Scriptures exist in the major languages that some speakers of even minor vernacular languages understand, at least to some degree. Therefore major languages serve as the source text from which the stories are told.

Q: How does this methodology and strategy serve and relate to the goals of Wycliffe and SIL?
A: This approach gets the national speakers of the languages involved in telling and retelling the stories of the Bible. If a translation program develops, some key terms and background information has already been used and so is available. It tests motivation so that translation programs are not begun unless the vernacular speakers are using their languages.

Q: Has the methodology been tried out?
A: New Tribes Mission and the International Board of Missions (Southern Baptist) have been developing Chronological Bible Storytelling for some time. SIL and the Seed Co. sponsored a pilot project in the Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea in October of 2002. It was attended by 17 men from 4 language groups. In late 2003 an additional storytelling seminar was held in Hauna of the East Sepik Province and attended by 17 men and one woman from 8 separate languages.

Q: How does “Biblical storytelling” differ from the “Chronological Bible Storytelling” method ?
A: Note the following differences:
The stories were not chronological, but began with the parables and miracles of Jesus
The format allowed the speakers of the languages to choose stories that they felt were needed
It was an oral approach (students did not read or write materials)
Stories were recorded at the course and taken back to the villages by the students

Workshops focused on several key areas:

• Why stories?
• How to tell stories
• Story audiences
• The main point of a story
• Recording stories
• Stories as songs and drama
• Constructing stories
• Examining stories

Karl J. Franklin works with SIL International.

In a thought-provoking piece for Baptist Press (“Literacy and the Gospel,” Aug. 22), Denny Burk, assistant professor of New Testament at Criswell College in Dallas, expressed concern about the decline of literacy among Americans and what that means for Bible-reading. Burk cited a new poll reporting that one in four U.S. adults did not read a single book last year.

“[W]e would do well to note this cultural phenomenon as it bears directly on the fortunes of the Gospel in our culture,” Burk warned. “Christianity is a book-religion. That is, all of its revelation about God’s redemptive work in Christ is mediated to us in letters on a page. We don’t have photographs, telephone lines through time or a living oral tradition. We have the Scriptures. Apart from them, we have no saving knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because Christianity is a religion of the book, where it spreads so too does a concern for literacy. That is why when Christianity expands its borders, it is often accompanied by the building of schools and other institutions of learning. Where literacy dies, so does a knowledge of and a love for the Bible.”

Burk posed a key question: “Does it not make sense to interpret a decline in reading as a trend that works against the Gospel?”

Few would dispute the premise that in an ideal world everyone would have high literacy and a good Bible translation to read. It’s also true that many who have those opportunities—particularly in our own American culture—don’t use them well, squandering their time in activities that don’t count for much.

However, first-century Christians might have been surprised at Burk’s assertion that Christianity is a “book-religion.” Stories about Jesus and His teachings circulated widely by oral means for decades before they were written in the Gospels. Those who believed what they heard were genuinely saved and they formed authentic Christian churches without the benefit of reading a copy of the New Testament. Churches were well-established around the Mediterranean basin before the books of the New Testament were written.

Likewise, given the expense of making scrolls of the Old Testament, few first-century Christians would have had a private copy. Even if people could have afforded their own Old Testament scroll, many could not have read it. Historians estimate that at the time of Jesus, between 3 percent and 20 percent of the populace truly were literate. Even if we take the high estimate, 80 percent of the population would have encountered God’s written revelation by hearing it read rather than reading it for themselves. God graciously encountered them through public reading and oral proclamation, not directly from a written text to their eyes.

This was the case when God led the Israelites out of Egypt. After all, how many of the Hebrew slaves would have been able to read the Law given to Moses? Not many, one would think. But God was able to raise up a distinctive and holy people for His own, despite their very limited literacy and infrequent (or nonexistent) opportunity to read His written revelation. In the case of the Old Testament, God revealed Himself in divine acts, in visions and dreams to prophets and in other ways for hundreds of years before He guided some of that revelation into written form. God has never limited Himself to a book as His only means of making Himself known to man.

The Bible says that the Word of God is “alive and active,” something that cannot be said of mere ink on paper. His Spirit takes the message of God—whether read from a printed page, faithfully preached or told as an accurate biblical story—and in His own mysterious way impresses its truth on the listener or reader. The Spirit convicts us and confirms the truth of the proclamation.

These historical realities provide an important perspective as we consider the approximately 4,400 languages in the world that lack even a single translated book of the Bible. Can the speakers of these languages know Christ apart from having the written Bible in their language? Yes, if someone who knows biblical stories will tell them. Those stories are ultimately derived from a written Bible, which, as Burk reminds us, is the ultimate sourcebook of God’s revelation. But given the slow pace of Bible translation, we at the International Mission Board have sought to find ways to make the message of the Bible accessible to people around the world who have no Bible in their language or lack the ability to read it.

In such cultures, speaking of Christianity as a “religion of the book” can erect barriers to evangelism. It can leave nonreaders thinking there is no place for them as a follower of Jesus. Professor David Sills of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has written about facing just that issue last year on a trip to Peru. He told a group the Gospel is for all people. Afterward an unschooled woman named Fortunata asked him, “What about me? … Can I go to heaven when I die, too?” Seeing the puzzled look on his face, she clarified, “We have always been told that we could not enter into the kingdom of heaven if we could not read.”

Erecting barriers to world evangelism certainly is not Burk’s intent. He is addressing the U.S. scene and the alarming decline of reading. But we should not overstate the linkage between literacy and Christian faith, because that would misrepresent the historical reality of the Old and New Testament eras. Additionally, it overlooks the experience of IMB missionaries on mission fields. We have seen hundreds of thousands of functionally illiterate people come to faith in Christ—a faith so genuine that they willingly undergo persecution for it. (Such groups have proven to have the doctrinal basics right, by the way. We’ve checked.)

Furthermore, tying Christian faith inseparably to literacy could undermine Christians’ willingness to meet nonliterate and Bible-less people where they are. We need creative strategies to communicate God’s message in non-print methods such as face-to-face witness, Bible storytelling, radio broadcasts and distribution of audio and video.

Does this imply that Scripture is unimportant? Of course not. It is vital. Does this mean that I am against literacy and education? Not at all. Having earned graduate degrees and taught seminary students—and having just written a big check for another semester of college tuition for one of my daughters—I definitely have invested a huge part of my life in education. Like Denny Burk, I celebrate the fact that a desire to understand the Bible has fueled many wonderful efforts to provide education.

But I encourage literate Christians to remember that God has been drawing nonreaders to Himself for thousands of years. Many lived godly lives, obedient to the truth proclaimed orally to them. By God’s grace, we hope to lead millions more to know Christ and live in Him—even if they have never shown any interest in reading.

Grant Lovejoy is director of Orality Strategies at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. This article was originally published in Baptist Press, online at Literacy and the Gospel (Baptist Press, Denny Burke, August 22, 2007) can be found at .
The cited Associated Press poll was mentioned in numerous newspaper stories.