The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: Grant Lovejoy
Date: 03.06.2010
Category: Orality
Editor’s Note: This Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper has been written by Grant Lovejoy as an overview of the topic to be discussed at the Multiplex session on “How To Communicate the Truth to Four Billion Oral Learners.” Responses to this paper through the Lausanne Global Conversation will be fed back to the author and others to help shape their final presentations at the Congress.
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. Mk. 4:33 NIV
Jesus knew the value of parables. Mark says Jesus used parables deliberately, in light of his audience and their ability to understand. Jesus also used other kinds of stories, object lessons, miracles, and his own example to teach. In these and other ways Jesus demonstrated himself to be an audience-sensitive communicator. The very fact that Jesus became human shows God’s willingness to meet humanity on our level. Jesus spoke the common language; he used familiar objects, concepts, and communication forms to reveal God and his message. Jesus taught as his listeners were able to understand.
After Jesus returned to heaven, ordinary people spread his teachings and the stories of his life. Followers of Jesus are still telling his story (and his stories) to those who need the gospel. We show ourselves to be like Jesus when we seek to present God’s truth in the ways that ordinary people can understand it. By this approach, we demonstrate Christian love, humility, and service.
The most understandable ways to present God’s message are the ones that people already know, the methods that they have used for generations. In many places around the world, these favorite methods are traditional oral art forms. Oral arts include storytelling, music and singing, poetry, proverbs, drama and ceremonies. They can be extraordinarily effective.
Oral Methods Increase Effectiveness
Recent research 1. found that oral forms of communication were closely correlated with effective church planting among Muslims. Questionnaires and interviews documented the combined impact of (1) using the local language instead of a regional language, (2) having at least one team member fluent in the local language, and (3) using appropriate oral or literate communication strategies, depending on whether the host group is oral or literate in its learning preference. Oral strategies were singled out for emphasis: “. . . teams who understand the learning preferences (whether oral or literate) of their people group and incorporate this into team strategy were more fruitful (in terms of numbers of fellowships planted) by 340 percent!” 2.
Other Christian workers have reported similar achievements using oral methods with non-Muslim groups as well. Using appropriate oral strategies with oral learners leads to better understanding and acceptance of the gospel. It contributes to better discipleship. Oral methods are essential in equipping oral learners as leaders in their culture. Because of this growing awareness of the importance of oral strategies, The Missions Exchange, representing about 100 mission organizations that support over 20,000 missionaries, gave its 2009 Innovation in Missions award to the orality movement.
Orality Is Reliance on the Spoken Word
These reports raise questions: What is this thing called orality? What oral methods contribute to more fruitfulness?
“Orality” is an unfamiliar term. When I use it people often look quizzically at me as they say, “Morality?” “No,” I reply, “orality.” A simple dictionary definition says, “Orality is reliance upon spoken rather than written communication.” Before writing was invented, everyone lived by spoken communication, thus by orality. They read nothing, took no notes, and never looked anything up.
A few small, remote cultures still know nothing about reading and writing. The scholar Walter Ong called such groups “primary oral cultures” and called their way of communicating “primary orality.” Today, however, most of the world’s population knows that reading and writing exist, even if they themselves cannot read and write.
People who cannot read almost always rely on the spoken word. 3. They have to rely on the spoken word because they cannot use print. They are oral communicators by necessity. Oral communicators get their information from talking with friends and family, not from reading newspapers or magazines. They may listen to radio or watch television. Oral communicators learn by watching someone else do a task and performing it alongside him or her. They do not refer to written users’ guides. Communities where people live primarily by the spoken word are called “oral cultures.”
Many people who learn to read and write in school do not find reading pleasurable. They much prefer swapping stories, singing with their friends, using proverbs to comment on current events, reciting poetry, and discussing their experiences. They gravitate toward oral communication whenever possible. Many people do not use their reading skills regularly once they leave school; as a result their orality reasserts itself. Such people are oral communicators because of their cultural tradition and personal preference even though they have learned to read. Tex Sample has called people like this “traditional oral communicators.” 4. Ong uses the term “residual orality” to refer to this phenomenon. 5. This is a very common situation.
I talked about this phenomenon in a university class that included an African graduate student. A day or two later she went to a midweek gathering of her church. Nearly 30 Africans attended the meeting; all of them were university students or graduates. When she surveyed them, all of them said that they prefer oral forms of communication. Their response is understandable: African culture is strongly oral. Its oral forms of communication are aesthetically and relationally rewarding. So these Africans strongly prefer oral forms of communication to print-based communication, even though they are university students and university graduates.
The Bible Anticipates Oral Presentation
The Bible arose in an oral environment. Both the Old and New Testaments were written during times when the vast majority of people could not read. “The literacy rate in those biblical cultures seems to have ranged from about 5% to 20% depending on the culture and which sub-group within the culture we are discussing. Not surprisingly, then, all ancient peoples, whether literate or not, preferred the living word, which is to say the spoken word.” 6. Scripture shows clear evidence of its oral origins. For example, narratives make up almost half of the Bible, and poetry makes up about another third. 7.
This is not surprising, because both stories and poetry are traditional oral art forms. Proverbs and songs are also traditional oral art forms, and we find them in the Bible too.
Both the Old and New Testaments indicate that it was typical for one person to read Scripture aloud to a group. Moses instructed the priests to read the law to all the people at the end of every seven years (Deut. 31:10-13; cf. Josh. 8:33-35). Ezra read the law to the assembled people of Israel (Neh. 8:1-3). Paul instructed that his letters be read among the churches. 8. Several of his letters seem to have been dictated orally to a scribe. 9. Thus, even the letters of the New Testament have more oral character than casual readers recognize.
Rev. 1:3 pronounces a blessing on “he [singular] who reads and those [plural] who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it.” This reference and the others remind us that most people in the New Testament era encountered God’s word by hearing it rather than by reading it. The only copies of the Old Testament and New Testament writings were hand-written ones. They were expensive and beyond the reach of common people. The practice of reading a printed Bible silently to oneself developed 1500 years later when the Gutenberg press made printed books cheap and thus widely available.
This historical review reminds us that God expected many people to hear his word proclaimed live––audibly. The Bible was inspired and written with that oral/aural encounter in view. When printed Scriptures are available, then of course Christians should also be encouraged to learn to read them regularly for themselves. Where Scriptures are not available, we need to make them available. In that process, Bible translation teams should keep in mind that the Bible is a book that God intended to be heard as well as read silently for one’s own benefit. His word is for the ear as well as the eye.
The stories of Jesus’ life and teachings circulated in oral form for a generation before the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written. During that time eyewitnesses told what they had seen and heard. Christianity grew dramatically during that period; the church spread from Judea and Galilee around the Mediterranean Sea and into the interiors of Asia, Africa and Europe. These new followers of Jesus came from a wide range of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. The gospel spread rapidly and vigorously during a period when the primary available means was oral transmission. Certainly the public reading of the Old Testament played an important role in the early church. Perhaps some eyewitnesses made written notes about Jesus’ deeds and words. But oral transmission was critically important in getting God’s truth out.
Ordinary believers were able to tell the stories that they knew. They used them to explain who Jesus was, why they were his followers and why as Jesus’ followers they lived differently. Though the Jewish leaders viewed Jesus’ followers as “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13), his followers were remarkably effective. Led by God’s Spirit, transformed by having “been with Jesus” they went everywhere telling the stories they had heard and the experiences that they had had with God. Celsus, a second-century critic of Christianity, described the early Christians as “workers in wool and leather, and fullers [launderers], and persons of the most uninstructed and rustic character.” He complained that such common people were so effective in leading people to follow Christ. 10. These examples remind us of the potential for ordinary Christians to learn, internalize, and tell biblical stories and other selections as a means of proclaiming their faith. They can be tremendously effective. Those who have not been formally educated can and must still take an active role in proclaiming the gospel. Jesus did not exclude them.
As the Lausanne movement rallies around a vision of “the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world,” there are several implications about orality for it to consider.
Implications of Orality for the Whole Church
Much of Christianity’s growth in the last several decades has been among oral cultural groups in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. Their familiarity with oral traditions can be an advantage in making Christ known among those who have yet to hear the gospel, for most of those who have not heard the gospel also live in oral cultures. Christians from strong oral cultures already understand the value of communicating in story, song, proverb and dance. They can share their expertise with those who are steeped in other ways of communication. Christians from oral cultures can advocate for the value of learning via apprenticeship in ministry, especially for oral learners. They can lovingly insist that the equipping processes for church leaders give full consideration to the needs of oral learners.
On the other hand, Christians from print-oriented cultures and church traditions need to develop a greater appreciation for and skill in the use of various oral communication approaches. Part of this shift is attitudinal; it involves valuing oral arts in Scripture and in cultures. This shift will frequently mean learning from people who are skilled in their culture’s traditional oral arts. In partnership with oral artists, print-oriented Christians can discover what oral arts the culture itself uses and which ones are best for biblical truth. Most importantly, Christians from print cultures need to resolve that they will do their utmost to see no one is excluded from full participation in Christ and his church for lack of literacy.
Implications of Orality for the Whole Gospel
Our desire to communicate Scripture’s message among oral peoples can give us a fresh appreciation for parts of the Bible that we may have neglected. If we have focused much of our time on the New Testament letters, it can give us a new appreciation for Old Testament narrative, the Gospels and Acts. We may learn to fit the teachings of the New Testament epistles into the story line of Acts in a way that benefits our understanding of both of them while making them more accessible to oral learners. Serving among traditional oral communicators may heighten our appreciation for Psalms, Proverbs and the poetic portions of the Bible. If we develop a broader and more intimate acquaintance with the whole of Scripture, we cannot but improve our grasp of the whole gospel.
Our concern for the whole gospel has practical implications for making the gospel available to those who have never heard. It means that any initial panorama of Bible stories needs to be selected carefully so that the collected stories include the essential theological themes. It also means that we must seek to understand every culture where we proclaim Christ. The more fully we want the whole gospel to influence a culture, the more fully we must seek to understand the culture. Otherwise we may proclaim the gospel based on misunderstandings of the culture’s beliefs and values.
Our commitment to proclaiming the whole gospel has implications for Bible translation and Scripture engagement strategies. People groups without the Bible in almost every case are also oral learners whose mother tongue is not written. In each language community, the believers within the group and their partners in Bible translation organizations need to determine the best way to make the whole gospel accessible to them. Recent efforts to think more precisely about what it means to make Scripture “accessible” have led some groups to helpful reconsiderations of their strategies. Just completing and printing translations does not make them accessible to non-readers. Well-considered Scripture engagement strategy makes provision for non-readers and their media utilization preferences. Advances in technology have brought many new opportunities to present biblical truth via radio, audio and video recordings. Many of these have already proven tremendously effective in reaching oral learners. It is impossible to predict all the possibilities for wedding technology and oral strategies in the years ahead, but who can doubt that they will make a huge impact?
Bible translation organizations have begun giving additional attention to the orality of communities that have no Bible. They have begun using Bible storying methods to introduce mother tongue translators to Scripture and ground them in the sweep of Scripture before they translate individual portions. They have found it very helpful to use oral drafting of whole narrative units of Scripture. This process strengthens the naturalness of the resulting translations (both oral and print) and makes them more understandable and appealing. Testing these oral versions by using them in small groups has also shown promise in several ways. 11. Getting more and more of Scripture available in accessible formats that serve oral communities well is a key step in proclaiming the whole gospel to those who have not heard it.
Implications of Orality for the Whole World
Taking the gospel to “the whole world” means presenting it in an understandable way to every man, woman, boy, and girl. At least a billion men, women and children are oral learners by necessity because of illiteracy or functional illiteracy. Approximately three times that number are oral learners by preference.
By UNESCO’s conservative estimates, 12. one adult in six, 759 million men and women, are illiterate. Two thirds of those are women (95). An estimated 72 million school-age children are not enrolled in primary school. Additionally, 71 million adolescents are not enrolled in secondary school. (Note that “the out-of-school problem is twice as large as it is typically reported to be” [73]). All 902 million of these people who lack literacy require God’s truth in oral form if they are to understand it.
Many people who complete primary school or more are still highly oral by necessity even though their government will count them as literate. Completing a primary or secondary education does not guarantee that students have functional literacy skills.
Millions of children emerge from primary school each year without having acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills. Unable to formulate or read a simple sentence, these children are ill equipped to make the transition to secondary school – let alone enter employment markets. The problems extend to secondary schools, where many children – sometimes a majority – do not reach even a minimal level of competence (104).
This is not limited to a handful of the most economically impoverished nations. “Absolute levels of learning achievement are exceptionally low in many countries” (104). The educational performance of ethnic and linguistic minorities is often worse than the national averages. Christians reaching out to ethnic and linguistic minorities should take note of this.
Low literacy is not just an issue in the developing world. The affluent industrialized countries also have sizable populations with limited literacy skills. In the United States, for example, “14% of the [adult] population lacks the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks like understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals” (96).
Similar situations exist in other developed countries. The International Adult Literacy Survey conducted in 22 nations and regions, most of them in the developed world, directly tested participants’ literacy skills. 13. IALS research discovered that on average almost half of adults in those countries had limited literacy skills. These adults, who can read but who do not read proficiently, comprise a sizable portion of the estimated three billion people who have a preference for oral communication.
We cannot count on sustained improvements in global literacy levels. Despite an unprecedented global effort since 2000, experts warn that, “There is an imminent danger that, after a decade of encouraging advances, progress towards the Education for All goals will stall, or even be thrown into reverse, in the face of rising poverty, slower economic growth and mounting pressure on government budgets.” 14. Improving a country’s literacy level by several percentage points each decade is a major challenge. Embracing oral strategies now is wiser than hoping the world will soon become literate enough to benefit from existing print-based strategies.
Conclusion
We seek to communicate God’s message so that ordinary people can understand it, respond to it, share it with others and live it out fully. To the extent that our audience learns best by oral means, we must adjust our communication to meet them. Faithfulness to Jesus’ example compels us to this, as does the possibility of increased fruitfulness in his service. Churches and mission organizations worldwide have seen increased effectiveness for the past two decades as they have experimented with, and then embraced ever more fully, the use of oral strategies. People who had been marginalized in Christianity because they lacked literacy can now be once again full participants in Christ’s body.
© The Lausanne Movement 2010
Keywords: orality, parables, story, implications, non-readers, technology, illiteracy, familiarity, inclusion, ordinary language, effectiveness, hearing, strategy, understanding, Scripture, discipleship, communication, culture
Views: 20287
Comments: 74
Recommendations: 5
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United States
I stand in full agreement with the effectiness of orality. I find myself thinking about the "Griot" and his teling of stories to the village community. My grandmother did the same. She shareed stories of our family members who were slaves and she encourged the family never to let these stories die. Orality not only is effective, if feel it is a lost art of communication that drew family closer together bulding strenght and chracter within the family.
20.06.2011
United States
I stand in full agreement with the effectiness of orality. I find myself thinking about the "Griot" and his teling of stories to the village community. My grandmother did the same. She shareed stories of our family members who were slaves and she encourged the family never to let these stories die. Orality not only is effective, if feel it is a lost art of communication that drew family closer together bulding strenght and chracter within the family.
20.06.2011
Jamaica
Grant, This was an excellent piece. I wish I had read it earier so as to post a comment sooner. The whole thrust of your article resonates with much of what a number of us have been saying and writing about in recent years in both biblical studies and Bible translation. For example, I had the privilege of co-chairing (along with Dr. Phil Towner, now of the Nida Institute of the American Bible Society) a three-year Seminar (2005-2008) sponsored by the Europe-based Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS). Title of Seminar: "The New Testament, Orality and Bible Translation." Out of that three-year Seminar has come a professionally prepared (by a fellow SNTS colleague, Prof. Eugene Botha of South Africa) 52-minute and 30 seconds DVD entiltled, "Orality, Print Culture and Biblical Interpretation." For more on that, see, www.eugenebotha.co.za
Thanks again for a great and a most timely piece.
Dr. Gosnell Yorke, former Translation Consultant with the United Bible Societies (Africa Area) and SNTS member--now in Jamaica
22.10.2010
United States
@ professoryorke:
Professor Yorke,
Thank you for bringing this research and presentation to our attention. Unfortunately, the link you provided is not working currently. Would you verify it and let us know if there is an alternative source? Additionally, is there a way to obtain copies of the papers produced over the three-year period?
26.10.2010
United States
I apologize for replying so late, as I imagine you are very busy these final few days before the congress; however, I wanted to suggest that we think about how to use oral strategies in higher education. Maybe we should explore how to change our teaching methods to include strategies like storytelling (not just longer lectures!) and begin to develop models for academic institutions that would suit oral cultures better than Western models.
07.10.2010
United States
@ kande:
Great idea, Deborah. Do you have specific suggestions?
18.10.2010
Mexico
Thanks for this reflection on oral cultures and the implications of orality for gospel ministry.
My impression is that, even in highly literate countries, reading (at least sustained, serious reading) is in decline. Perhaps this is reflected in the success of evangelistic tools such as Alpha, Christianity Explored and other variations on the theme, which require less reading on the part of participants and depend substantially on oral and visual communication. Has technology made preferential orality a growing phenomenon in traditionally literate cultures?
One evangelical motive for directing people to enscripturated revelation has been to demonstrate that the authority and power of gospel ministry come from God’s word. The theological progression “God has spoken…It is written…Preach the word” is important. How can we honour God’s choice to make himself known through the written words of Scripture as we respond to the learning preferences of oral cultures?
13.10.2010
United States
@ Charlie_Fletcher:
It is clear that teens and young adults in the U. S. are spending less time in pleasure reading. Similar trends are evident in western Europe as well. The availability of electronic communication is often suspected as contributing to this decline.
My hope, as expressed in the paper, is that people who encounter God’s message in non-print form will find it so captivating that they will also seek to read it and study it as well.
18.10.2010
South Africa
Thanks for a great inspiring article.
I experienced an introduction to what you have been talking about in this article during the week when you spoke at our Seminary. I found this method extremely interesting.
How would you incorporate this method in an established church during a normal Sunday service? Would you do it as you did at our Seminary in a conversational method...or would you simply tell the story and then follow it up with some teaching?
16.10.2010
United States
@ WalterThomas:
Most established churches do not expect to dialog with the pastor after he has presented the message from Scripture. So it would be a big shift to use the Bible storying approach followed by dialog in a conventional worship service. I suggest you bring Bible storying into another part of the church’s Bible teaching ministry initially. Often it is safer to experiment with a group who is open to trying something new. Select an environment in which you can experiment, develop your skills and confidence, and build church members’ enthusiasm for this new approach.
Having said that, I talked in September with a pastor who has begun using Bible storying followed by dialog as his preaching approach. He counts it a wonderful improvement. He said his members get more out of this approach than they did with his previous style of preaching. Application of Scripture to life is much stronger because the storytelling, reinforcement, and dialog place the biblical content much more firmly in their memories, according to him.
18.10.2010
South Africa
Greeting Grant.
Thank you for reminding me of the simple ways in which the Lord Jesus ministered to others and experiencing it for myself, i can relate to how effective a method it is.
Q: How can this form of teaching be used with young people in a church setting? The method is really amazing and captivating but can it also be used to illustrate modern issues we face?
Q: Is it advisable to make a story more relevant to modern listeners by applying it into a present day context?
Thank you for sharing your gift of story telling and may God continue to use you in a mighty way.
17.10.2010
United States
@ Clayton:
The Bible storying approach works beautifully with students in any church setting where you normally study Scripture. It is harder to pull off if you have more than 50-60 attending because the dialog gets harder to manage with big groups. Students enjoy listening to the story. With some encouragement they will learn to retell it and in several churches the students have really responded well when encouraged to dramatize it, compose a song based on it, or in some other way express what the story has meant to them. Michael Novelli has written a couple of books about using Bible storying with American students in the 12-18 age range.
I do not encourage modernizing the story or shifting it out of its biblical context in situations where people do not know much about the Bible, do not have a Bible in their language or cannot read it with understanding. In some settings it has been effective to create a modern story with a similar plot to the biblical story and use it to hook listeners into the issues. Then one can offer the biblical story in its biblical and historical form. The first story prepares for the second.
18.10.2010
United States
We praise God for your passion that all hear the Gospel. Excellent paper!
Let me encourage you with the following, " . . . for a wide door for effective service has opened to [us], and there are many adversaries . . . Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men [be mature], be strong. Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:9, 13-14, nasb).
Doug Nichols
13.10.2010
Australia
Thanks, Grant. You address an important area for cross-cultural communication in missions. This matches my African experience where the use of drama for telling Bible stories was a productive communication tool and with my knowledge of ministry within some Australian indigenous communities where corroborees and iconography are used for Christian purposes. A good Australian example is discussed in the following book - "Their way: Towards an indigenous Walpiri Christianity" by Ivan Jordan (CDU Press, Darwin, 2004). Good to see the emphasis on the oral Scriptures too.
My questions relate to the lack of emphasis on orality in Christian communication in western cultures. Why do the creative arts remain on the fringe of mainstream Christian communities, especially in Australia? How can Christian artists, who often feel marginalised, can be cared for? What is the role of Christian radio?
25.07.2010
South Africa
@ David_T:
Christian artists must be bold and understand (from scripture) what their God given mandate is. I suggest Colin Harbinson’s excellent DVD series Stone By Stone. From what I’ve seen so far, StoneWorks does excellent work establishing a theology for the arts.
Christians have forgotten that the greatest art in Western cultures for centuries were pairings, sculptures, architecture and music that were done for the glory of God. Unfortunately today we exult the sermon--and to a lesser degree church music--as the highest expressions of understanding the divine which is why so much Christian radio is full of teachings and praise music. Once we regain a full understanding that all the arts are equally important (not just rhetoric and hymns) we’ll see art forms the audience loves (whether chanting, storytelling, drama, etc.) push aside the few expressions that were widely accepted in Christianity’s narrow understanding of the arts in the past few centuries.
Who else has input?
26.07.2010
Australia
@ AndrewTWR:
Thanks, Andrew. I agree with your insights about the prioritieis in regards to the arts. Stoneworks certainly plays a valuable role in promoting the arts and supporting the Christian artist. I have benefited from Colin Harbinson’s ministry in my College in the last 2 years and attended the first Australian conference by Stoneworks in Adelaide in 2009.
26.07.2010
United States
@ AndrewTWR:
Hi, Andrew. I’d like to respond to your comments.
John Newport was a professor of philosophy of religion who took special interest in the relationship of Christianity and the arts. He once led a conference for architects who designed church buildings. In the conference Newport contrasted worship in the OT with worship in the NT. In the OT era worship centered on a single ornately-decorated temple, with its highly-symbolic artwork and utensils, a hereditary priesthood, and tightly controlled access. In the NT era all believers were priests with complete access. Their meetings took place in ordinary homes, halls rented for the purpose, and public spaces. Much of the priestly ceremony and symbolic ritual was absorbed into Christ, who was its fulfillment. All believers were encouraged to participate actively in worship. Any biblical understanding of the arts in Christianity will need to take this shift to heart.
The early church had little physical space for the visual and performing arts. Interestingly, Acts describes the advance of God’s kingdom by saying "the word of God kept spreading" (6:7), "the word of the Lord continued to grow" (12:24), and "the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing" (19:20). The word, proclaimed via testimony, simple conversation, debates, sermons, songs, public reading of Scripture, and so forth, was central to the life of the early church. The NT uses about three dozen verbs for the spoken communication of God’s message.
So though I encourage the use of culturally-appropriate visual and performing arts, I do not agree that they will or should have equal place alongside spoken proclamation. Practically speaking, they can hardly have equal place in the life of the churches that have no fixed meeting space, but that meet quietly in homes and elsewhere because of persecution. Additionally, I know pastors who prepare 3-5 sermons and Bible studies weekly. Few artists are able to produce at that clip. So if the arts push aside the spoken proclamation of the word, it will be a step away from the pattern of the NT church. I hope the other art forms do not supplant the spoken word.
12.08.2010
South Africa
@ GIL10:
Hi Grant, I’m glad to learn from these discussions and your time to give so much feedback to the comments.
I wish I hadn’t said "push aside" because it seems that was too strong a term. I did not mean "supplant." I merely hope that within our lifetime that writers, painters, sermon makers and (yes even) rap artists should be seen as equals with none better or worse at allowing God to speak through them.
I wonder if John Newport was able to impress on any architects the irony that building physical "houses of worship" today is a contradiction in terms? God stopped dwelling houses built by human hands 2,000 years ago. People are mistaken every time they call a building a "church" or "house of God" because believers (when gathered) are both.
Some people experience the presence of God best in nature. Others through instrumental music or singing. Others feel most connected with God through films or sermons or dances. What all have in common is that the Bride of Christ is designed to connect with Jesus and each other through community which can include many varied expressions of worship. Yes the speaking (reading, reciting, storying, etc.) will have a central part of church life but more and more people are going online for Christian community and the social networks of today’s emerging post-literate communities are connected to more than a mere 3-5 sermons a week, they have increasing access to all the God-honoring media that has ever been digitized as well as thousands of new expressions being created and shared daily. No pastor can compete with the richness of a God-honoring oral culture unleashed to create fresh community expressions in music, movement and color as the Spirit leads them utterance. Likewise no pastor can keep up with the increasingly diverse written and spoken proclamations available online (Lausanne’s web community a case in point.)
28.09.2010
United States
Thank you for the great words on orality. It is well written and gives a good grasp of what it is and its importance in the world of mission.
Isn’t it interesting that on Pentecost God "spoke" through the apostles in the languages of all that had come into Jerusalem? They heard and over 5000 men believed that day! I guess this isn’t such a new vehicle, just one that we had forgotten to use for awhile. God has brought us back to this amazing tool and reminded us of the need to have the spoken Word in the languages of all people so they can hear and believe.
26.09.2010
United States
Thank you for this helpful teaching on the topic of orality. As one reader commented, there is a lack of awareness in my background (U.S. Christianity) on this issue.
A question I have, probably due to my lack of experience concerning this topic as well as my print-focused education, is how can we present the Gospel as more than just hearsay in an oral culture? Many of us like to think that truth can be validated by printed history and research, but what is the basis for truth among people who do not rely on written words?
14.09.2010
United States
@ Angela_De_Lange:
Several factors cause people to conclude that the biblical message of salvation is true. Most important of all is the work of the Holy Spirit, convicting people of its truthfulness. This is mysterious but very real nonetheless. The Bible tells us to expect it and the experiences of those who’ve tried it confirm that the Spirit does indeed do it.
There are other factors, too, that the Holy Spirit may use. N. T. Wright has addressed this in The New Testament and the People of God. When listeners perceive the biblical message is relevant to their lives, that encourages them to take it seriously. When we tell the overarching biblical story in such a way that they hear it address the four key worldview issues (who am I, where am I, what went wrong, what we can do), then they are more likely to accept it as capable of being a whole way of life. When we tell the gospel message in a way that is beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, that also contributes to capturing their imagination. Finally, when we tell the gospel and dialog about it so that they see its principles are extensible, capable of applying to every aspect of life, this also makes it more compelling than a compartmentalized little religious formula for getting one’s ticket into heaven.
14.09.2010
United States
Dr. Lovejoy writes that "when printed Scriptures are available, then of course Christians should also be encouraged to learn to read them regularly for themselves" (3). I couldn’t agree more that the printed Scriptures are of absolute importance and we should do all we can to make them available to the whole world. However, it would be good to reflect on what the printed word has done (and is doing) for the Scriptures, both positively and negatively. With the advent of Guttenberg’s printing press, the Bible gained wide circulation. It could now be read, for those with the education, by all who desired and many were brought into the kingdom due to its widespread availability. However, it also privatized faith. In his book Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong writes that "writing separated the knower from the known and thus sets up conditions for objectivity" (46). As the culture became more literate, people began to think abstractly about their faith. An oral culture, even a residual one, still thinks in relationships. Tex Sample highlighted this issue in Ministry in an Oral Culture, noting "an issue that comes up will be considered in terms of the family and communal ties one has. ... and religious beliefs will be understood much more in relational than discursive ways" (5).
Giving individual, printed Scriptures to oral communicators may have unintended effects. Dr. Ong writes that "when a speaker is addressing an audience, the members become a unity, with themselves and the speaker. If the speaker asks the audience to read a handout provided for them, as each reader enters into his or her own private reading world, the unity of the audience is shattered, to be reestablished only when oral speech begins again. Writing and print isolate" (74). For a culture that processes moral behavior - including faith in Christ - within relationships, that isolation can be detrimental. The audible, group Bible-storying that you talked about preserves not only the Scriptures but the method of how oral people process those Scriptures.
16.08.2010
Argentina
Muchas gracias por esta excelente presentación que nos ayuda ampliar la visión y nos desafia. Me impacta el parrafo que dice: ¨Los creyentes comunes podían contar las historias que conocían. Las usaban para explicar quién era Jesús, por qué ellos lo seguían y por qué, como seguidores de Jesús, vivían de manera diferente. Si bien los líderes judíos consideraban a los seguidores de Jesús “hombres sin letras y del vulgo” (Hch. 4:13), Sus seguidores fueron notablemente eficaces. Guiados por el Espíritu de Dios, transformados por haber “estado con Jesús”, fueron por todas partes contando las historias que habían oído y las experiencias que habían tenido con Dios. Celso, un crítico del cristianismo del segundo siglo, describió a los primeros cristianos como “trabajadores de la lana y el cuero, y bataneros [lavanderos], y personas del carácter más iletrado y rústico”. Se quejaba de que este tipo de personas tan comunes fueran tan eficaces en guiar a personas a seguir a Cristo. Estos ejemplos nos recuerdan el potencial que tienen los cristianos comunes para aprender, internalizar y contar historias bíblicas y otras porciones como formas de proclamar su fe. Pueden ser tremendamente eficaces. Los que no han sido educados formalmente pueden y deben jugar aún un papel activo en la proclamación del evangelio. Jesús no los excluyó¨
13.08.2010
United States
Your paper on "That All May Hear" was well written. It explained very clearly about orality, both primary oral learners and secondary oral learners. Will there be a followup on best practices for sharing the Gospel orally?
12.08.2010
United States
@ Jan_P:
Yes, there are five sessions at Cape Town 2010 that will focus on effective use of oral strategies. Check the schedule when it is finalized.
12.08.2010
South Africa
I’m surprised that Lausanne has decided "Scripture in Mission" is a separate topic from Orality. Once the church understands oral communication (and acts on that knowledge) the problem of "Scripture poverty" will quickly disappear in many areas.
23.07.2010
United States
I am amazed and excited by what God is doing through the orality movement. I have been learning more about it in the past two weeks and have realized how this topic is so under discussed in the missions world. I think using oral skills such as storytelling will revolutionize the way we share Jesus both in cross cultural settings and in mono cultural settings. While it can be a challenging thing for a highly literate westerner, such as myself, to learn I think it is a valuable tool for any follower of Jesus to share the message of hope with the world around them. I have discovered that things like telling stories touch a deep part of all human beings not just non-literate tribes. I also love what you said about it helping us to understand the full gospel. As we seek to present the message of Jesus Christ in a way that is concise and easy to understand it helps us gain a better grasp of the glory of what God has done for His people. Thank you so much for your awesome work!
08.07.2010
United States
I enjoyed reading this article and learning about the importance of orally sharing the gospel. I’m encouraged to hear about the storytelling movement and how so many are coming to Christ.
I am currently taking a course on storytelling and I’ve come to realize how effective this method can be. Coming from America I never realized how many people communicated orally or that so many had a learning style different from my own. I am currently a student and volunteer in Asia and I can see that the Western style 3 point sermons used in the churches here aren’t reaching the hearts of the people and not many are coming to Christ. I’m excited to tell these stories I’m learning to my friends and see how they respond.
Overall, I think there is a great lack of awareness in America on this issue. And I would love to see more people hear the things you are writing about. I would be great if all Western missionaries had training on this before they left for overseas. Once we start reaching people in a way they understand, through stories, songs, poems, and drama we will see many more come to Christ!
03.07.2010
Indonesia
This is awesome. I really enjoy the article. And yes, I agree about the importance of oral approach on sharing the Gospel.
I am originally from Indonesia but I go to college in the States. I am now currently enrolling in one Bible college in Minnesota. I am learning about all this important things, theology, hermeneutics, the Biblical worldview and things like that. As I learn this, I wonder... "How in the world, my next door neighbor in Indonesia would understand this?"
It is very important to present the Gospel in a way that the people would understand. Sometimes we got caught up in unnecessary debates which leads to nowhere. And many people get turned off with dialog or debates, but people in general love stories. We tend to think that stories is for little kids, we adults don’t listen to stories anymore... that is not true.
In my culture, stories lives forever. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, people believe it. It is fascinating.
But my question would be, when you arrived in an area like Indonesia, where we have over a hundred dialects, should we learn the local language when the local language is only spoken by a thousand people while the regional language is spoken by millions? The language learning process could take a year or two just to be able to tell a story. Is there other approach to it?
01.07.2010
United States
@ NatashaChristiani:
Whether to use local or regional language is an important question. From Seed to Fruit, edited by J. Dudley Woodberry, recently reported research among Christians who serve in predominately Muslim communities. Those whose ministries were in the local language saw dramatically more new groups begun.
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02.07.2010
United States
Oral approaches often appeal to educated people like the Thai men and women you’ve observed. It is possible both to be educated and to prefer oral forms of learning.
Nothing in the emphasis on oral communication strategies is intended to diminish the importance of the written Scriptures or to discourage people from reading and studying them. Many Christians find reading Scripture to be immensely profitable spiritually. To all of them, I say, "Keep it up!" It’s a great practice. God is pleased when we devote ourselves to his written word and encourage others to do so.
When people do prefer to engage God’s message via oral means, we try to accommodate them. I expect that many people who first listen to God’s word will develop interest in reading it, too. So I typically encourage Christian workers to plan for a both/and approach.
Where there is no Scripture and no written langauge, I suggest beginning with oral Bible storying. Oral methods will be more familiar in that case. People can hear, believe, and grow at their own pace. They can readily pass along what they hear using oral approaches.
We can develop oral Bible stories much more quickly than we can create an alphabet for an unwritten language, translate the Bible, and teach people to read it. As local people get intrigued with the oral stories, they often develop an interest in reading them, too. They become willing to help put more biblical stories into their language in both oral and written form.
So though I would begin with oral Bible stories in the scenario you described, I would definitely have provision for written translation and literacy in the larger strategic plan when the local people are willing to participate in it. A picture book that includes written versions of the oral Bible stories they have heard could be a good transition product.
30.06.2010
Thailand
I enjoyed the way that you explain the orality of the bible. I think it is important to know that for most of history Judaism and Christianity, it had been passed on by oral means. I am surprised that as a society, we have gone so far away from that now. Oral stories and evangelism seem like they are a new and rising idea, but really it is just going back to basic methods that we know have worked in the past.
I live in and work in Thailand. Thailand has had a written language for many many years, but I never see anyone reading a book. In the last year, I have never seen one person reading a book for pleasure. I have seen many students reading school books. I have also seen people reading magazines and newspapers, but that is about as far as it goes. However, when I see evangelism or church, it is not presented in an orally attractive way.
The idea of storytelling needs to be more talked about in the missions world. It is not only for rural illiterate people, but it is also for highly educated city people as well.
With all of this, however; I still have a great love for the written word and the way that Jesus speaks to me as I read the bible. For me, there is nothing that can compare to reading it. Even if I listen to it on CD or narrated, it doesn’t compare to what I get from reading.
In your opinion, how quickly should a missions team start translating a bible into a new language? If you are in a new culture with no biblical background or written language, what do you start with first? Do you focus only on oral stories or on translation only?? Or would there be a combination of both?
30.06.2010
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