Imagine if you spoke a language with no alphabet, a language that has never been written down. You would have never learned how to read or write. You would have no Bible in your language.
There is no need to imagine this scenario. It is true for many people groups around the world who represent a type of oral learner. This subgroup of oral communicators learn through spoken language only and must retain information in their memories alone. Not all oral learners are illiterate; some simply prefer to process information orally rather than in writing. But others are wholly unable to read or write.
Using the Storytelling Method of Evangelism and Training
Pastor Samuel leads a ministry in South Asia that trains pastors from among a mountain people group who have no alphabet, no written language. How does he do it? Pastor Samuel utilizes the storytelling method of evangelism and training.
Oral cultures often demonstrate enhanced skills of memorization, especially when the information is presented in the form of a story. This method is how many oral cultures pass down the history of their people.
The Word of God Is Significantly Narrative in Style
Apparently, God planned for oral learners as He inspired His written Word. According to the Bible Project,
The Bible is a collection of many books telling one unified story from beginning to end, but all those books were written in different literary styles. First and foremost is narrative. It makes up a whopping 43 percent of the Bible! 33 percent of the Bible is poetry, and then the rest of the Bible (24 percent) is written in prose discourse.
You can give an audio Bible to these oral learners now.
Native Missionaries Have Fewer Cultural Barriers to Overcome
Prose discourse includes didactic lecturing, the preferred means of teaching and training in the developed world, including North America. That preference, however, cannot be applied to an oral culture.
Pastor Samuel comes from what he calls a “village” or “jungle” culture, one that is much closer culturally to the mountain tribes he works among than, say, a Western missionary. People from the West tend to think in terms of theological propositions, while oral cultures embed truth and values in stories, much as Jesus did through the use of parables.
This cultural reality is one of the many good reasons ANM works with native missionaries who are bringing the Gospel to unreached people groups. They have fewer cultural barriers to overcome in sharing the story of Jesus.
Pastor Samuel Must Rely Constantly Upon the Power of the Holy Spirit
Because oral cultures cannot derive spiritual strength directly from the written Word, oral culture pastors must, of necessity, rely upon the power of God’s Spirit to grow and to share the story of Jesus with their neighbors. The work of God’s Spirit is evident in the lives of new believers when they give up the illegal but extremely profitable growing of marijuana for less lucrative means of income.
Pastor Samuel has taught the mountain believers to make detergent and washing powders as an alternative source of income. The believers have thus taken a stand against the illegal harvesting and sale of marijuana.
But, What About Those of Higher Social Standing?
Pastor Samuel also shares the Gospel with higher-class village families. When any stranger attempts to enter a village, they will be asked for their family name, where they are from, and their purpose for coming. Pastor Samuel’s family name is quite recognizable to people of higher social standing, and they will invite him into their homes to eat with them. Then, slowly, Pastor Samuel will begin to share the Gospel in the privacy of their homes.
Public preaching would almost surely result in violence against the evangelist and would likely forfeit any chance of returning to the village. Pastor Samuel believes that building a personal relationship with these families is the most effective way to share the Gospel in a religious culture that is militantly opposed to any religion other than its own.
As evidence, he showed us a recent video of Bibles and tracts being burned in a village. For security reasons, we cannot share this video.
God has given Pastor Samuel a practical and highly effective approach to reaching both mountain oral learners and village families of higher social standing. You can support effective native missionaries like Pastor Samuel through Advancing Native Missions.
