A Story worth telling

Imagine a people group with no written language. There are 2700 in this situation. Imagine communities with no access to the Gospel. There are 2.8 billion who have not heard.

Part of Call2All’s strategy to reach these people with the Good News is by sharing the Bible through story form.

Samuel Chiang

Cultures that have no written language rely very heavily on story to record their past and to teach the next generation. They have an amazing memory capacity to remember details in stories, and when trying to understand a concept, will bring in a story to give explanation.
Samuel Chiang is the Global Co-ordinator for the International Orality Network. The Orality Network’s aim is to make disciples of all oral learners. Through the Network Samuel has seen significant success in bringing the Bible alive to unreached people groups.
He explains how it works: “Once you have identified the people group you want to reach, who have no scripture and no written language, you must first understand their worldview."

Then fifty to sixty Bible stories are prepared and crafted to engage in the world view of the culture. For example if the community has a matriarchal society, somewhere you need to address and respect that culture. The best way to do this is to bring out Bible stories that they will connect with, the Old Testament stories of Esther and Ruth for instance.

Alternatively if the culture has high regard for the spirit world, and evil spirits are revered, then to tell the story of Jesus delivering the demoniac in Luke 8 would have a huge impact.

The key is to identify barriers, gaps and bridges between the story teller and those listening, so that what is being said will have the greatest impact.

Jesus was the greatest story-teller, following His example we can change the lives of those who cannot read by telling them a story. Log on next week to hear how sharing the Gospel in story form has changed communities around the world.