Storytelling is becoming a great way to share the gospel with foreign, indigenous cultures. Many of these unreached people groups have no written language, so instead of using the traditional model of learning the language, teaching them an alphabet, and then writing out a Bible to give to them (…
Storytelling is becoming a great way to share the gospel with foreign, indigenous cultures. Many of these unreached people groups have no written language, so instead of using the traditional model of learning the language, teaching them an alphabet, and then writing out a Bible to give to them (some times a ten-year process), missionaries are tapping into the oral traditions of these cultures and sharing the Bible as it was originally presented – as stories told over a campfire.
Sounds great… but how do they learn the language to tell the story? That takes times, too. Someone, fill the gaps. Sounds similar to what Gospel Recordings does and also New Tribes Mission. Very effective, but not a total substitute for the work of Bible translation.
good point, Kathy. There’s this group called Epic that does something similar with music. Learning a spoken language takes some time and observation. like you said, it’s a good answer to an immediate need: people need to hear the gospel. shouldn’t substitute the written Word, but I wonder how long we’ve been substituting the Rhema (Living Word) with Logos (Written word)? Maybe we as a church should go back to oral tradition. Think about the implications: knowing the scriptures so well that you can quote entire chapters and even books of the bible. talk about hiding the word in our hearts…
ok i’m ready to get serious about storying the Gospel.
is it repeating the story to myself to be ready? to others? I get the asking questions to those who heard in order for them to be repeaters an get more out of it. I like it!
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Sounds great… but how do they learn the language to tell the story? That takes times, too. Someone, fill the gaps. Sounds similar to what Gospel Recordings does and also New Tribes Mission. Very effective, but not a total substitute for the work of Bible translation.
good point, Kathy. There’s this group called Epic that does something similar with music. Learning a spoken language takes some time and observation. like you said, it’s a good answer to an immediate need: people need to hear the gospel. shouldn’t substitute the written Word, but I wonder how long we’ve been substituting the Rhema (Living Word) with Logos (Written word)? Maybe we as a church should go back to oral tradition. Think about the implications: knowing the scriptures so well that you can quote entire chapters and even books of the bible. talk about hiding the word in our hearts…
Amen Jeff!
ok i’m ready to get serious about storying the Gospel.
is it repeating the story to myself to be ready? to others? I get the asking questions to those who heard in order for them to be repeaters an get more out of it. I like it!