A Missionary Embraces Simply The Story

A Missionary Embraces Simply The Story

When I first heard of oral Bible teaching, I was not at all interested. I reasoned that we can’t build a strong church - rooted in the Scriptures - from telling children’s Bible stories. But when I was in the States at a missions conference, I stayed with a couple that teaches oral Bible skills all over the world. I peppered them with all kinds of questions, and even traveled with them so I could video a training session they were giving that weekend.

I have a strong commitment that the church, as well as individual believers, be grounded in the Word of God. One cannot merely be familiar with Scripture truths; he/she has to inductively exegete God’s Word, and correctly divide the Word of Truth. Anything less than this is opening believers to syncretism and a whole host of problems.

My absolute commitment to inductive study and responsible exegesis has only increased over the years. It has not waned with the idea of oral Bible teaching, it has only increased.

I was struck with the possibilities of doing inductive, exegetical study in an oral fashion. Could it be possible? And, why would it be necessary?

First, why is it necessary? All the people who teach oral Bible skills provide their CDs and their video clips of testimonies that do a far better job than can I of explaining the necessity of oral Bible teaching.

A major turning point came, I think, with a report at the 2004 Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism meetings, that documented the overwhelming percentage of people in the world that are oral learners- even in highly “literate” societies, like the U.K. or the U.S. This is even more acute in places where people are not highly literate.

For 17 years our team has been working in the field. We have taken a very oral approach to evangelism—we use no literature at all—our teammates learn, memorize and give an oral gospel presentation. As a result, we have seen phenomenal results; many, many people have put their faith in Christ.

When we did follow up, however, we immediately switched to a very literate approach. We provided believers with a Bible, and met with them to read, study and learn how to inductively study the Scriptures. With this follow up approach, we were hitting our heads against a wall. New believers languished. They were not growing in their faith, had grown cold, and backslidden.

In one village we entered, about 20 people made genuine commitments to Christ. We emphasized reading the Scriptures, showing them how to inductively read it for themselves, as well as spending personal time with them, sharing our lives.

Today, none of them are what you’d call “following hard after Christ.” Many of them wanted to, but after all this time it’s like they never really took in God’s Word. It didn’t sink in. I don’t think the reading and studies ever got through to them at all.

What’s more—they never took the Scriptures and shared it with others. How in the world will we ever reach the unreached if those we minister to do not minister to others?

Teaching the Bible orally has, I believe, fundamental advantages. First, many people absorb Bible truths in a way that they wouldn’t when we try to get them to read it. Secondly, people are much more likely to share these truths with others—this is the ultimate “reproducible ministry.”

Another advantage for closed areas of the world is that people are not as likely to get in trouble with the authorities. I could go on, but again, all the CDs and video clips have been put together to show the strategic nature of this approach.

The second question is the most important to me, “Is it possible to teach the Word inductively and exegetically in an oral fashion?”

Many organizations have some kind of division that promotes and teaches oral Bible learning. Most of them are members of the International Orality Network (ION). And there are a few organizations that specifically specialize in oral Bible teaching. I looked at several, got their materials, watched their videos, etc.

I went to the home office of one and I asked them, “Who out of all the organizations is the best in teaching how to teach the Bible orally? And they said the organization “STS” or Simply the Story. I looked on their website, got their materials, and could see that there really was a difference.

The thing I liked most about them was that they actually teach inductively in oral form. They are as close to exegetical, oral, Bible study as you can get. I knew I found what I was looking for. Through Skype, I started talking with them.

Early in November we had two instructors come from Simply the Story, and they led training sessions for five days. The first two days were for trainers (people we selected from our team) and then the next three days those who had just been trained, trained the rest of our team with the help of the STS instructors. This has given us tremendous momentum in the mission as we’ve now started to incorporate this method in our mission work.

We started using this immediately, and I am really pleased with the reports of how it has been going. This does not mean that we’ve stopped teaching inductive, exegetical studies of the written Word. Ha! Far from it; this is still crucial.

But what we are doing orally 1) fits well with our studies in the written Word, it does not replace them, 2) reaches many people who can’t, or don’t read, 3) is something that the rank and file people can do well, (we are mobilizing the laity), 4) is able to be shared far easier with others beyond those whom we minister directly to, i.e. it spreads, 5) is perhaps the safest way the Word can be prolific in a closed country, 6) is not dependent on any outside funds, devices or other resources! It is the most reproducible mission’s strategy around.

Again, as I said, I looked into a lot of different organizations’ variants of this, but many of them weren’t really telling the Bible in oral form. Simply the Story really emphasizes telling the Bible accurately—taking a single passage of Scripture and verbalizing it in way that is not an off-the-wall paraphrase—so that what you are sharing really is the Word, the oral Word, in the same way we read the written Word.

The written Word of God is the Canon, it is the source. We must teach it and how to accurately interpret it. But, from the written Word we get the oral Word. When we teach the Bible orally, we have the Bible open to show that it is from the Bible, the written Word. So, we show people that Scripture is the source.

In the early church, men read from the Scriptures and people listened. When Paul sent his letters, he asked that it be read aloud. I was struck with a question in one of the CDs I picked up: “What percentage of people in the first century could read or write—at a time when “3000 were added unto their number” in a single day? The answer, I was told, was about 5%.

Biblical accuracy is one reason I liked Simply the Story. But the other is that they also teach people how to learn inductively. After the story is given, they ask people inductive questions about what they just heard. They get the people to verbalize observations, they ask questions to help them form accurate interpretations, and they get them to see for themselves how it applies in their own lives.

This really is a tremendous tool, well developed, and skillfully taught.

- Missionary Among Unreached People in Limited Access Country