The Emerging "Oral Bible Movement"

The frontier mission movement, in its quest to plant gospel movements in unreached people groups, has an important new front opening that we do well to explore and incorporate into our mission, even on the local level.

In fact, as the Website Oral Bible puts it, "Unreached people group mission with an emphasis on oral learning preferences" may well be the "next wave of missions advance."

"Nearly 70% of the world's population - and 50% of the USA's population - desire a non-literate approach to learning and decision-making," the site says. "Orality appeals to more than non-literates, but also to functionally illiterates, post-literates, and even post-moderns."

Look into this Oral Bible Movement a little more and one can find a burgeoning set of data revealing why this is one mission approach worth paying attention to. The Presbyterian Church (USA) Frontier Mission Program and Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship will be exploring ways we can participate in this creative approach to reaching cultures where there is a need to share the gospel for the first time and where there are still people and cultures that have not yet heard the gospel of redemption and new life in Jesus Christ.

A weekly mission update called The FridayFax lists in this week's issue the powerful influences propelling forward this movement (as compiled by Jim Bowman, Director of 'Scriptures in Use'):

1. Over two thirds of the world population receive most of their information orally;
2. For over one third of the world's population (more than 2 billion people), oral communication is the only source of information;
3. Ninety-five percent of women in the Islamic world can only be reached through oral communication;
4. Over 75% of the Bible consists of stories. Adding poetry and proverbs leaves probably less than 10% abstract "intellectual" content;
5. Traditional Western forms of communication only reach the 10% intellectual elite in unreached people groups, storytelling the rest;
6. Storytelling turns discouraged, marginalized, semi-literate believers into powerful evangelists and disciplers with great impact, a sense of fulfillment, personal value and new hope.

The Friday Fax compares critical differences between typically Western "book cultures" and typically non-Western "oral cultures" increasingly influencing the West, in which the story is of major importance.

Take a look at these and ask yourself, which culture, the book or the oral, sounds like it would connect better with younger people we know and work with? And what does this say about how we orient our mission for the next decade?

(Scroll down)

Book Cultures	Oral Cultures
1. Learn by reading, studying, examining, classifying, comparing, and analyzing	1. Learn by observing, imitating, listening, repeating and memorizing. They learn through proverbs, saying, stories, songs and expressions.
2. Think and talk about concepts and principles.	2. Think and talk about events.
3. Manage knowledge in abstract, complicated, scientific categories.	3. Use stories of human action to store, organize and communicate information.
4. Seek to discover new information.	4. Value and learn information handed down from the past.
5. Value innovative solutions.	5. Value traditional solutions.
6. Understand things abstractly like the pieces of a puzzle.	6. Understand things in their context and according to the people involved.
7. See things in parts.	7. See things as a whole, in their totality.
8. Ask and answer direct questions.	8. Avoid asking and answering direct questions.
9. Feel the need to define words and concepts.	9. Are uninterested in definitions since the context brings the meaning.
10. Do not like repetition - since material missed can be reread.	10. Appreciate repetition in case something was missed the first time.
11. Like brevity (few words can say much)	11. Like to use lots of words (many words to say little).
12. Use charts, diagrams,and lists to explain the message.	12. Use symbols and stories to explain a message.
13. Learn and retain knowledge as general principles.	13. Learn and retain knowledge in relation to real and imagined events of life.
14. Make lists but recite few geneologies.	14. May recite geneologies but make few lists.
15. Speak and write about their own feelings.	15. Think and talk about people and events they know.
16. Arrive at conclusions by logic.	16. Make decisions base on experience.
17. Organize the sermon or oratory with a logical progression of thoughts.	17. Illustrate sermons, exhortations and oratory with events.
18. Tend to communicate one-to-one.	18. Tend to communicate in groups.
19. Learn mostly alone.	19. Learn mostly in interaction with other people.
20. Can think about something for a long time while making notes about it.	20. Cannot think about someting very long without dialogue.
21. Tend to use a subtle verbal style.	21. Have a verbal style that can be dramatic and exagerated.
22. Prefer realistic characters  and the struggle to reach a goal.	22. Tend to use strong or heavy characters and tend to emphasize a struggle against an enemy.
23. Use their hands little since gestures are not written or read.	23. Express themselves with their hands.
24. Use informal, casual, or spontaneous verbal exchange.	24. Use ritual and formal verbal exchange.
25. Value style and clarity of reasoning.	25. Value the style of speech, clarity, and poetic forms of language.
26. Are affected by the content of what they read.	26. Are affected by the sound of what they hear.
27. Have talents in written forms of language and literature.	27. Are talented in oral art for example song and poetry.
28. Do not participate in verbal contests but perhaps write well-worded letters to the newspaper or a politician.	28. Participate in verbal contests excelling in praise, insults, riddles, jokes and flowery language.

Source: www.peopleteams.org/miao/storying.htm

Links listed:
- http://www.oralbible.com/obc/press_release.htm
- http://www.cmd.org.nz/ffax/04-0227.htm
- http://www.peopleteams.org/miao/storying.htm

-- Dave Hackett