Lausanne World Pulse – LAUSANNE REPORTS – Making Disciples of Oral Learners
Executive Summary
From the time of the Gutenberg Bible, Christianity “has walked on literate feet” and has directly or indirectly required literacy of others. But, seventy percent of all people in the world are oral communicators; these are people who can’t, don’t or won’t learn through literate means. Four billion in our world are at risk of a Christless eternity unless literate Christians make significant changes in evangelism, discipleship, leader training and church planting.
Making disciples of oral learners means using communication forms that are familiar within the culture: stories, proverbs, drama, songs, chants and poetry. Literate approaches rely on lists, outlines, word studies, apologetics and theological jargon. These literate methods are largely ineffective among two-thirds of the world’s peoples. Of necessity, making disciples of oral learners depends on communicating God’s word with varied cultures in relevant ways. Only then will the gospel be able to reach to “the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Key Issues for the Church to Address
Five aspects of making disciples of oral learners in the context of the Great Commission must be considered vital to “finishing the task”:
- Make the word of God available to unreached peoples using appropriate oral strategies. The Church is commanded by Christ to “make disciples of all peoples” which certainly includes the vast majority of the yet unreached oral learners. Providing an “oral Bible” allows God’s word to be produced accurately from memory for the purpose of re-telling. The “oral Bible” is the singular key to unlocking church planting movements among unreached people groups. However, that “oral Bible” must penetrate the people group to its worldview level belief system. Only then will a Bible become meaningful and useful. The only Bible that will be effective during the lifetime of the vast majority of unreached people is an “oral Bible,” probably best presented in narrative form. It is important for the Church to understand that a written version of scripture does not even exist for the majority of languages. Even if literacy were achieved, the Bible would still not exist in most languages.
- Use oral communication patterns which allow the whole community to: hear clearly in their mother tongue, understand, respond and reproduce the message of the gospel. Literate church leaders and their missionaries should master new ways of preaching and teaching. Effective ministries among those with an oral learning preference will use communication forms already in place within their own culture. If the gospel is to spread freely and rapidly within an unreached people group, strategists working in that group must do their best to avoid methodology that hinders oral peoples from winning and discipling their families, friends and others. Training models will be most effective when they take orality into consideration. Churches will then begin to see training and new leaders emerge from within the oral peoples. These leaders will facilitate church-planting movements to rapidly disciple and equip leaders for the new churches as leaders are raised up by the Holy Spirit.
- Avoid syncretism by making disciples of oral learners using oral means. If the Church is going to avoid syncretism, then the gospel needs to be communicated in the mother tongue of the people we are trying to reach. Both evangelistic as well as discipleship materials cannot be generic but will need to be developed with the worldview of the target people. The stories chosen and the manner in which they are communicated will have to transform the worldview of those who are seeing or hearing the stories. A recorded oral Bible will help serve as a standard to ensure the transmission of the stories remains accurate. These methods will help ensure the Church remains true to the historic beliefs of Christianity and does not mix traditional beliefs in their doctrines or practices.
- Equip relational-narrative communicators to make disciples. Oral strategies provide multiple ways for effectively engaging a people group to readily involve oral communicators in efforts to reach their own people group and others with the gospel. Storying is one reproducible evangelistic and church-planting approach; new believers can readily share the gospel, plant new churches and disciple new believers in the same way that they themselves were reached and discipled.
- Increase effectiveness among secondary oral learners. Oral strategies are also necessary in reaching people whose orality is tied to electronic media. They may be able to read well, but they get most of the important information in their lives through stories and music coming through radio, television, film, Internet and other electronic means. We need oral strategies focused on this segment of the world population, too.