By Brad Hoblit
Storytelling is woven deep into the fabric of our humanity. We begin asking for stories as soon as we learn to speak, and we pass our sunset years telling them to whomever will listen. The stories we tell identify ourselves, our culture, and our legacy. Nowhere is this more true than in an oral culture.
What is an oral culture?
An oral culture’s primary method of saving and transmitting information is by oral communication. Think of it this way: in the North American paradigm, we write down everything that matters. In contracts, in history, and even in grocery lists, the written always takes precedent over the spoken. A paramedic friend used to say “If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.”
In an oral culture, the better expression may be “What’s not spoken cannot be known.”
Does it matter for ministry?
Presenting the word of God in written form to an oral culture is a little like broadcasting the gospel over FM radio to a community that only has AM receivers.
For this reason, I was very interested when a fellow missionary told me about the program she works with. The focus of Spoken Worldwide’s ministry is to reach the oral learners of the world on a band they can receive. Their workshops equip local leaders to engage their communities using “their methods of learning and sharing.”[1] We were excited to bring this workshop to a group of church leaders gathered in our village last month.
We were also privileged to be joined by a Central America representative of Faith Comes By Hearing, who work to equip believers worldwide with access to the Bible in audio format. She brought solar-powered audio devices with the Bible in Miskito and Spanish. These devices will empower the church leaders to share God’s word with their communities.
Teaching how to use the audio bibles.
The workshop was well-received by the participants. The combination of storytelling teaching and audio Bibles was an excellent fit for our local culture, which has low literacy and high oral emphasis
Listening to scripture.
What’s next?
We would like to bring this team back to have another workshop, and we are also partnering with other ministries to train and equip local pastors and leaders. We are looking for sponsors for these workshops to be able to continue the work.
