SIM missionary Gwen Baker shares her reflections from the International Orality Network conference:

My husband and I spent 24 years in church-planting in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Niger both in urban and rural settings with people from both animistic and Muslim backgrounds. This experience formed the backdrop of my first International Orality Network (ION) conference in December where Liz McGregor tasked me to understand more about storying to primary and secondary oral communicators and how it relates to the whole discipleship process.

As the conference began, it was sobering to be reminded that there are 346 unreached people groups of over 1 million people, and hundreds more smaller groups which have no witness among them. Most of these are oral communicators, as is about 2/3 the world’s population, either by necessity or choice. In response to this reality, Bible storying meets a direct communication need with simplicity and power through emphasizing that it must be 1) Scripture, 2) understandable, 3) unbroken and 4) reproducible.

I understood the unbroken part more when we practiced not elaborating during the actual storying time, realizing that questions and teaching points come afterward. Bible storying is not new to me since that was our basic ministry approach – learn a language, spend time with people, and story to their spiritual, personal, marriage, family, church life, or outreach needs. However, systematic Bible storying is much more intentional, using story sets with specific aims toward evangelism, discipleship, leadership and theological training.

Likewise, I could see right away how reproducible this would be for my brothers and sisters in the places where we lived, for the people could easily pass along a story, and manage questions and teaching afterward. As a complement to storying, we were encouraged to use other meaningful forms like music, drama, dance, hand/body motions, parables, poems, and proverbs, all to support the stories.

As the conference progressed, new dimensions of storying God’s Word came into view, demonstrating that storying can be employed effectively in all types of settings. One testimony came from a church in Idaho that uses storying for secondary oral communicators (those who can read, but who prefer oral learning). A couple of pastors explained what the Lord was doing in their fellowship of 9000 (it began 10 years ago with 4 people) where they have 600 small groups doing chronological Bible storying. Most of their growth comes from new believers, and the relational aspect of storying encourages and motivates mutual discipleship and involvement in reaching still others.

Storying actually simplifies ministry as it fits the rhythm of oral culture life and opens the way for God’s Spirit to work truth and light deep into the heart. Storying takes time with people, but this is the context of discipleship. With a willingness to be trained, a commitment to language, and a heart for people, you will discover a rich opportunity to make disciples through Bible storying! Many folks within the ION are addressing various gaps in the Bible storying method, but it is not a fad. The ultimate goal of the storying method is to provide an oral Bible for a language group—not to replace translation, but as a needed complement.

Many well-known mission and church groups are ION collaborators, and the list is growing. Courses in Bible storying are available in the USA, but soon ION partners will provide training worldwide for host country brothers and sisters, as well as missionaries. Bible storying is a rapidly evolving tool which can be applied across our SIM community due to its discipling focus and adaptability within any mission endeavor.