Church Planting Strategies for Oral Cultures

Tim BrownvisionSynergy -- T4 Global -- International Orality Network

Using Stories for Community Health and Development in Oral Cultures

What are these?Oral learners are more event-oriented and concrete-oriented. We from book cultures often think abstractly. This is a circle. No, its a pizza!

Which item doesnt belong?

Which item doesnt belong?

We need to radically RETHINK how we do mission work in oral cultures.

Okay, lets have some fun. Here are a couple of exercises for us. Three approachesTeach them to readOralize literate teaching/Audio recordings/films Start fresh Orality6Communication/Learning StylesLiterate/Book and Oral/TraditionalLectureOutlineSummarizeDivide into partsStudy/ReferenceIndividualAbstract KnowledgeRepetitionNarrativeEventsStories, drama, musicParticipationCommunity/DiscussionConcrete ExperienceWe often do teaching and preaching based on single verses of the Bible, or take a bunch of verses from different chapters and books of the Bible and relate them to a topic. In oral cultures, its much better to use the stories of the Bible. 75% of the Bible is narrative its stories!Keys for Working in Oral CulturesUnderstand Oral CulturesNative Language/Mother TongueOral arts:StoryMusicDramaDiscussion and dialogue

So how does this work?

So how does this work?Identify a topic(s)Community health and social issuesCollect informationIdentify what needs to be remembered/recalledDevelop a story/narrative that is:Scientifically AccurateCulturally AppropriateClearly communicates

An ExampleMalariaSymptomsTreatmentPrevention

For more information:Tim BrownvisionSynergytbrown@visionsynergy.netSusie BrownInternational Orality NetworkOral Arts/Womensusie.brown@cox.net