Wow! A few weeks ago I attended a workshop called Simply the Story. At this workshop we were taught how to learn a Bible story accurately enough to retell it properly as a story, as well as how to invent questions that draw the listener through the story. This allows them to remember it accurately as well. The listener can then pass the story on through a similar technique to another listener ans so on...
This strategy is called "storying" and there are numerous organizations that teach "storying". The reason that I learned how to story is so that I can train interested individuals in the strategy so that when we visit our friends in Ethiopia, the Gamo people, we will have a usefull tool in our belt in reaching them as an oral culture... or as illiterate learners.
As you can imagine you run into a bit of a wall when you share the gospel with an illiterate learner and they ask you "how can I learn more about this God that you speak of". "Go to church" is a great answer... if there is one planted already... "Read the Bible" would be a fabulous response in America but poses a problem when your new friend cannot read, or when the Bible is not printed in their native language.
For this reason storying has become a common and extremely usefull tool in the missionary's tool belt. I am so very excited to go into Ethiopia this summer with a way to teach the people Bible stories... stories that Jesus taught himself... in a way that they will be passed down for generations.
For more information on Simply the Story you can google it... there is another workshop coming up in April in Texas if you are interested. Peace.
