Reaching Oral Learners - Testimony from E3 Partners

Here at Trinity International Baptist Mission, we are giving a lot of thought and prayer towards the issue of orality and its implications for how we carry out the work of the Kingdom in our context.  The question on my heart for my team is, "Can we all become well-equipped as Bible storytellers?"  To this end, we are looking at developing a plan to get us there.  How about you and your church or mission team?  Have you given this subject any thought?  Below is a pretty compelling video introducing and testifying to the way the Lord is using orality strategies in mission.

Good News in Nepali (Bhutanese Dialect)

Here's a resource that many of my regular readers may be interested in.  It is a storying presentation of the message of the Bible in the Nepali language -- as spoken by Bhutanese-Nepalis.  Enjoy!

http://globalrecordings.net/en/program/C80350

Did you eat your barley loaves today?

Here is the full-version of my meditation on the feeding of the 5,000 story. You may be a bit unfamiliar with it. If so, you can read up on it in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 10, and John 6. I hope you find this encouraging. 

So, I’m thinking about the whole narrative here and especially the perspective of the disciples as it all unfolds. First off, we know that they have just gotten back from what was essentially a short-term mission trip. They’ve been going through towns and villages, preaching repentance, casting out demons, and anointing with oil to perform healings. When they came back, they were all very excited. They began reporting to Jesus all that they had seen and done. Meanwhile people were still coming to them. In fact, so many people where coming and going that the disciples were skipping meals in order to meet the needs of the crowds. And just when this rapidly growing revival was really starting to get going, Jesus broke in. Word had come to him at some point that John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, had been executed – no doubt, this deeply affected Jesus. So, in the midst of the craziness, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s get out of here for awhile. You guys come with me to a quiet place, we’ll rest and eat.” So they left the revival – this powerful Messianic movement – to take a day off.

It wasn’t to be however. By the time they had anchored their boat at the “lonely place,” the crowds had found them. Now it seemed there were more people than ever. Thousands had gathered, bringing their sick with them. The weary disciples must have sighed when Jesus, filled with compassion, began healing and teaching. But he had looked at that crowd with a look the disciples had seen before – Jesus had been deeply moved. He saw a “shepherdless” sheep. “Here we go again,” the disciples must have thought.

Well, of course Jesus did and said amazing things as he ministered to the crowd all that day. The busy disciples grew more exhausted with every passing hour, but they couldn’t help but feel the excitement as well. Soon, the sun began to make its move towards the western horizon and the disciples agreed that it was time to wrap things up. Someone managed to pull Jesus aside for a minute to suggest that he send the crowds away to the surrounding towns and villages to find food and shelter.

And then, Jesus threw them all for a loop again, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.” I wonder if at this point the disciples began to try to figure this whole thing out. It seems they counted the people, scouted for food, and calculated the cost of feeding the vast multitude. Andrew had found the boy with the loaves and fish. Phillip had determined the budget was too small to provide such a meal. Their consensus? Nope. This can’t be done. Jesus has finally lost it.

And so, Jesus put them to work again. Now they were organizing the masses, bunching them up in groups of 50 or 100, getting them to sit down together on the grass. All of the sudden, the sheep didn’t seem so “shepherdless.” Here they were on a quiet day, in a lonely and beautiful hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee—sitting together in the lush green grass, listening to Jesus’ wonderful words, experiencing his healing, and eating a satisfying meal. Truly, it seemed, the Lord was their Shepherd, they lacked nothing. He made them lie down in this green pasture, he led them beside these still waters, he was refreshing their souls.

So Jesus took the bread and fish, gave thanks to God, and fed the vast multitude. We don’t know whether or not the masses knew about this miracle, we only know that they ate and were filled. The disciples, while they didn’t fully understand what was happening, knew Jesus was doing something amazing. Perhaps it reenergized them, but they certainly didn’t have much time to take it in—to process it. After all, it takes a long time to serve thousands of people even if the food is being produced miraculously. And then there was the clean up. No sooner did they finish distributing the bread, did they have to begin gathering the leftovers. By the time they were finished, the adrenaline rush must have long passed. Each disciple stood before Jesus with a basketful of leftovers. They were panting, sweating, and wondering when their break would really begin.
The night had fully set in by now. Darkness shrouded the landscape and a strong wind was beginning to blow in from the sea. Perhaps the disciples were beginning to consider sleeping arrangements when Jesus surprised them once again. “Tell you what, guys, why don’t you get in the boat and cross the lake for Galilee. I’ll dismiss the crowd and catch up with you later.”

What?! He had to be kidding. The disciples were exhausted at the beginning of the day. The day had been extremely demanding and they all felt they could sleep for solid week. Not to mention the fact that in the midst of the miracle feast, the disciples-turned-waiters had barely had a chance to get a nibble. They were hungry and tired – physically and spiritually. And now they were supposed to pull an all-nighter struggling to row their boat against the wind for miles? But the look in Jesus’ eyes was unmistakable, so they got in the boat and set out.

Of course, even though it was very late, the crowds were still feeling very excited. Some were talking about Jesus as the Messiah, calling him “The Prophet.” Some had thoughts of making him their king—forcefully if necessary. For his part, Jesus calmed the crowd, bid them goodnight, and quietly slipped away. He knew what they intended and wanted no part of it. Besides, he had set out to pray many hours ago and now was the perfect opportunity. He had let his prayer plans be delayed, but not destroyed.

So, Jesus went up into the surrounding mountains, found a quiet place and spent the rest of the night praying. We don’t know what he prayed about. I’m sure he had to talk to God about his Cousin John’s death, about the crowds and Herod, about the disciples, and about where to go from here. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a lot of worship happening during that prayer time and psalms quoted and sung.

Meanwhile, as the night dragged on, the disciples continued struggling to make headway against the contrary winds. Their arms and legs screamed with pain as they continued rowing. The fishermen among them were weak with hunger. The less-seaworthy were green with nausea. They all wished they were someplace else, preferably asleep. I wonder if they thought about Jesus’ invitation hours ago – to come away with him alone, to rest, to eat. The invitation was to get away from the swarming crowds. Now, as they fought the wind and waves, I wonder if any of them thought about how it was the crowds who ultimately got to spend time with Jesus, who ate their fill, and who were, even now, resting peacefully. The disciples, however, were still working, still hungry, and had left Jesus back on the shore. By now, the confusion and frustration had really set in. Hearts were hard. There was likely anger and hurt – no doubt, some of it directed towards Jesus. What the heck was going on anyways?

It was almost dawn when they saw it. It was still quite dark, the wind was still gusting, and the waves were still tossing the boat back and forth, but there it was—in the distance a figure was moving upon the water. Terror gripped them when they realized that it was a man—a ghost, it seemed. Funny, here was the same group of men who had just days ago been out in the villages casting out demons. Their report to Jesus must have included tales of the evil spirits that had fled. Now, at the end of themselves, they shrieked in terror at the sight of a single spirit.

Jesus knew they were afraid. Here they had been struggling for hours, 12 men at the oars and they had barely made it half-way across the sea. Jesus, in just a few minutes, strolled upon the sea effortlessly – gaining on them, heck, it seemed at first that he would pass them altogether—the wind and waves seemed to have no affect on Jesus, let alone the fact that you just aren’t supposed to be able to walk on water. But, as he neared the boat, Jesus took pity on his beloved disciples, shouting, “Take courage, it’s me! Don’t be afraid.”
The disciples cast skeptical looks at each other while they continued to wrestle with the oars. “Only one way to find out,” thought the impetuous Peter. “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” replied the Lord.

And then, before the disciples fully knew what was going on, there was Peter slowly creeping towards the mysterious figure on the water – walking on the water! The wind was still raging, so perhaps only the seasick tax collector, Matthew, hanging his head over the side of the boat witnessed the whole ordeal. There was Peter walking towards the ghost. A moment later he was looking disoriented and panicky at the sight of the wind and waves. And then he was sinking. A desperate hand was extended, a cry for help, and then there was Jesus firmly clasping the fisherman’s hand. Now, the two were making their way back to the boat, now climbing into the hull—Peter, wet and panting, practically falling in.

And then there was the Lord. Standing there in the middle of the boat like a conquering hero. Quite obviously now to everyone, not a ghost. And quite clearly no mere man. The oars were still now, like the sea which had all of the sudden grown strangely calm. The fierce wind had just as quickly become nothing more than a gentle, whispering breeze as the morning sun began to peak up over the Golan Heights in the distance. The disciples gaped, then knelt, then gave their spent and broken selves over to worship—“Truly you are the Son of God!” someone said. That seemed about right.

It wasn’t long now before the boat reached the shore. They dropped anchor at Gennesaret, near Capernaum. The disciples, bleary-eyed and racked with pain from hours of strenuous work, stumbled out of the boat and onto the beach. Their heads were spinning as they watched Jesus, the Son of God, wondering, “What’s next?”

And then someone recognized them. “It’s Jesus of Nazareth!” they heard a voice call out in the distance. As Jesus made his way towards the town, the Twelve followed closely behind and watched as the news of his arrival rapidly spread. Soon the crowds were swelling again. People were bringing the sick and afflicted, even carrying them on mats. They were pressing in, begging just to touch the edge of his cloak – this they did and were healed.

Jesus then made his way towards the synagogue of Capernaum. The disciples began noticing people from the night before and must have wondered if the whole world was now clamoring to see him. And then Jesus stopped. They were at the synagogue now and Jesus was standing looking at the crowd. Thousands had gathered—the multitude seemed countless, greater than the day before. A voice broke in, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

The Twelve looked on as Jesus delivered a stinging rebuke to the crowd. He began to say things that the disciples weren’t sure they really understood, but couldn’t help but believe—after, well, everything. And then the grumbling began. It started slowly but it soon infected the whole crowd. Now people were shouting at and arguing against Jesus. Fact is, it all happened so fast and the disciples where so physically and emotionally drained, that they weren’t exactly sure of everything that took place that day. Somehow, someway, they found themselves at the end of the day—alone with Jesus. All they knew was that during the course of that day thousands had walked away from their Rabbi—what had only a short time ago seemed like the greatest spiritual awakening in generations had dwindled into nothing in a matter of mere hours.

Now, after all that time, they were finally alone with Jesus. They finally had some peace and quiet. But none of them, it seemed, could either speak or sleep. The sleep they had been so long deprived of now seemed to elude them further. Their bodies ached with soreness as their muscles slowly stiffened. The sensation of being on that storm-tossed boat was still felt by some of them as they sat in silence. Their minds were cluttered with images of Jesus multiplying bread and walking on water and the sound of his voice, “Come away with me. You give them something to eat. Don’t be afraid. I am the bread of life. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” The rollercoaster of the past couple of days had left them feeling utterly and completely wasted, confused, and broken.

“You don’t want to leave too, do you?”

Jesus’ words had broken the silence. They looked up at him and saw that wildness that was always in his eyes. Just then something seemed to click for a number of them. This Jesus-thing was simply not what they thought it would be. Maybe they’d never get their heads around it completely. Clearly, Jesus was not at all interested in following their game plans or the culturally acceptable scripts. As long as they followed him, he would continue to inspire, surprise, frighten, and confuse them. One day, he might even get them killed. But, what had been said about him last night on the boat was true—he really was the Son of God, the Christ sent from above. And they, or most of them, really did believe. Leave? No, this was it for them. Whatever fallback plans they had, had gotten lost somewhere between Capernaum and the middle of the sea of Galilee.
And so, after a moment, there was Peter, speaking again for them all—and, they had to admit, this time doing a pretty good job:

“Where are we gonna go, Jesus? Who else are we going to turn to? You have the words of eternal life. The bottom line is, we believe you. We know you are the Holy One of God!”

The Questions Jesus Brings (English & Hindi Message)

The following is a message by my dear brother, Anil Yesudas.  He is speaking on "The Questions Jesus Brings". The message is translated by Vinod Isaacs into Hindi.  This is a nice example of a narrative sermon on the life of Jesus.  Enjoy!

Orality Strategies- Great resource!

Today, I just want to recommend a resource to those of you that are utilizing a storying approach to sharing Biblical truth in your evangelism and discipleship. Orality Strategies is a "go to" site for me because it contains tons of information, resources, case studies, videos, storying sets and more.

I was just using it today as I was trying to choose stories for a 10 Commandments series that I am teaching. I enjoyed seeing the many different themes that have been used to create story sets. Take a look and I'm sure you'll find some very useful stuff.

Orality Strategies

CANCELLED: Free Orality Training (Feb. 15, 2011)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BELOW EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO SOME UNFORESEEN HEALTH ISSUES

Trinity International Baptist Mission will be hosting a free training workshop on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 on using Bible Storying in cross-cultural missions. Our special guest will be veteran missionary and orality expert Dr. Johnny Norwood.  The training will be held at Glenfield Baptist Church at 670 S. Lambert Rd., Glen Ellyn, IL from 6-9:30PM.  I've know Johnny for some time and recommend this training for anyone who is involved in cross-cultural missions.  In fact, our whole team will be there.  So please come on out and take advantage of this free training.  We'd love to see you there and have a chance to hear about how God has placed the nations on your heart.

Noah in Cross-Cultural Context (Pt.5): Applying Biblical Narratives

Now for my 5^th and final installment of reflections on preaching Noah cross-culturally at TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali (TPM), the Nepali-speaking church that I pastor in the Chicago area. 

If you remember, I preached through Noah over the course of 2 Sundays.  Having used both improvisational drama and group reading to tell and retell the story, during the second Sunday I was ready to give a couple key applications and principles from the text.   Whenever I prepare to preach narratively, I usually seek to derive applications/principles by asking a number of key questions:

1. What does this narrative tell us about God?
2. What does this narrative tell us about life and how to live in a way that pleases God?
3. Does this narrative say anything that is especially relevant to the cultural context of my audience? (What will they readily see/hear/understand that I may not?)
4. Does the Bible anywhere provide an infallible application/interpretation for this narrative?

(If you have other helpful questions, please leave them in the comment section)

I took this approach to the narrative of Noah.  Below, I will share only the summary of what I came up with (note that I already shared some applications from this story during my first sermon):

1. God, by his nature, is committed to the eradication of evil and the salvation of the faithful.  I will not get into all this here, but I recommend looking to Isaiah 54:9-10 and Ezekiel 14.
2. The Noah story illustrates for us the impact of one faithful person on their entire household.  That is, Noah’s faith influenced his wife and children leading to their salvation as well.
3. Keeping in mind the fact that there are those in our Nepali church in “mixed faith” households (some Christ-followers and some not), I encouraged them to be encouraged by Noah’s example.  To have faith and patiently follow God’s will in the context of their families.  I encouraged them not to give up on their relatives who were not yet following Christ.  Since I have had a similar experience myself, I encouraged them by my own testimony.
4. Finally, the Bible does provide a kind of application of the Noah story (that is, it provides another one that we’ve yet to mention).  1 Peter 3:20-21 connects this narrative with the subject of baptism, providing a great opportunity to teach about this topic from Peter’s epistle.

You may also have noticed that over the course of my two messages, I made reference to many Biblical references to Noah occurring outside of Genesis.  I have found that this is always a helpful way to interpret a Biblical story.  How do the apostles and prophets interpret and apply the narratives of Scripture – always a great place to start.

Noah in Cross-Cultural Context (Pt.4): How does the Story Sound to Them?

Well, back to my reflections on preaching Noah cross-culturally at TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali (TPM), the Nepali-speaking church that I pastor in the Chicago area.  This is part 4, if you’re counting.

 

If you remember, I preached through Noah over the course of 2 Sundays.  We used improvisational drama to aid our story-telling during the first week.  However, I knew that we would need to do a quick recounting of the story during the second Sunday as well.  I want to share today how we did that and a couple considerations.

I began my preparation by looking at the Chronological Bible Storying version of the Noah story in Nepali that has been produced by Orality Strategies.  At first, I thought I would simply play the MP3 of this story for the congregation as a quick way to review the narrative.  However, as I looked at the Orality Strategies (OS) version of the story, I noticed some potential trouble spots.

The first is that the OS version doesn’t say anything about Noah’s faith.  I understand that this is in keeping with the Genesis version of the story.  However, I think that a fuller Biblical understanding of Noah requires us to at least mention Noah’s faith (Heb. 11:7).  Plus, I feel the concept of faith needs to be emphasized as much as possible.  This is perhaps not a concern particular to Nepalis, Hindus, or South Asians; but it is easy for me to imagine someone listening to the Noah story for the first time and assuming that Noah was chosen because of his sinlessness. 

To remedy this, I edited the text of the OS Noah story to include a sentence that (translated from Nepali) goes something like this, “In that generation there was one man who had faith in God’s name. His name was Noah.”

The second issue revolved around the issue of “eating blood.” You may not remember, but towards the end of the Noah account in Genesis, God grants that Noah can eat animals just as he had previously been able to eat plants.  However, God gives him the command that he shouldn’t eat meat with its “lifeblood still in it” (Gen. 9:4).  Interestingly enough, the composers of the OS version of the Noah story decided that in summarizing four chapters of Biblical text that it was important to include this command.  Well, they’ve not actually included the command, but interpreted it as, “When you kill them for food, do not eat their blood.”

Believe it or not, this can pose a significant problem in your Bible storying to Bhutanese and Nepali peoples.   The subject of eating blood is actually a point of tension and controversy between Nepali Christians and Hindus.  Some Hindus use blood to make a kind of soup in generally believe that it is good for your health.  On the other hand, I’ve heard Christians claim that this is a Satanic practice that one must give up in order to follow Jesus.  Knowing that this controversy was real, I decided to remove the line about not eating blood from the summary we used.  I felt that, in all likelihood, if I left it in, that would be the only issue people wanted to focus on and we would miss the larger and more significant points of the Biblical story.  I thought it better to save the “eating blood” controversy for another time.

So, my revised version of the Noah story is here.  Please note that I’m not revising the Bible, I’m revising a summary of Noah’s story for chronological Bible storying.  If you don’t know the difference between storying and reading the Bible outloud, I suggest taking a look at this site.

Let me close by articulating clearly an important lesson in all this.  As you communicate the story of the Scripture to your friends from other cultures, take time to carefully and prayerfully consider how the story will sound to them. This will be challenging to do, but it is essential.  It isn’t always a bad thing for the Biblical story you share to be heard differently that you expect or for certain themes to resonate with your audience in surprising ways.  However, you want to be careful that God’s word and spiritual truth are not being lost in translation. 

A friend of mine once told me of an experience he had of sharing about the “Parable of the Sower” in an African agricultural context.  He spoke of the seeds falling on different kinds of soils and producing different results.  The women who were listening completely missed the point of the story, “Well, isn’t that just what happens when you send a man to sow the seeds? He’ll never be careful, just throwing seeds all over the place!”

Noah in Cross-Cultural Context (Pt.3): Faith & God's Patience

Let’s continue my reflections on preaching Noah cross-culturally at TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali (TPM), the Nepali-speaking church that I pastor in the Chicago area.

 

As the story of Noah is told, one of the questions that naturally arises is regarding the selection of Noah.  Why was he chosen?  One text says that God saw that Noah was righteous in his generation (Gen. 7:1).  It might be natural to take this to mean that God chose Noah because of his righteousness.  It may be that this was true to a certain extent.  Perhaps Noah’s life prior to God’s calling was indeed exemplary.  However, as I preached through this story, I found it important to emphasize Noah’s faith.  This is the emphasis of Hebrews 11:7,

“By faith, Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.”

So, while I did speak about Noah’s obedience, my emphasis was that he heard the Word of God, believed, and obeyed it.  That ultimately, Noah was saved because he had faith.  For the author of Hebrews, it was Noah’s faith that distinguished him from the rest of the world more than anything else. 

After emphasizing Noah’s faith – Noah believed and obey the word of God – I spent time answering the question, “What was happening while the boat (ark) was being built?”

1.  God was waiting patiently for the people to repent (1 Pt. 3:20) 

2.  Noah was preaching God’s word and will (righteousness) to the people (2 Pt. 2:5)  

3.  The people of that generation were paying no attention whatsoever (Lk. 17:27)

After taking time to answer this question – painting a picture of life during the construction through our improvisational drama team – I recounted that God sealed Noah’s family and the animals in the boat.  The flood came.  Those in the boat were saved.  Those out of the ark perished.

Of course, this historically true story provided me with an apt metaphor for our times.  I spoke briefly about God’s coming final judgment against all evil and corruption in the world.  I helped the audience see that God had once again provided a way of salvation for all people – the Lord Jesus.  And told everyone that again God was waiting patiently, that the word of God was being proclaimed to them, and that they shouldn’t be like Noah’s generation.   They should believe and obey God’s word.  They should, as it were, get in the boat.

In this case, the metaphor was more than apt; it was penetrating.  What stands out to me was on older Nepali man, not yet a Christ-follower, who began speaking to the whole group about how this takes time – deciding to follow Jesus.  He wasn’t disagreeing with the message at all.  It was actually quite powerful to me to see that the message had hit him so hard that he felt compelled to essentially announce to everyone (perhaps even to God) his need for more time.  For him, I feel the need to warn.  But I also take comfort in my patient God who waits, even now.

Noah in Cross-Cultural Context (Pt.2): Making the Text Come Alive

Today, I want to continue to share my reflections from my recently completed 2-part message on the story of Noah and the Flood from Genesis 6-10 at TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali (TPM), the Nepali-speaking church that I pastor in the Chicago area. 

Making the Text Come Alive

After setting up the story and communicating the context, I moved into the actual story-telling itself.  My method for doing this was to select individuals from the audience to basically act out (improvisationally) the narrative as I shared it.  This has become a pretty common approach for me at TPM.  Generally, everyone likes this very interactive and entertaining approach.  Of course, now I hear the faint echo of those who would say, “We shouldn’t be trying to entertain people in church.  We need to just teach the Word of God with clarity and authority.”  And, I hear what those people are saying.  However, my priority is to communicate the content of the Bible effectively.  And that means that I need to do all I can to draw people into the message itself.  If my listeners are bored or if they simply can’t get a grasp on the text because I’m telling the story poorly, I’m just not living up to my calling as a preacher of the Word.  It matters very little for me to personally have a correct, thorough, and orthodox understanding of the text if I communicate it badly.

In cross-cultural preaching, it isn’t enough to simply trade in 3-point sermons for chronological-Bible-story sets.  We must strive to be good story-tellers.  I’ve been greatly influenced for several years by something that I read from Martin Luther (I’ll have to find the reference later as I loaned out my copy of Protestant Spiritual Traditions).  Luther was talking about preaching as a “sacramental” duty – that the preacher’s task was to essentially make the Word of God “take on flesh” for the people.  I take this sacramental duty quite seriously as I seek to “enfleshen” the Scripture before the people week by week.  To be honest, I didn’t feel we were all that successful in this with the Noah story.  Nevertheless, in general the use of improvisational actors from the congregation has been effective in doing this.

Of course, drama isn’t the only good way to accomplish the goal of making the Biblical message come alive.  We’ve done other things as well.  But these are my reflections on preaching Noah, right.  So let me stay focused.  Specifically with this story, I selected (right in the middle of the message) a Noah, his three sons, and the wives of each (this last part was good for a corporate giggle, but I would be more careful if I were basically unfamiliar with the crowd).  I had costumes (very simple, but interesting) that I was able to slip onto the characters and a few props.  We quickly designated an area of the room as the “construction site” and moved my actors to that place.  All the rest of the congregation were also in the story, playing the role of the corrupt generation in which Noah lived.  Thus, as the story unfolded, everyone had a role to play.  Everyone was caught up in the narrative.

Getting everyone involved isn’t always possible, but some of our most effective stories have been the ones in which we’ve been able to do this.  The result is that no one is simply hearing or even watching a story about Jesus.  They are living it out, experiencing it as it unfolds before them. 

Okay, that’s all for now.  More tomorrow.

Noah in Cross-Cultural Context (Pt.1): Communicating Corruption

I recently completed a 2-part message (or series) on the story of Noah and the Flood from Genesis 6-10 at TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali (TPM), the Nepali-speaking church that I pastor in the Chicago area.  Over the next couple days or so, let me post here some of the thoughts I’ve had on the text and some reflections on my process of teaching this story in a cross-cultural context to Hindu-background Bhutanese and Nepalis with little to no prior experience with the Bible.

Noah’s story comes towards the end of an extended series of messages that I’ve been preaching at TPM that have taken us through the first 11 chapters of the Genesis.  Nearly all of my hearers have had no prior exposure to the content of Genesis, so we’ve been charting new territory.  I’m not going to take the time here to go back through the previous stories that we’ve encountered (for tips on Chronological Bible Storying click here).  I’ll just mention that I have been careful to explain how this particular story relates to the broader Biblical context and story of redemption.  We’ve made use of the “bible-storying cloth” as a helpful visual aid for this.

Communicating the Concept of Corruption Cross-Culturally

After setting up the context, I described the world of Noah as that of increasing population and increasing wickedness (दुष्टता).  The Biblical text (Gen. 6:11) describes a world of corruption, filled with violence (पृथ्वी भष्ट बएको र उपद्रवले भरिएको थियो). I felt that it was important to give special emphasis to a “world filled with violence” to my Bhutanese-Nepali refugee audience that didn’t need to be convinced of the evil of violence.  Prior to preaching, I was concerned that some might be troubled with the way God judged the earth in the days of Noah.  However, once they took time to consider a “world filled with violence”, they needed little convincing that God should indeed judge such a world.  This was great because it isn’t uncommon to encounter resistance when speaking to people from Hindu backgrounds about sin and God’s desire to punish it.  For my Bhutanese-Nepali audience however, their intimate experience with the evil of violence actually provided them with a unique handle on the Noah story and what it says about the nature of God.

In stressing this, I was able to basically introduce this as a story of God’s judgment against sin in the midst of which was a beautiful act of salvation.  My point today being that a typical stumbling block to the Noah story was avoided by honing in on a particular form of evil that both appeared in the Biblical text and resonated with my audience.  For me, this proved another encouraging affirmation that the better I understand my audience, the more effectively I’ll be able to communicate to them the Word of God.

Essentials of Bible Storying among Bhutanese & Nepali People

(There's a surprise for you at the bottom of this article!)


Has God placed Nepali or Bhutanese-Nepali people in your life? Well, that alone is cause to rejoice! Nepalis are some of the greatest, most complex, and rewarding people on the planet.  I welcome you to the encounter and challenge you to go deep in your relationships.  But more on that in a bit.  What we're really here to talk about is sharing with our precious Nepali friends the life-giving message of God as revealed in the Bible.  And, more to the point, the particular method of doing so known as Chronological Bible Storying (CBS).


Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) is a method of communicating the Biblical message that has been greatly blessed by God as He's used it in a wide variety of contexts to draw people into His family.  And since Nepali people generally love great stories and story-tellers, CBS holds much potential among them.  However, as you consider utilizing this approach with Nepalis (particularly those of Hindu backgrounds), I must offer a word of caution.

If you've been reading me for a while, it will come as no surprise that in my opinion CBS approaches must always be contextualized so as to maximize their potential for effectively communicating spiritual truth to people of various cultures.  Effective communication means that a message is both faithfully delivered and received with correct understanding.  That is, if I feel I say something clearly but my listener doesn't understand it in the way I intended, effective communication hasn't happened.  Unfortunately, CBSers have often taken an approach that has proved highly ineffective. Remember the rocky soil of Matthew 13. The problem is not that they didn't hear the word of God, but that they didn't understand it (v. 19). Contextualization in preaching or Biblical story-telling is the tedious process of taking rocks out of soil.  So when utilizing CBS among Nepalis (and many other Hindus as well), it is critical that the storyteller take time to understand how certain stories, ideas, and phrases will be received and understood.  Here are a couple "rules of thumb" that I have found to be extremely helpful:

1. Do not begin your CBS process at the beginning! I recommend that with Nepali Hindus, you begin by telling stories about Jesus Christ.  We suggest spending as much time as possible focused exclusively on the person and work of the Lord Jesus.  Very often, when storying begins with creation and the Fall, Hindus can be quickly turned away due to miscommunication regarding the issue of sin (see #2).  I personally spent more than a full year just telling stories of Jesus before doing anything from the Old Testament. Once I began bringing Old Testament stories into our weekly study times, I was still careful to bring us back to stories of Jesus at least twice per month.  Another friend of mine has spent a full three years almost exclusively telling stories of Jesus to the same group. Whatever your approach, make Christ the clear center and starting point.

2. Before storying from the Old Testament, take time to carefully understand the issue of sin and "fallenness" within the Hindu worldview.  Again, it is the issue of sin and guilt that trips up many efforts to communicate the good news of Christ to Hindus.  When you say something like, "We're all sinners," such a statement simply doesn't enter the ears of your Nepali friends in the way you intend.  I've heard examples of well-meaning CBSers starting from the creation account with a good-sized group and ending up with no one after telling the story of the Fall.  The problem isn't usually that Nepalis have a view of sin that is so unbiblical, but rather that the storyteller doesn't know how to start with what the Nepali already believes and go from there to the fuller Biblical revelation.  
     Nevertheless, in order to share the Good News with people, we must share the "bad news."   With Hindus, however, this is an especially delicate process.  We have therefore created a couple resources to help you to begin to understand how to do this.  This is, of course, only a beginning. Still we strongly recommend reading these articles prior to telling your friends stories about creation and the Fall.  The first article is the brief "Repentance, Sinfulness & Hinduism", which provides a good introduction to the subject. The second is "Holistic Spiritual Conflict in the Context of Folk Hinduism" which provides a more in-depth look at the "bad news" as Hindus often understand it. (Note: Many other concepts present potential communication stumbling blocks for Gospel-sharers. As a general rule, it is a good idea to seek familiarity with your listeners' pre-understanding of various ideas so as to more effectively build communicative bridges to Biblical truth and avoid building walls of misunderstanding.)

3. All storying should be done in the context of real relationships!  You might think that it goes without saying, but it unfortunately does not.  Everything you communicate from the Scripture should be accompanied by a life of loving and reciprocal relationships with your Nepali friends -- relationships that they perceive to be close.  It is often the case that naturally individualistic and monochronic Westerners perceive a cross-cultural relationship to be much closer than do their Nepali friends. I once heard a sincere American Christ-follower almost boasting about the depth of their friendships with Nepalis. "We spend an hour or two with them almost every single week," they declared.  I laughed to myself when I heard it because while I know that to an American this is tantamount to a close relationship, to a Bhutanese-Nepali it simply isn't.  
     I've tried to challenge my fellow Americans on this front.  We must go beyond our comfort zones, well past our American 15-30 minute visits.  We must stay past 1, 2 cups of tea and a meal or two.  Till all our Nepali words and all their English words are long gone--we must stay.  Till we've looked at every photo album and watched a film or two--we must stay.  Till our "namastes" become "kasto chhas" and our "kasto chhas" become full sentences--we must stay.  Till their bedbugs become our bedbugs--we must stay.  We have to just keep staying.  We must take massive amounts of time to be with people, to observe, to learn, to listen to their stories. And when your Nepali friends are convinced that your story and theirs are truly interwoven -- when they can no longer conceive of telling their life story without you in it (and vice versa) -- then God's story will seem as much a natural and essential part of their lives as it is for yours.  Remember Paul who said to the Thessalonians, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." (1 Th. 2:8)


Well, that's about it.  Happy storying. I would love to add a point number 4, 5, 6 and so on, but I'll hold back.  Now for the surprise.  If you follow the link below, you will find a page on our website that has a full Chronological Bible Storying set for you to download free of charge.  There are MP3s of all the stories in Nepali along with a PDF featuring the text of each story with an English translation. It is a truly helpful resource that we ourselves use, but please take the above warnings seriously.  


Nepali Chronological Bible Storying Set