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.

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

What Should Be our Priorities in Making Disciples of All Nations

Okay, I want to be simple here. First, super grateful for your prayers. I thought there would be no way for me to finish this paper - to stay awake. I even got in bed.  But as I started reading, my energy was renewed. Twenty pages finished. The paper?

"World Evangelization in the 21st Century: Prioritizing the Essential Elements of the Great Commission" by Paul Eshleman on behalf of the Lausanne Strategy Working Group (LSWG).

The paper is simple and crucial. It seeks to say to the Global Church, "As we look at the work of mission in the world today, here are the things that should be our top priorities." It is specific, Biblical, and compelling.  I read it with the eyes of a pastor, church planter, missionary, and ministry leader.  If you find yourself occupying one of those roles, read this paper.  If you are a disciple of Jesus concerned about the Great Commission, read it.

There is a lot I could say here and there in response to the LSWG paper.  However, I want to limit my comments to several specific questions that came to my mind as I thought through these priorities and specific calls.  I kept asking how this related to Trinity International Baptist Mission.  What is God saying to us?  I am expecting God to speak in powerful ways to me and to my context of ministry.  So, it is important that I bring my ministry and every component of it to the table.  I challenge you to do the same with your church or ministry as you read the LSWG paper.  Here are the questions I am beginning to ask (note: TIBM refers to Trinity International Baptist Mission and all our related ministries):

1. Can TIBM recruit and deploy one team tasked to produce an "Oral Story Bible" for one of the 2,252 language groups that still do not have one verse of Scripture in their language?

2. Can TIBM drastically increase our intentional and strategic distribution and use of the Scripture?

3. Can TIBM recruit and deploy one full-time worker to go to one of the 2,365 people groups (with populations over 5,000) that are totally unengaged with the Gospel?

4. Can TIBM launch a new ministry focused on reaching out to members of a major religious group that we aren't currently engaging?

5. Can I effectively teach effective Bible storying and narrative preaching to those I lead and mentor?

6. Can the entire TIBM team get trained in orality ministry?

7. Can TIBM start more churches where there are actual needs?

8. Can TIBM become a "house of prayer for the nations" - developing a 24/7 missional prayer ministry?

9. Can TIBM form new boundary-crossing partnerships that result in extending God's Kingdom?

10. Can TIBM become for faithfully mobilized in compassion ministry?

11. Can TIBM be renewed and refilled by the Holy Spirit?

12. Can TIBM become more effective and intentional in mobilizing followers of Christ to pray, give, and go for God's global mission?

13. Can TIBM become thoroughly and constantly informed as to the status of God's mission in the world?  Can we increase our access to and use of resources like Christian World Encyclopedia, Operation World, Ethnologue, Joshua Project, People Groups, and more?

14. Can TIBM conduct regular research and produce reliable results that are helpful to the Body of Christ?

And that's it. I am particularly looking forward to the plenary session on this topic and the interaction around the tables.  Let's pray that God will give us very clear direction.