Telling God's Stories with Power: Biblical Storytelling in Oral Cultures

by Paul F. Koehler

Overview

This is a complete and practical introduction to storying, especially for people who want to learn about using biblical storytelling in cross-cultural contexts and who want to train others to become storytellers. It includes many fascinating accounts of the responses of tribal people to the first proclamation of the gospel through storytelling. The result of years of research and field testing, Telling God's Stories with Power is a product of the author's own journey as he confronted the challenges of teaching the Bible in parts of the world where people are unaccustomed to a Western style of learning. Full of innovative and groundbreaking insights, this study is packed with ideas, explanations, and constructive suggestions stated in clear and simple language. Throughout the book there are extensive examples from the storytellers' own experiences. Tracing the movement of the biblical stories across multiple generations of tellers and listeners, storytelling is found to be superior for knowledge transfer and for bypassing resistance to the gospel in oral contexts, thus presenting clear evidence of the effectiveness of biblical narrative among oral learners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878080656
Publisher:	Carey, William Library Publishers
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	332
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Paul Koehler's experiences serving with a large indigenous church-planting organization in South Asia led him to begin a search for a more effective way of communicating the Bible. The program that he developed has trained storytellers from a wide range of people groups. As a result of hearing the Bible stories, many people came to faith in Christ and more than 200 new congregations were planted. Paul Koehler has an M.A. from Fuller School of Intercultural Studies and a D.Min. in Biblical Storytelling from United Theological Seminary.

Table of Contents

Illustrations i

Tables ii

Overview iii

Foreword v

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xi

1 Introduction 1

2 A World Of Orality 11

Oral vs. Literate Learning Styles 12

Literacy and Illiteracy 16

Orality in India 17

Oral Stories in Peasant Cultures 19

Section 1 Theoretical Foundations

3 Orality In The Bible 27

Transmission of Biblical Knowledge through Storytelling 27

Jesus' Example 30

Paul 32

4 The Development Of Biblical Storytelling 37

Chronological Bible Storying 38

Where Next? 40

Two Kinds of Thinking 42

5 Stories And Learning 49

The Educational Role of Stories 50

Literacy and Orality 52

A Church-Compatible Training Model 55

The Affective Aspect of Learning 57

The Power of Discovery 59

The Value of an Example 63

Praxis 66

The Importance of Transfer 67

6 Theological Foundations Of Storytelling 73

A Pentecostal Theology 74

An Experiential Christianity 75

Whose Theology? 77

Felt Needs 79

Section 2 Training Storytellers

7 The Storytellers 89

A Pilot Project 90

The Oral Bible Project 91

A Systems Model of Training 93

Description of the Participants 93

8 The Story Training 97

A Standard Day 98

Accountability 101

Learning to Tell the Stories 102

Story Selection 102

Structuring a Story Track 103

Remembering the 104

Story Scripting 110

Performing the Story 117

Story-songs 123

9 The Product 127

The Biculture Learning Model 127

Generation 1 135

Generation 2 136

Generation 3 137

Generation 4 141

The Adult Education Component 144

Section 3 Findings from the Research

10 Outcomes That Emerged From The Program 149

Verbatim Reports from the Participants 149

Application of Story 151

Comparisons of Storytelling with Other Methods 154

The Interface of Orality and Literacy 160

Identification with Bible Characters 163

Faith 166

Felt Needs 168

The Burning Bus 169

Other Felt Needs 170

Field Leaders' Questionnaire 171

Comprehensive Examinations 180

The Exam 181

Findings 183

Conclusion 185

11 Case Studies 187

Felt Needs Leading to Conversion 187

Mangal Kisku 188

Bilion Soren 196

Transformed Lives 200

Somarsing's Story 200

Rubilal's Story 207

Anil's Story 211

12 Conclusion 215

The Oral Bible Project 215

A Look Back 216

A Look to the Future 217

Areas for Further Research 219

Congregational Research 219

Ethnomusicology 220

Issues to Be Resolved 220

An Oral Theology 221

Institutional Schooling or the Oral Bible Model? 222

Appendices

A Where Stories Were Told 225

B Two Accounts of Violence Against Christians 227

C Sample Field Report Form with Mnemonic Symbols 229

D Stories Learned 230

E Facial Expressions That Portray Human Emotions 234

F Story-song Examples 235

G Comparisons of Storytelling with Bible School Training 239

H Comparing Storytelling with Other Methods 242

I Themes in the Verbatims 257

J Case Instance Examples

1 Application of Story 263

2 Barren Women Who Conceived 264

3 Conversion 265

4 Financial Need 266

5 The Dead Raised 268

6 Is This a Real Story? 271

7 Peace in Human Relationships 271

8 Felt Need for Help with School Exams 272

9 Nonliterates and Story Learning 273

10 Application by Storytellers 274

11 Resistance to the Gospel Overcome 275

K Comprehensive Exam Scores 278

L Multiple Choice Questions 280

End Notes 281

Index of Authors 290

Index of Verbatims by Theme 293

Index of Topics 296

References 305

Editorial Reviews

For those working with primary oral learners this book is a must read! Avery T. Willis, Jr., executive director, International Orality Network

I wish this book had been available when I was living and working among a non-literate people in Nigeria. Charles H. Kraft, senior professor of Anthropology and Intercultural Communication in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary

Readers interested in orality and church planting movements will find this volume extremely helpful. Tom Steffen, professor of Intercultural Studies, Biola University

This book describes the extraordinary energy unleashed by teaching oral culture people to tell the stories of the Bible by heart to their family and friends in their villages. Thomas E. Boomershine, PhD, founder of the Network of Biblical Storytellers

From the Publisher