Case Studies
Five teens from an unreached people group in East Asia came to an English and Bible camp for two weeks. Camp leaders told Bible stories in the trade language and English and translated on the fly into the local dialect. Sometimes they incorporated informal dramas.
At the end of two weeks the teens had learned and discussed nine Bible stories, including Genesis 1, 2 and 3, the Christmas story, several of Jesus' miracles, the washing of the disciples’ feet, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the Great Commission. Over the next few days all five teens decided to follow Christ, and all of them were baptized.
Eighteen months later at least three of the students, and perhaps all five, were still following Christ. Some faced persecution and held strong. Since that time, one of the students has been discipled and began studying the Bible full-time.
For the first two years of working with a tribal people in the Amazonian jungle, my husband and I used traditional ways of teaching. During our Bible studies, most of our listeners were very passive. We spoke and they listened, with little feedback or response.
Four years ago we began using stories both for evangelism and to disciple new believers. Storytelling has opened a door for us to hear their stories about their own culture as well as enabling us to teach biblical truth in a more effective way. Everyone participates in the discussion, and it is a true exchange of ideas. Through narrative and story-telling methods, villagers have also memorized large portions of Scripture and are able to share them with others. Even months after learning a story for the first time, villagers can still tell it back to us with great detail and accuracy.
Two years ago we taught the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. A few days later a man came to talk with us. He was one of the leaders of his village and a new believer. He told us that he really wanted to serve God, and he believed that he should give up his political leadership position in the village, just as Abraham had been willing to sacrifice Isaac. We were very surprised, both because those leadership positions are highly sought after in the community, and because we had taught the story as an evangelistic message leading towards Jesus’ sacrifice for us. The man explained that when he went to meetings with other officials, there was often a lot of alcohol and immorality. When he heard the story of Abraham’s sacrifice, he was convicted that he should give up his status and privilege to please God. He soon followed through and resigned his position to study at a local Bible school. In August 2018 he was commissioned as a pastor in his village.
A quick summary from the chapter “The First Barrier: An Addiction to Literacy,” pages 162-164 in The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripken, Nashville, Tennessee, 2014.
After serving in Somalia and returning to the States as a broken couple, Nik Ripken and his wife decided to visit persecuted believers with the goal of learning from them. Over 15 years they interviewed more than 600 persecuted believers, often for six hours or longer. The Ripkens collected their research into two books: The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience. The Insanity of God is a call to follow Jesus without compromise. The Insanity of Obedience contains valuable lessons about working among the persecuted, and following is a summary of that book.
According to Nik Ripken’s interviews with Muslim Background Believers, 90% of them came to faith through written material. They were unable to share with others in any other way besides the written word, limiting their impact in a context where 45% of men and 90% of women are illiterate. They were often not interested in sharing their faith with non-readers, even non-readers in their own homes. Ripken’s interviews document that even church leaders often did not share their faith with their own wives. Ripken then explains that a lack of oral materials and strategies is a significant barrier to passing faith onto a second generation. When a first-generation believer, who is literate, is unable or unwilling to share the gospel with the next, illiterate, generation, the multiplication of faith stops with that first generation.
On page 290 of The Insanity of Obedience Ripken states, “Believers in persecution have learned from Jesus and from each other how to handle the Bible orally. When witnessing opportunities arise or when persecutors are attempting to extract information from a believer, these believers often answer each and every question with a Bible story.”
Based on Ripken’s research, we can only start reproducing churches among Muslims if we use oral methodologies. This includes the Muslim diaspora in the western world, as a move to the West does not necessarily make them literate people. If we dream and hope that they will share the Good News with their own peoples from their countries of origin, we must ensure that they understand and are able to use oral methods.