Abe sees his life as a series of stories. He doesn’t know the year he was born – but can tell you in rich, colourful detail how high the grain was the day his mother discovered she was pregnant, how much rain fell when he cut his first tooth, and which political leader came to power the day he learned to walk.

Tigray Family

Abe sees his life as a series of stories. He doesn’t know the year he was born – but can tell you in rich, colourful detail how high the grain was the day his mother discovered she was pregnant, how much rain fell when he cut his first tooth, and which political leader came to power the day he learned to walk.

Abe has never seen a book – never had any need to read or write – but he carries in his memory a detailed tapestry of stories about where he came from, who his ancestors were, and how his clan struggled to work the land where he lives. These stories help Abe understand his world.

One day, when working in a field, he overheard some new stories on a friend’s radio, and was overwhelmed to meet a God who shows himself through telling stories Abe can understand.

Different way of learning

“People who cannot read or write have a totally different learning style from people who can,” explains Normal Brierley, Development Director for Eastern Africa. “They absorb things in completely different ways, so we have to learn those ways in order to communicate the Gospel to them.”

Estimates of the number of oral people around the world range between 40 to 60%. This includes at least 70% of Islamic peoples, 60% of those in southern Africa and 62% of people in South Asia. In some countries, like Ethiopia, the number is as high as 80%.
You also have to select the right type of person to tell stories
“The style of telling stories is very important,” Norman adds, “and it varies from culture to culture. You also have to select the right type of person to tell stories – for example an older man in some cultures – someone people would look up to, have confidence in and listen to.”

Bridges and barriers

There are three types of stories which are important for sharing the Gospel: bridge, barrier and core stories.

“Bridge stories are stories from the Gospel which have common ground with the people, their lifestyle and their culture,” Norman explains. “A cattle and sheep rearing culture would appreciate stories of Jacob and Esau for example. Or you may find that a particular culture has their own redemptive analogy story which is similar to the scriptural one of Jesus dying for our sin.

“A barrier story helps overcome barriers which people put up to the Gospel. For example, in the story of David, Uriah and Bathsheba, David is punished for his sin, but he is also forgiven, and goes on in a good relationship with God. So that helps explain that God is not only a just God, but one who is also forgiving, whereas the culture may say God only exacts justice.

“Core stories are the essential stories from the Word of God that you can’t leave out – for example, Jesus dying on the cross – and these form the structure of the story-set.”
The Gospel makes sense chronologically, especially in story form.
This kind of evangelism is often called chronological storytelling, or storying, and, Norman explains, it is very important that the biblical stories are told chronologically – starting in Genesis.

“The Gospel makes sense chronologically, especially if you tell it in story form. You have to start at the beginning. They need to know who God is before they can understand the significance of Jesus.”

Discipleship as drama

Feba uses storying to share the Gospel in the Horn of Africa and Bangladesh. Programme series include Evangelism, Discipleship, Church History and Marriage Enrichment – each picking up a different set of biblical stories which relate to those topics. Some of our follow-up partners also do storytelling face-to-face in groups.
Ethiopian Women

“A lot of this storying is done in drama format,” Norman added. “I know of one group in Ethiopia who tell the stories in the context of their home-group. They set up a microphone, record the house group as it happens, and then edit it afterwards. So while telling stories they are also demonstrating what it means to be a home-group fellowship, week by week.

“It’s off the cuff drama, dealing with the realities of life and demonstrating how Christians support and care for each other. I remembered listening to the first sample of this discipleship track and they took 15 minutes in greeting one another!

“You have to be patient with this sort of communication, as it takes time,” Norman added, “Say in our evangelism track there are 60 stories, and we do one a week, it can take over a year to complete the story set over the air. But some people do come to faith even when you are far away from the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus. Somehow God’s Spirit speaks to them.

“I know of one witchdoctor who was convicted of sin having gotten up to Noah’s story and that caused her to start asking a lot of questions about her position before God. Through these questions she came to know Christ as her personal Saviour, and she had not even gone through half the stories!

“So God’s Spirit works in different ways, at different times, and brings about salvation.”