Book Review: Making Disciples of Oral Leanrers compiled by Avery Willis, Steve Evans

The problem: 4 billion of the world’s people are oral communicators, yet the vast majority of the mission workers trying to share the gospel with them are highly literate. Recent studies have shown that oral learners cannot mentally process a literate presentation of lecture, lists and outlines, and will not learn in that manner, even if the presentation is given orally. The difference is deeply cultural, and cuts to the root of how truth is communicated within a culture. The medium must be stories.

No mission strategy to an unengaged and unreached people group (UUPG) is likely to succeed without the application of the principles presented in addressed in Making Disciples of Oral Learners. It is essential information for “pastors, churches, partners, networks, seminaries and missionaries,” who must embrace oral means if they hope to “evangelize the unreached, disciple the new believers, train church leaders and multiply reproducing churches…”

In this primer, written by a committee of experts from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the International Orality Network, you will find the basic information on reaching oral cultures in concise form. This book is the place to start if you need resources to educate your church or missions group about the issues of oral cultures. Bob Creson, President of Wycliffe Bible Translators, writes:

“The majority of the remaining unreached peoples of the earth cannot read or write, so the Word of God will be most effectively communicated through oral means and storytelling…This book will be of great help to Christian workers around the world who wish to understand and relate in oral cultures.”

Reviewed by Karen Gregory, Desert Springs Church, Missions Lay-Leader

Buy this book NOW at Amazon. Or download a PDF version at oralbible.com