A colleague of mine raised an interesting question - 'If we currently live in an ever illiterate world, could we learn from mission in the pre-literate world?'There have been many phases in history (most?!) where the general populace could not read and had/have little or no personal access to the written Word of God. How did they engage with the Bible? Often the Scriptures were controlled by church clergy (Dark Ages especially) and I doubt many of us would want to see a return to that sort of 'priestly' dissemination of Biblical 'truth'.
Increasingly, western cultures are producing young people that use literacy as only a base for embracing other forms of communication and connection. Traditional literacy is on the slide. What could we import from mission strategies implemented in the pre-literate world?
I think we would do well to note that many indigenous peoples from around the world have a strong tradition of storytelling in community. History has often been passed on orally - parts of the Bible itself have their roots in this very tradition! I think we have forgotten that the Bible is largely a story. We have treated it like a textbook that only the 'experts' can expound.
I would like to see us revive the art of storytelling in community. Young people are becoming increasingly comfortable with relational and intuitive forms of communication while the church seems well and truly stuck in forms of engagement that are didactic, academic, literary and abstract.
1 comments:
Hi Mart,
This topic is very close to my heart. Having spent a year in Uganda where illiteracy is a really big issue, where only the wealthy can afford an education, this means the vast majority of society have no education at all. I was responsible for the discipleship training and bible education of our staff at the orphanage and in my ignorance I came in with all guns blazing, using our western methods of bible engagement, and quickly discovered it all went over their heads. Women of 40 and 50 years who had been Christians for many years had such limited knowledge of the scriptures, they were like spiritual infants. I then had to change my approach and make it a lot more relevant for them.
It became apparent that the only bible knowledge they had gleaned was from sermons preached at their local churches. While this seemed fine, another issue is then faced when you realise that the bible college/education system in Uganda is also severly lacking. It seemed like any man or his dog could get an accreditation and preach whatever he liked! It is no wonder that some of the ladies' understanding of biblical truths were a bit off the mark.
So the 'mission' that I faced was not only to teach these women but first to 'unteach' the misconceptions.
While these ladies at least had a head start because they attended church of some sort, where does this leave those in the community that don't attend a church and can't read the bible for themselves? It poses the question, what are we doing about it and how is the best way to reach these people?
I agree with your idea of storytelling, as this is such a large part of the african (and others) culture. It wasn't until I started using illustrations and pratical examples/exercises that these women started to absorb what I was saying.
I was also talking to a friend here in Central Australia who works closely with the Aborigines and she said the only way to get the gospel message across to them is to put it in a 'story'-type format so they can relate it to what they have learnt over the centuries.
Given that the vast majority of the world is in this illiterate category, shouldn't this be one of the main focusses we have when thinking about missions in the 21st century?
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