Com capítulos de Larry Dinkins, Samuel Law, Jay Mātenga, W. Jay Moon e Tom Steffen

Este primeiro volume de uma inovadora série em três partes explora a oralidade como uma estrutura vital para a comunicação, a aprendizagem e o ministério no mundo contemporâneo. Ele envolve o leitor em uma grande narrativa pela perspectiva de um companheiro de jornada em busca de descobertas, modelando a oralidade não apenas como tema, mas também como experiência. Com base em antropologia, missiologia, teologia, estudos performáticos e educação, os autores oferecem insights práticos para interagir com comunidades de alta preferência da oralidade. Com contribuições de destacados acadêmicos e praticantes, este volume apresenta uma perspectiva rica e interdisciplinar, convidando os leitores a repensar a comunicação e a abraçar a oralidade como caminho para ensino transformador e ministério intercultural.

Endossos

Millions of people around the world still wait for the Bible in their own language. Most of them belong to the Oral Majority—communities that live by story, memory, and spoken word rather than books. Traditional translation methods, built for literate cultures, often struggle to reach them.

The Disciple-making Oral Bible Strategy (DOBS) offers a revolutionary solution. Grounded in adult education, critical pedagogy, and cognitive neuroscience, DOBS is designed to fit the true nature of oral cultures. It moves away from “book-dependency” and transforms translation into an act of discipling the church, enabling spiritual growth within the language community.

At the heart of DOBS is a simple, repeatable process. Bilingual Mother-Tongue Translators (MTT) are equipped through Developmental Spiral Syntax (DSS) and Metacognitive Scaffolding (MCS)—tools that engage the Head, Heart, and Hand. Quality assurance is built into the community itself, through Peer, Community, and Leadership Checking.

The ultimate measure of success is not a perfect text but spiritual transformation—disciples multiplied, churches strengthened, and communities renewed. This book introduces a practical, shareable method that anyone can grasp. Discover how DOBS is accelerating Bible translation worldwide and helping fulfill the Great Commission today.

With chapters by Jeremiah Dauara, Gustav Elof, Samuel Law, Sherwood Lingenfelter, Roce Madinger, Melba Maggay, Koloma Makewin, Matt Menger & Malele Ngalu

This second volume of a groundbreaking three-part series explores orality as a vital framework for communication, learning, and ministry in today’s world. It immerses readers in a grand narrative through the perspective of a fellow traveler on a journey of discovery, modeling orality not only as a subject but also as an experience. Drawing from anthropology, missiology, theology, performance studies, and education, the authors offer practical insights for engaging with high-orality-reliant communities. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, this volume presents a rich, interdisciplinary perspective, inviting readers to rethink communication and embrace orality as a pathway for transformative teaching and cross-cultural ministry.

Endorsements

by Gabriel Oludele Adeloye

ISBN: 978-621-96888-8-8

This research investigates how effective Bible translation into people’s heart language can be in spreading the message of God. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research methods, enabling the researcher to participate in the work, observe the people, and administer questionnaires to gather relevant data. A sample population of twenty-five respondents was used for the study. Three categories of questions were administered. The first category comprised survey questions aimed at determining participants’ native language, their Bible reading habits, and their experiences in witnessing Christ to others. The second category consisted of pre-translation questions designed to assess participants’ excitement and motivation in reading, studying, and sharing the word of God before exposure to the translated text. The third category involved post-translation questions to evaluate changes in their excitement and motivation after reading translated portions of Scripture in the Ijebu dialect.

Findings revealed that while the participants had previously been reading the Bible and sharing God’s word with others, they became more excited and motivated to do so when the Scriptures were presented in their local dialect. Reading the Bible in Ijebu enhanced their engagement and willingness to share it with family members and people of other faiths. The study concludes that Bible translation holds great potential for motivating Christian discipleship among Ijebu speakers.

This short Advent devotional takes up the theme of honor and shame using character theology – a deep dive into biblical characters and their world, instead of talking about them abstractly. Draw nearer to Christ this Christmas through first-person perspectives of the shameful and honorable events of the Advent narrative.

by Danyal Qalb
Foreword by Tom Steffen

ISBN: 978-621-96888-5-7

This book explores how the Maguindanao perceive their reliance on orality and how this shapes their worldview and identity. Using ethnographic grounded theory, Danyal gathered stories, dialogues, and reflections through interviews and narrative-based focus groups. The findings reveal a tension between secular education, the striving for economic progress, and religious life, where oral traditions remain strong. Out of this dynamic emerges the Orality Education Grid (OEG), a framework for understanding orality reliance across both secular and religious education. The study highlights how high-orality-reliant ways of learning continue to shape thought, belief, and community life, offering insights for educators, spiritual leaders, and cross-cultural communicators.

As churches in oral-majority contexts grow rapidly, leadership development faces challenges due to limited literacy and the high cost of training. Timothy Strauss examines how TheWell, a WiFi-based media tool, enables low- and non-literate believers to access and facilitate Bible and leadership training. Using an experimental case study with a qualitative approach, his two-phase study demonstrates that effective instructional design and local facilitators empower learners to teach others, showing that technology can bridge educational barriers and expand leadership capacity in high-orality reliant contexts.

With chapters by Larry Dinkins, Samuel Law, Jay Mātenga, W. Jay Moon & Tom Steffen

This first volume of a groundbreaking three-part series explores orality as a vital framework for communication, learning, and ministry in today’s world. It immerses readers in a grand narrative through the perspective of a fellow traveler on a journey of discovery, modeling orality not only as a subject but also as an experience. Drawing from anthropology, missiology, theology, performance studies, and education, the authors offer practical insights for engaging with high-orality-reliant communities. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, this volume presents a rich, interdisciplinary perspective, inviting readers to rethink communication and embrace orality as a pathway for transformative teaching and cross-cultural ministry.

Endorsements

by Larry Dinkins

ISBN: 978-621-96888-4-0

Fifty years ago, Bruce Wilkinson saw the need for a chronological approach to teaching the Bible, which would, at a local church level, unleash the communicative power of biblical narrative. He designed his seminars using a variety of creative methods, including hand signs, geography laid out in the room, slides, and a colorful manual. Others recognized the cross-cultural potential of this unique approach, which enabled WTB materials to be translated into numerous languages worldwide. What was lacking, however, was proper research, which could unpack and explain just how WTB achieved its global success. Over a seven-year process, both quantitative and qualitative instruments were used to analyze the Old Testament WTB seminar within the Thai context. This dissertation’s design is to discern how a culturally specific Western teaching method could be adapted to the learning styles and oral views of the Thai.