Many ministries these days are getting on the bandwagon of “orality”. When I say this, I mean that they realize that many people in the world prefer to learn via stories, rather than reading. That is great news!
Here’s the problem. Many of those “many” are saying “what a great niche of ministry – God bless those guys that are doing it” or “let’s train a few of our staff so if we run into any oral learners, we can meet their needs”. Can you see the problem? If not, let me provide some assistance.
Most missiologists would agree that somewhere around 2/3 of the world has a learning preference other than reading. That includes highly literate cultures such as North America and Western Europe, urban areas of China, South Korea, Japan, etc. If you extract those highly literate societies, the rest of the world might have an 80% “oral learning” preference rate. Or 20% true literacy. So, the above problem is - you WILL run into oral learners. In fact, most of the people you run into will have an “oral learning” preference.
Our contention here at T4 Global is that oral learning should be core to your missions strategy – not just an “add-on” or an afterthought. If 80% of the audience you’re attempting to reach is an oral learning audience, then 80% of your time, energy and resources should be spent on reaching them with an oral methodology.
Don’t just give orality lip service. Make it a strategy.
