Jesus, the Master Storyteller

Jesus was known to draw a crowd whenever He spoke, whether walking outside or sitting around the dinner table. You can imagine the joy in Jesus’s voice when He spoke about a father welcoming back his wayward son, or a shepherd finding his lost sheep, or when he healed and forgave a person their sins at their most desperate hour.

Jesus spoke and ordered His Living Word with intention and purpose, pointing to the truth about wisdom, discernment, mercy, grace and love. His Words, especially in the form of story, have power. When spoken in someone’s native tongue and in their own cultural appropriate ways, they supernaturally release a person from bondage, capturing the hearts and minds of those who are willing to give their hearts to Him.

“Stories are the language of the Heart.” This is a deeply held belief around SIU. This is why we can still look to Jesus’ stories and use them as natural points of interaction; for engaging, learning and teaching. It turns out, things have not changed that much. Humans are still humans, and the world still runs on stories. Jesus told stories well and told them often. Jesus is the Master storyteller. His stories are compelling. The Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are full of Jesus’s words and stories. They are a key element of the SIU training and strategy.

Communication Bridges to Oral Cultures

SIU’s “Bridges” oral engagement equipping and training curricula (i.e., toolkit) is effective, especially among the remaining unreached, unengaged people groups. It is estimated that 90% of unreached and unengaged people are living in oral cultures where traditional evangelism and discipleship approaches do not work. SIU equips and empowers local, indigenous leaders around the world to reach their communities with the Gospel using heart language and local cultural communication forms. This often includes storytelling, drama, dance, music, song, and poetry. Our “Stories of Jesus” collection in our Bridges 1 training curriculum is one of our favorite collections. It is used among our partner networks for sowing, watering and harvesting, resulting in new disciples and new believers among oral cultures.

Dialogue Style of Jesus

Our Founders, Jim and Carla Bowman, wrote a special five-part series about the “Dialogue Style of Jesus.” This was featured on our Blog in the past. You can read the first in the series at https://scripturesinuse.org/2019/04/. Links to the rest of the series are at the bottom of each blog page in the series.

We thank God for you. We are thankful for our faithful supporters. You are an important part of the work God is doing through our international partners and their leadership networks. God is accomplishing amazing things, advancing His kingdom through oral Scripture engagement.

We Would Love to Hear from You

If you feel led to leave a response and comment here, please do so by replying and posting in this blog. We welcome your comments and interactions within a community of those seeking to further advance the Kingdom of God.