As Junior and I became better friends, I was quickly captivated, too...not by his stories, but by his story. Junior was (is) the son of a witchdoctor, one of 20 siblings to 7 or 8 different mothers, and his mother died when he was three. Raised in Voodoo his whole life, Junior participated and helped in all the ceremonies, knew all the stories and all the songs, and knew the Voodoo answer to every question. (Where did we come from? Why do we die? Why do we have rain? What is right and wrong?)
At 13, a missionary came to his father and asked permission to do just one thing...come back every week and tell he and his wives and children stories.
"No preaching?" his father asked the missionary. "No bugging me to convert? No complaining about what I do and how we live?"
"Nothing," the foreigner told him. "Just a story each week."
And so it began: Junior's introduction to what is called CBS, or Chronological Bible Storying.
Fast forward 10 years to a few weeks ago when Junior quite deliberately stumbled upon a village of 100 Satan-worshipping, darkness dwelling potential Children of God.
"NO JESUS. No Christianity" They demanded, "or we'll chase you out."
"OK," Junior told them. "Just stories."
Go back 16 months to several families in the community visiting our house in the same week, all asking for the same thing: English.
"We want to speak English. We know you teach at the Seminary. Why can't you teach us?" they asked me.
After talking with Matt about all of the time and energy and prep and grading, etc., that this would take, we both knew that there was only one way it would be worth it. They wanted English. I wanted to preach the Gospel in this dark zone. CBS, partnered with English, seemed like it would be worth a try (my first.)
Junior quickly sent me to to the evangelism method that brought HIM to Jesus: "Orality Strategies".
What CBS Is:
"Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) is the process of encountering God by telling the stories of the Bible. In CBS we tell Bible stories without interruption or comment and we tell them in the order that they happened in time. Afterward we discuss each story and its significance for our lives. Each story builds on those that came before; as a result, the overarching message of the Bible becomes clear and we discover our own place in God's story."
What Is Available:
If you start to check out the Orality Strategies site, you'll quickly see that they seem to have everything available for anyone to do anything involving preaching the Gospel: (And they don't just tell you want to do...they GIVE you all the materials, instruction manuals, etc. as downloads).
Evangelism Story Sets (click here)
Discipleship and Leadership Training Story Sets (click here)
Church Planting Story Sets (click here)
Topical and Situational Story Sets (click here)
Story Sets for Maturing Believers (click here)
Browse around for lots of other resources and downloads, (even for deaf ministry, illiteracy, etc.) but this one has been the basis of everything we do through SEEP and everything that Junior does:
What I Use:
C2C: Creation to Christ (click here)
Starting BEFORE Creation, this series gives you every story, in order, by giving you the Biblical reference to each one. It also outlines key themes in each stories, possible props you can use, questions to ask afterwards, etc.
How I Prepare:
Each week,
-I look up the next story in my Bible and read through it
-type the story out in a more conscience and sometimes more Haitian translation (ie...when we talked about Jesus harvesting the wheat and burning the chafe, we talked about harvesting the sugar cane and burning the "baggas")
-make sure that I know how to translate the entire story into Creole
-copy and paste all of the questions the C2C series gives me and be familiar with them
-make sure I know the story by heart
How I Share:
Each week,
-I start by asking a bunch of questions about the previous story/stories. I DON'T ask, "What does this mean? What is it trying to teach you? What do you think you need to do differently due to this story?" I just ask ABOUT the story.
-I teach a new story, going through each segment in English (to keep everybody happy) and again in Creole (to keep everyone understanding.)
-I ask the questions C2C gave me about each story (i.e. Who was in the beginning? God. What does this tell us about God? He has always been around. Who was hovering over the water? The Spirit. Describe the earth in the beginning? It was shapeless and empty.)
-I teach some sort of grammar lesson, again, to keep students coming back.
Junior does the same thing, except that he has every story, every question and the order they go in memorized. He doesn't go ahead, just promises to keep telling stories every week or twice a week until all the questions are answered.
One issue we both come up with is that there are, of course, often theological type questions that come up when you're sharing stories, especially once I got into the New Testament and the life of Jesus.
"Why did Jesus have such a pathetic beginning and end? Why didn't He save Himself from the cross? Why can Jesus die for my sins and no one else? Why should I be baptized?" etc.
I have worked hard to stick only to the stories, but when questions like these come up, especially this close to the end of the Bible, I have spent whatever time necessary to try to answer these (and have been bringing Matt in for the last 30 minutes of each class for the past several weeks to do just that.) What I DON'T do is give ANY information that the Bible doesn't.
Check out this link for how others around the world have been doing it and how it's working.
What About Culture?
When it comes to these questions: "Why can't Christian women wear pants? Paint their toe nails? Why do you have to have a membership card in order to take communion?" etc., I now encourage students to find the answer in the Bible, and if they can't, to chalk it up as cultural, not Biblical, Christianity. This would be similar in any other context.
The key, however, is to be creative to find ways to share the Bible in YOUR host culture, for YOUR audience.
The way Junior uses this method here it 100 times more effective than the way I am (which has still been incredibly effective) and I believe that this is because he KNOWS Voodoo. He KNOWS the True story of creation. And He knows the Voodoo version. He knows why Voodoo says that people die, and he knows why the Bible says that people die. He knows where his audience is coming from better than I can.
And he's taken it a step further that I just can't. Junior has a song (music and singing being HUGELY important in this culture) set to Voodoo chant melodies, for EVERY single story. He has taken Voodoo chants that it seems everyone in Haiti, Christian and non-Christian, know, and has replaced their lie lyrics with the Truth.
For example, Konpech already knows a hundred chants and songs. From the old men to the littlest ones, EVERYONE can sing every song about any topic in life. Junior has taken these and re-written them all with powerful lyrics that coincide with each week's lesson. After he teaches the lesson, he teaches the words to a song they already know, and Matt was AMAZED this past week at how quickly he and everyone around him had the Bible story memorized.
Junior has encountered many people who disapprove of this method of using something that was Voodoo to teach the Bible, but man, I LOVE knowing that this week, the people of Konpech are singing:
There is no other like God, not in all of heaven, not in all of earth.
Satan can scream and shout all he wants, but God is more powerful.
Powerful, more powerful!
while pounding out their rice and wringing out their laundry. I love that in 10 weeks, the people will have replaced 10 of their life-songs with 10 of His, and that while they are singing, the men (who still have yet to listen to Junior) in their lives are hearing, memorizing and thinking about EVERY word.
These truth songs don't "sound" Christian. And THAT'S why everyone is singing them. Just like in the other countries, there are a LOT of people who don't want to be Christians in Haiti simply because they know Christians, know churches, who have not modeled to them WHO HE truly Is. These are songs I need to start learning from Junior.
What About "Non-Oral" Cultures?
While Haiti is obviously a culture that might be more accustomed to story telling in this day in age, I am CONFIDENT that this could be a powerful form of Evangelism ANYWHERE, for one reason.
The model of the Trinity makes it clear: it's is all about Relationship. Personal relationship is foundational for life. The Bible makes it clear: Can't follow Jesus without Relationship, with Him AND with others. Forget "Telling Stories." TALKING is how relationships are built. Taking time. Personal engagement. Patience. SHARING what we know to be the Truth with someone over and over and over leads to a RELATIONSHIP with that person, and it is only through relationship that people of ANY culture are coming into relationship with Him.
Wherever you are today, I am confident that there are people VERY nearby who have NEVER heard the Message. Who, while they might know a childhood version of Noah's Ark, have never heard the whole truth. This isn't about converting people. It's just about sitting down with someone over and over and over and telling them the stories that brought YOU to Christ, that give YOU direction, that caused YOU to put down your nets and follow Him...
...allowing people to discover ON their OWN their place in His Story because you took the time to build a RELATIONSHIP.
Here's some help and practical ideas: Storying the Bible in North America
How It's Changed ME
I promise you, in all my time in church, in Christian college and in missionary training, I have NEVER taken a class in Evangelism. I don't know lots of methods or strategies or have any advantages that you don't. A LOT of the Bible stories that I have taught this past year were ones that I barely knew or remembered, and man, just going through these pre-selected, laid out stories this past year has changed MY walk with the Lord.
I've been forced to let go of so many of MY "Christian" culture-isms..."Because that's what Christians do. Because that's what it IS to be Christian..." and instead look at just what the Bible says...Just what it means to be a Christ follower.
Why I Think This IS One of the Best Ways to Tell People About Jesus
What I love best about CBS is this: The Bible and the Holy Spirit do it. I just read His Script, and tell it to someone. Any conversions that have come because of this method haven't come because of fancy techniques or from smooth-talking, convincing, bargaining or begging.
They have come because the person has HEARD truth over and over, realizes due to what they've seen and experienced that it IS TRUE, been broken to find themselves in the sins of our fathers, been baffled over how to get out of this terrible mess our sin has put us in, deserving death, and found joy, hope, healing and salvation in the death...AND IN THE LIFE....of God's Son.
On Saturday, March 5th, our 14 month SEEP class is finished. This past week, Jesus died, and next week, He will rise again. Then the Holy Spirit is given to us. Once I've taught what the Bible says about these things, every person in the class has heard and studied the WHOLE Gospel. Already, I have seen the Bible changing them in ways that I NEVER could have by 'preaching' to them, never could have convinced them of. Already, several have crossed over that line of living for themselves and living for the Lord.
But on the 5th, I get to, for the first time in 14 months, ask them a question I've been dying to:
You know now. You know the whole truth, who you are, what the problem is, what you need, what He offers, what it MEANS to be a Christ-follower. What to expect. What it REALLY looks like.
Is today the day? He wants YOU deeply, just as He wanted and sought after EVERY single person we have talked about throughout all of time. Do you want to lay down your life and pick up His?
Let's do it.
Ah, I can't wait.
Please email or comment if you have any questions, ideas or comments about this method of evangelism or if I can help in ANY way. You can also check out Orality Strategies "Questions and Answers" page for some common questions.
Thank you Stacey for all the information... Praying for your classes in the weeks to come.
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