Discipleship Models in Oral Cultures

We have been looking into oral people groups and how to see church growth among them. The Dong are an oral people. The primary factor of classifying them as an oral culture is not that they do not have Christian materials in their language and are forced to turn to the limited Chinese materials (basically, just the Bible and little else). The main factor is that Dong people better respond to and more easily remember and ingest oral teaching and stories.

Those that work among the Dong need to think through the issues and model a style of chruch growth founded in the written word, but communicated through the spoken word. Those of us praying for the Dong should not only pray for those who have to grapple with these issues, but also glorify God for the Dong church he is making.

Ultimately, we only water, and we would do well to study the best places and methods for our watering. It is God who provides the growth. Since the work is God's and we are in communication with God, we should be before the throne praying in Spirit and truth, glorifying God as he accomplishes his work the way he knows will work best among the Dong people.