Foundations of Orality
Module 1
Explore God’s design for communicating among people created in His image. How can we communicate with higher impact and scale? We will discover how orality affects every aspect of communication.
Lesson 1: Introduction and Overview
This lesson will introduce you to orality and give an overview of the first module.
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Farmer Pablo
😃🤔🤯 Can you remember the sermon from two weeks ago?
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Watch the short story of Farmer Pablo.
😃🤔🤯 Can you relate to farmer Pablo? Find examples in your church or ministry that are similar.
It’s about transformation
How much impact has a typical sermon on your life?
Now look at Jesus’ Great Commission.
Teach them to obey everything that I have told you to do.
Matthew 28:20, ERV
Or Paul’s introduction to the application for the Roman church.
Be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind.
Romans 12:2, VOICE
God’s message is about transformation seen in everyday life!
A tangible message
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Watch this pottery bloopers.
Eternal One: Go down to the potter’s shop in the city, and wait for My word.
So I went down to the potter’s shop and found him making something on his wheel. And as I watched, the clay vessel in his hands became flawed and unusable. So the potter started again with the same clay. He crushed and squeezed and shaped it into another vessel that was to his liking. In that moment, I heard again God’s word for His rebellious people.
Eternal One: O people of Israel, can I not do the same to you as this potter has done? You are like clay in My hands—I will mold you as I see fit.
Jeremiah 18:2-6, VOICE
😃🤔🤯 How does God “preach” compared to what we are used to?
My expectation
😃🤔🤯 What I hope to gain from this program?
What & How
😃🤔🤯 Think about what is more important, the content or the delivery of the message?
Delivery
😃🤔🤯 Did you ever receive a damaged product because of unproper packaging? Share your experience.
How to say it
This is the introduction to Hebrews:
Long ago, at different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. But in these last days, it has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made.
Hebrews 1:1-2, VOICE
In John 12:37-50, Jesus is challenged by people who do not believe.
I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.
John 12:49-50, NLT
😃🤔🤯 Reflect on the verses above. Does God care about how His message is delivered?
Orality is about the HOW
Most of us are well equipt with WHAT to say.
Orality is about HOW to say it!
What Orality is
We all talk about orality, but what is it? Not being able to read? Storytelling? This lesson will define orality.
😃🤔🤯 Write down or make a recording of your definition of orality.
Rethink orality
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Watch this discussion about the definition of orality.
Inner speech
Orality begins in our mind and can therefore be defined as learned expressions of inner speech.1 Orality goes back before creation as God Himself expressed His inner speech creating the universe.2
We are made in His image, able to express our thoughts with learned expressions.
😃🤔🤯 Beside creation, find at least 10 examples of God expressing His mind and heart in the Old Testament through various means.
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Watch this video titled, What really are the Scriptures?
Defining Orality
80% (8 out of every 10 people) of the world’s population depend on and prefer oral communication.3
We are born that way!
The definition story
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Listen to the Defining Story.
Defining Story
When I opened my eyes for the first time, I was blinded by the bright lights shining at my face. All I was able to do was to cry. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw three people in blue robes. They wore cold plastic gloves when they held me upside down and cut the line that connected me to another person. I was still wet when I was wrapped in a soft towel. They laid me down. I felt a warm hand gently caressing me. I felt safe. I stopped crying. Everything was silent. Suddenly I started to hear a rhythmic noise and felt a gentle pulsing movement. It was the familiar heartbeat I already knew for nine months. I was secure again!
I wanted to whisper, “I love you!” But I was not able to move my lips and vocal cords to express my inner speech. All I could do was to hold tide to the person holding me. Although I said nothing, this person understood. She looked into my eyes, smiled, and her eyes started to shine. Receiving this reaction surprised me and I did not know what it meant. All I knew is that it felt so good.
I was so happy that I smiled back. She smiled even harder. I quickly learned that a smile is an expression of joy. It was the first thing I truly understood. Over the next days this exchange of smiles kept happening. Every repetition of our rudimentary but heartfelt and deep communication made new connections in my very malleable brain so that I will remember this for the rest of my life.
Another person, with a much deeper voice, also held me sometimes. I think he loved me also, but he was not as gentle as the first person. Since I was still not able to make noises, except crying when I was hungry, I started an experiment. Out of the blue, I smiled at him as hard as I possible could. It worked! He smiled back at me. It was the first time that I passed on what I previously learned. I taught him how to smile!
Learning was fun. I wish, this would go on for the rest of my life, but my desire was shattered at the age of almost seven years when grade one started to destroy my preferred learning strategy…
😃🤔🤯 With all the new information, rewrite your orality definition in one sentence.
Definition of Orality
Learned expressions of inner speech using all senses to receive, process, remember, and pass on truth and information.4
Compare the definition with yours and then read the Shema Israel.
Moses: Listen, Israel! The Eternal is our True God—He alone. You should love Him, your True God, with all your heart and soul, with every ounce of your strength. Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. Do whatever it takes to remember them: tie a reminder on your hand and bind a reminder on your forehead where you’ll see it all the time, such as on the doorpost where you cross the threshold or on the city gate.Text
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, VOICE
😃🤔🤯 How is God using our senses (🫳🏻👂🏻👅👃🏻👁️) to remind the Israelites to love Him?
😃🤔🤯 Where can you find receive, process, remember, and pass on?
Time to remember
Let’s put some of what we learned into practice.
😃🤔🤯 Recite the definition of orality. Make up a memorable gesture to each of the bold words as you repeat it several times. Once you master it, repeat it in front of others.
😃🤔🤯 Reimagine the definition of orality in an artistic form like a 🖼️ drawing, poem, 🎶 song, dance, etc. and present it to others.
Orality Myths
Orality is not illiteracy!
Orality is not the opposite of textuality!
Orality is not a method.
Orality is not just storytelling.
Orality is not a primitive way of thinking.
Orality is not a strategy.
Orality is not just a way of learning.
Oral people are not “left behind”.
😃🤔🤯 Explain orality in such a simple way that it is easy for a 10-year-old to understand.
Footnotes
- 🎓 Charles Madinger, “Transformative Learning through Oral Narrative in a Participatory Communication Context: An Inquiry into Radio Drama-Based Training among Zambian Caregivers of Exploited Children” (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 2022), 43–46. ↩︎
- 🌐 Billy Coppedge, “Towards a Theology of Orality,” Lausanne Movement, December 15, 2022. ↩︎
- 📃 Grant Lovejoy, “The Extent of Orality: The Word Become Flesh,” Orality Journal, no. The Word Become Flesh (2012): 11–40. ↩︎
- 📃 Charles Madinger, Rocelyn Madinger, and Daniel Ponraj, “Unleashing the Power of Orality,” OralityTalks Journal 1, no. 1 (2024): 19. ↩︎
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