Making Disciples of Oral Learners

by Avery T. Willis Jr. (Compiler), Steve Evans (Compiler)

ION/LCWE Trade Paperback with 91 pages. - "The "oral Bible" is the singular key to unlocking the church planting movements among unreached people groups." Samule E. Chiang, Trans World Radio - This book address the greatest obstacle to communicating the gospel to the four billion people who are oral learners.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian

140 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2007

About the author

The retired senior vice president of the International Mission Board was known for his passion for missions, discipleship and making the Gospel known to "oral learners."

Willis was born on Feb. 21, 1934, in Lepanto, Ark. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and master of divinity and doctor of theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Willis served as pastor of Center Point Baptist Church in Wilburton, Okla., from 1954-56; Sunset Heights Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, from 1957-60; and Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, Texas, from 1960-64.

Following his years as a pastor, he and his wife were appointed as missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board, serving with their children in Indonesia from 1964-78.

Willis devoted the first six years of his mission service to evangelism and church planting. He spent the next eight years with the Indonesia Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a professor at the seminary for two years and its president for six years, during which time he wrote the MasterLife series of discipleship handbooks that eventually were translated into more than 50 languages and used in more than 100 countries.

After missionary service in Indonesia, Willis served for 15 years with the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) in the adult discipleship department.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, easy read. Repetitive at times. The book is geared towards Christians and specifically Christians interested in sharing the gospel with those who have not heard.

It is an introductory book on the idea of Orality and Oral learners/communicators. The book highlights the need for the global church to develop culturally relevant and appropriate methods for sharing Christ in illiterate/oral cultures that rely heavily on relational, concrete interactions than on literate means of communicating. One of its greatest features is the annotated bibliography and bibliography at the end, which makes up ~35% of the book and includes a wealth of resources for further study.

[Clair Culberson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so helpful in gaining an understand of what an oral culture is, and then the missional/evangelistic methods used to reach those people. I appreciate the breakdown of definitions and references to related organizations, but at this point many of them have changed names, so it is a bit outdated. I wish there were more specific examples of Bible stories and the accompanying dialogue that went with them, but I suppose that would just depend on the cultural context. Overall a very approachable and useful read.

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good. I felt like it was a bit repetitive but I did learn the why as well as some dos and donts. It’s very introductory and I was hoping for more examples of this and the “how to”. Overall a great message and short, easy read!

[Jacinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was far more insightful than I had anticipated. I appreciated how short and concise it was and definitely gained a lot from it! A good read

[Thomas Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick simple read. Couple of places that got boring but ended up being a real treat. Helped me get a better understanding of the world I’m in and how to help it.

[Andrew Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class.

[Bob Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a "Lausanne Occasional Paper" (#54 - https://www.lausanne.org/library?sort...) and is essentially a summary of discussions and conclusions from the work group on orality and the gospel from the 2004 Lausanne Conference -- a white paper-type of document. Excellent basic summary of using oral methods for evangelism, church planting, and leadership development -- defines orality, summarizes primary and secondary orality, gives the rationale for chronological Bible storying. One thing that stood out to me was the discussion of the place of literacy and literacy training — it will be a logical progression for some, not all, oral learners in order to give them access to the full revelation of God in the Bible. This book would be a good starting point for a person interested in storying. This is not a how-to book, but a philisophical underpinning for oral methods.

[Dmcconkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent little book - great primer & resource for better understanding orality and how to reach oral societies. With the majority of the world illiterate, one needs to understand how oral cultures function and how to be able to relate the Gospel more effectively.

[Emily Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, just wasn't super compelling. A lot of the information was true, but the way it was presented was almost a little offensive. The writing was pretty cheesy too. Still informative and if you're looking to learn the bare basics of orality then this book would be helpful.