Orality Journal Volume 3, Number 1, 2014 | Page 60

58 Orality Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, 2014 people. I have 35 house churches in my care and am mobilizing all the churches to get trained to transform the community. Pastor Nariram is one of many emerging leaders with a passion to grow God’s kingdom in parts of the world dominated by oral learners. These are leaders who are oral learners themselves and are leading oral people to accomplish great things. These are leaders who need access to orality-based training programs that they can then replicate in the areas they serve as the oral Bible churches they lead mature. The Tree of Life (TOL) oral partnership training was developed in 2008. It was the result of a collaborative effort with two Western ministries—visionSynergy and Scriptures in Use—working with the Bridges Training Network in South Asia. Leaders involved saw a challenge clearly emerging in north India and Nepal, a challenge Phill Butler, visionSynergy’s senior strategic advisor and co-author of the course, describes this way: In a geographic area of 100 villages, there were maybe 15 small, emerging oral Bible churches. So we asked, “What would happen if the local leaders of these 15 oral Bible churches understood both the Joe Handley WHY and the HOW to work together in partnership to: • Do evangelism and church planting among the other 85 villages. • Bring economic viability and sustainability to their own 15 villages and in turn be a witness to the other 85 villages. • Address issues such as public health and basic education in the 15 villages and in turn be a witness to the other 85 villages where there is no church. • Address social justice (the 15 villages and their leaders collectively dealing with persecution issues), bringing credibility and strength to the Christian cause rather than an ineffective, ‘go it alone’ approach.” The result of the collaboration was Tree of Life. TOL is a course that can be taught over three or four days. During the training, participants interact with scripture stories selected to provide a biblical foundation for the importance of collaboration and to present practical partnership principles. The class learns these stories by creating dramas, songs, and retelling the stories. They discuss the stories using simple questions as they develop a model they can follow in their home villages.