November 2007
“Now I Can Hear God” - Revaluing Oral Communication & the Gospel
Submitted by rmanley on Tue, 11/20/2007 - 10:00A 52-year-old woman in Nepal said, “I did not ever think God would speak to me, because I cannot read. I always had to wait for someone to tell me what God said. Now I can hear God.” (Quote from a believer after hearing a Bible story told with the STS, a.k.a.Simply the Story, method)
In our zeal to make the Bible available to every believer, have we made literacy the “requirement” for hearing God? An educated Christian often thinks like this: God speaks to us today through his Word, the Bible. In order to grow in Christ we must read the Bible regularly. Therefore, literacy is essential to Christian growth.
That thinking translates into these practices: Those who learn to read may receive Bible training and become church leaders. Those who cannot read are inadvertently relegated to secondary status. Like the woman quoted above, they think that only those who can read can hear God.
Learning Technologies is bridging the gap made by a “literacy dominant” approach of communicating the Gospel. We do this by joining modern technology and skillful storying techniques. Believers are discovering that literacy is no longer “the barrier” to hearing God speak through his Word.
Congo Churches Need Creative Training Strategies
Submitted by rmorris on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 18:27We talk a lot in the Learning Technologies team about how we can help to provide resources and training to under-resourced pastors and church leaders.
My recent trip to Nairobi and London to meet with ministries in Africa and the Middle East powerfully brought home the desperate need for training. Here’s one example from east Congo (DRC).
A recent survey of churches in two districts in a region of east Congo that is struggling to pick up the pieces after a debilitating civil war revealed the following statistics. Sixty percent of the 850 churches found in these two districts had no pastor. Church congregations are largely illiterate. The few Bible schools cannot begin to meet the need–economic factors and low levels of literacy rule out all but a few who can relocate to these schools.
This is where MAF Learning Technologies lives and breathes. Our minds and energies are engaged in finding creative solutions to these daunting challenges.
More next time on how we are working to tackle the problems facing the church in Congo.
The Gospel and Technology
Submitted by jmanley on Thu, 11/22/2007 - 20:53To some folks, talk of the Gospel conjures up visions of tight ties on hot Sundays in stuffy churches with creaky floors. It’s the smell of worn hymnals filled with obscure music no one likes and long sermons thundered by angry people. It’s lists of what you shouldn’t ever do or what you should’ve already done. This kind of religion offers the illusion of control by life.
Technology, on the other hand, manipulates invisible ones and zeros. Bright screens mimic reality dumping us into a sea of information undrinkable in a dozen life-times. Hold palmed box to face and talk around the world or, sip coffee while seated in a chair that races through sub frozen air 6 miles high. Technology offers the illusion of control over life.
We know, of course, that neither religion nor technology defines real life. With Jesus, the author of life, ashes turn to flowers. Mourners rejoice. Captives go free. Where despair ruled, hope blossoms. Where death reigned, life flourishes. The truth is that the good news is so good that we dare not keep it to ourselves. We’re compelled to share. We’re commanded to tell everyone, everywhere.
Unfortunately, in some cases, “you can’t get there from here.” Obstacles block the way. Jungles swallow. Mountains hide. Desserts isolate. Human institutions sequester the very ones they’re charged to nurture. In those instances, God provides tools to bridge barriers and technology to tunnel firewalls. Airplanes turn days on trails into minutes in seats. Radios span distance. Computers train where teacher can’t go and student can’t reach.
Technology isn’t the only tool in the Church’s box. Speaking the truth on street corners and passing out paper tracts often fills the need. But, for those folks hidden in the planet’s forgotten corners, technology can be the perfect instrument in the Master’s hand.
