Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Teaching Through Stories

The Lolo people of Mozambique have been listening to evangelistic teaching lessons and many are understanding the message being taught. The missionaries have taught lessons on the fall of Lucifer and the fall of man and the Lolos have been grasping these truths. The Lolos have learned that the Creator God owns and rules the world. They have studied about the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system which was God's way of covering sins. They have learned Old Testament stories about the unbelief of the Israelites and the bronze serpent. As they have studied these lessons, lights are coming on for the Lolos.

The missionaries wrote, “Praise the Lord for the understanding that they are having of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The men have been moved especially by the stories of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and the thief that trusted in Christ as he died on the cross next to Jesus. What a testimony of God’s grace that Christ saved the thief for believing in Him, not by anything he had done.”

Many animistic tribal groups around the world rely on oral tradition to communicate their world view from one generation to another. As a result, storytelling is a natural way of communicating truth in these cultures. Teaching by means of Bible stories is an excellent way of presenting the gospel to many of these unreached people groups. However, with all the stories in God's Word, how do you choose which ones to teach about? How do you make sure they clearly relate the truth, when viewed through a different cultural grid? How do you teach clearly, and make sure that what you are teaching is being understood? Those are crucial questions for people who want to plant a church among an unreached people group.

Our Missionary Training Center helps to answer these questions for those heading overseas to plant churches among the least reached people groups around the world. Please pray for us as we continue to improve the courses that we teach. We are currently in the process of moving from a 3 semester course to a 4 semester course. I and my team are currently evaluating our phonetics course. Pray for us as we endeavor to make our classes and curriculum both effective and productive.

Bob

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Too Much Grace
by J. F. Strombeck

One who says, “I believe in grace, but I do not think it should be emphasized too much because that leads to careless living” has failed to understand God’s work of grace on behalf of all He by grace has saved from wrath.

Even among those who accept grace as the only means of salvation, exclusive of any works or merit on the part of man, there is regrettable neglect of emphasis on the fact that the spiritual life can be sustained, developed, and brought to perfection only by the operation of the same grace. Growth in spiritual life comes only by the grace of God. Peter admonished, “Grow in grace” (2 Pet. 3:18).