William Taylor, PhD, Senior Mentor, WEA Mission Commission Global Ambassador, World Evangelical Alliance
Why is it that I’m surprised at orality realities and the International Orality Network itself? It’s not like I personally felt that only (or primarily) by reading would all people gain information, knowledge and understanding. After all, I lived 30 years in Latin America, and during our 17 years of mission ministry in those contexts it became so clear that much of my North American university and theological studies would be challenged. This was because my field was communications—teaching, evangelism, preaching. And my own life-long teaching-preaching style is laced with story after story.
So why am I surprised now? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s that I, amongst so many other church and mission leaders, lost contact with the reality of SO many people who communicate either primarily or exclusively through oral means.
Regardless, I can only thank God for International Orality Networks’ visionaries who have challenged us again to consider how so much of the world listens, stories, learns, makes decisions, gains wisdom.
So thank you, good friends and colleagues, for a penetrating challenge that we cannot ignore