A 1992 U.S. Department of Education survey opened the eyes of Warren Hart, director of missions in Red River Valley Baptist Association, and its findings inspired him to organize the March 17 conference at First Baptist Church in Paris. For them, the gospel message is difficult if not impossible to process when it is presented in lists, outlines and expository messages. He said he was shocked to discover that in his own part of Northeast Texas, literate-style communicators are a minority. In neighboring Red River County, the percentage jumps to 70 percent. When they are called on to read in a Bible study class, asked to read the announcements in a church bulletin or urged to sing along to words in a hymnal, most will choose to leave, he observed.
Oral learners represent a vast mission population in our state.
Whether on the foreign mission field or in Texas, an effective way to reach oral learners with the gospel is chronologically telling the biblical story, from creation through the book of Revelation, he said. Oral learners tend to use time markers, such as the birth of children or the passing of a generation, to process information in chronological sequence. The key is telling stories chronologically so they can understand and remember them. Instead, they rely on non-written visual images. Storying is an effective way of communicating the gospel message because the Bible is 60 percent narrative, said Grant Lovejoy, professor of preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.