Evangelism that is Reproducible and Sustainable

Many learn Bible Storying in order to use the technique on mission trips. What they learn in the States should be used to accelerate response to the gospel. And the same principles used there should also work in our own backyards, too.

Two concepts should drive everything that is taught and caught:

Reproducibility: If you use a DVD playback system, they’ll need a DVD playback system. If you use an art easel and a variety of watercolors, they’ll need an art easel and a variety of watercolors.

Sustainability: If what you do cannot be continued after you pull out support, then whatever you’re doing is not sustainable. While the initial effort (flashy stuff) is fine for some things to draw attention (such as outsiders being there in the first place).

 “Or else” you ask? Or else they won’t evangelize. They can’t pass it along. They’ll shut down.

The DNA that shaped their belief system is tied to something unattainable in that culture. Oral learners need the whole package. They don’t have good “picking and choosing” skills of an analytical literate worldview learner. Adaptation often takes a higher level of analysis that literate worldview believers appreciate.

If the medium that carries the message cannot be reproduced by local believers, then it makes them feel inferior, and they rarely follow your example.

But guess what? There is good news! What you do they’ll do IF you take an oral preference into consideration. And the really amazing thing is that this works not only for orals, but literates, too! (But not the other way around.)

As you plan for mission trips, these tips just might help.

:: Do it at home before you do it on mission. If you’re not going to do it here, you will struggle to do it there.

:: Multiply by using reproducible methods. Think Bible Storying instead of curriculum and that includes Backyard Bible Clubs as well as leading Bible studies

:: Draw an illustration with a marker or stick in the dirt rather than taping to the wall slick teaching pictures. This will help them reproduce your methods after you leave.

:: Don’t give them stuff they can’t afford to replace or repair.

:: Prepare at home first and not over there on the fly.

:: Invite believers where you serve to join your church on mission projects back home.

:: Don’t leave a new believer alone until discipling is established. Remember you can always use Zoom.

:: Avoid evangelizing just to get a yes and walk away. Be a disciple-maker of disciple-makers.

So, make plans to head out on mission and take many with you. And when you leave, make sure they can become disciple-makers following your example. And if the idea of Bible Storying is new to you, go to my blog site at TruthSticks.us.

--Mark Snowden serves as director for the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association