God Speaks

Ep. 4.8 - On Performing Scripture, Emotional Hermeneutics, and Orality with Gerhard Marx

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Gerhard Marx has been on a thirty-year plus journey with orality. With passion and enthusiasm, he tells the story of how God led him into orality via prayer and radio. But having been deeply influenced by the Hebrew Bible (what most of us know as the Old Testament), Gerhard also discusses how critical an understanding of performance and emotion are for truly grasping the orally-rich nature of the Scriptures. Join as we continue to learn together.

Ep. 4.7 - Addressing "the Orality Gap" with Cameron Armstrong

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0400

This episode of God Speaks features a dear friend of the Orality Movement—Cameron Armstrong.

With a rich history of serving in Romania and the Philippines, Cameron now leads an Orality Studies program based out of Manila. With a heart for honouring local peoples and learning how to listen and serve with them, Cameron offers insights from his own journey as he shares how God has led him into a greater understanding of the beauty and complexity of orality.

Join us as we learn together.

Ep. 4.6 - God Innovations: A conversation with Mark Overstreet

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Mark Overstreet is a newly appointed Lausanne catalyst for orality. He has decades of experience in oral-based initiatives all across the globe, yet he carries the local church in his heart. Join us for a conversation with Mark wherein we get to learn about some of his journey into orality and why he continues to believe orality is critical for the global Body of Christ.

Ep 4.5 - Learning to Love our Oral Neighbors with Karlena de la Cruz

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

In our latest conversation on Orality and the Gospel, we speak with Karlena de la Cruz from StoryRunners (Cru) about the vision God has given them: to see followers of Christ in communities of faith among every oral, unreached people group. Join us as we explore how to love our oral-reliant (and oral-preferenced) neighbors—some of whom may live much closer than you realize.

Ep 4.4 - Overcoming Biblical Illiteracy with Oral Strategies: A Conversation with Tara Rye

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0400

"We have made an assumption in the North American Church that because we are in church, we are reading the Bible. And we are not. We are biblically illiterate. We don't know what the Bible says; we know what the preacher says."

In this conversation with special guest Tara Rye, we discuss how God disrupted her biblical training, experience and expectations to introduce her to the world of orality. Join us as we explore the journey God has led Tara on as she describes being "re-born" into orality and how God is using her to help others experience God and his Word afresh through oral tools.

4.3 - ION Forum - Orality and Discipleship in the Digital Age

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0500

ION hosted a recent online forum that explored the intersection of orality, technology and discipleship. We have edited the discussion and made it available as a means to encourage but also stimulate fresh thoughts on the overlap of these critical streams. We hope you enjoy.

Ep 4.2 - The Power of Story and Why Story Matters

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0500

Join us and guest speaker Jyoti for a conversation on the power of story, and how it relates to the use of our imaginations in personalizing and deeply engaging with Gospel. Jyoti draws on his experience as a narrative entrepreneur in both fantasy fiction and the business sector to discuss practical tips on storytelling such as different types of stories as well as different preconceived ideas of storytelling and how those may need to be reconsidered.

Furthermore, Jyoti has graciously made a discount available for his book on storytelling (From Hype to Hack) to our listeners that can be found at the end of the show.

Ep 4.1 - The Intergenerational Power of Orality: A Conversation with a Mom and Daughter

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0500

In this conversation, our friends Ella and Kayla share about how God has invited them to use oral communication strategies in their spheres of influence. For Ella, she is training leaders all over the world in orality. For her daughter Kayla, it means using oral tools to engage her community as a law student in Southeast Asia. Join us as we learn more of the power of orality within family and beyond.

Ep 3.3 - From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth: an Orality testimony, with Youngshin

Fri, 10 May 2024 10:00:00 -0400

Has Orality impacted your life and ministry?

We love testimonies like that.
Join us for the next episode of God Speaks as we hear YWAMer Youngshin shares how God directed her steps into orality, oral Bible translation and finally to Jerusalem as part of a larger Kingdom strategy to impact oral Bible translation teams around the globe.

Ep 3.2 - "Any one thirst? Come.", with Living Water International

Fri, 03 May 2024 10:00:00 -0400

"Any one thirst? Come."

In this episode of God Speaks, Michael J. Mantle and Jonathan Wiles of Living Water International discuss how orality has impacted not only their lives but also the cultural ethos of their entire org. In the missions world today, we need more of such forerunners.

Websites mentioned during the episode:
https://water.cc
https://water.cc/church
http://flourish.guide
http://thegeniusofone.com
http://thirstingforlivingwater.com

Ep 3.1 - Asking Better Questions: The Global Orality Mapping Project

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0500

God Speaks is excited to welcome Charles Madinger and Daniel Goerzen from the Institute of Orality Strategies (iOS) as they introduce a significant new orality initiative that seeks to address a familiar question: "What makes oral-reliant people oral-reliant?"

Related links:
https://gomap.pro
https://gomap.pro/survey/
https://i-os.org/training/

Ep 2.10 - Orality in Urban Contexts

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0500

This week we are excited to have Dr. Grant Lovejoy joining us for the God Speaks Webinar.

Dr. Lovejoy is the Director of Orality Strategies for IMB and brings his wealth of experience and expertise to discuss the hot topic of Orality in Urban Contexts.

Orality and the Songs of Scripture - Ep 2.9

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 08:00:00 -0500

We are delighted to welcome Laura Cooke to the next edition of God Speaks. Laura is the founder and creator of 7SONG: The Bible in Song. 7SONG tells the entire story of the Gospel in seven songs, and is being translated and sung by indigenous singers to share the message of Jesus with people in their heart language. Having traveled extensively, Laura ‘s passion is to use music to tell stories that lead people around the world to Jesus.

Join us as we explore the relationship between orality and music for creating innovative ways to help people engage God and His Word!

Orality and the World Evangelical Church - Ep 2.8

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 08:00:00 -0500

We are excited to host Samuel Chiang, the former CEO of the International Orality Network (ION) and of the Seed Company. Samuel current serves as the Deputy Secretary General of Ministries for the World Evangelical Alliance and brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to our next episode of God Speaks. But, even more, Samuel hungers for God.

Join us as we discuss with Samuel the role of orality within the future of the global church.

Orality and Multicultural Teams - Ep 2.7

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Orality and Multicultural Teams

We are excited to welcome you to the next episode of God Speaks. Dr. Don Moon will be joining us.

Don (PhD, Biola) brings thirty-plus years of experience, leadership, and teaching to our discussion of orality and cross-cultural teams. We are excited to welcome him to the God Speaks webinar as we discuss this critical issue in contemporary missions and specifically dialogue on how matters such as orality are critical for forming and maintaining our multi-cultural teams and strategies.

Orality & Theological Education: Addressing the Oral Oversight - Ep 2.6

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 04:00:00 -0400

Orality and Theological Education in the Majority World Context: Addressing the Oral Oversight

God is raising up theologically astute Majority World leaders who care about equipping their leaders with appropriate tools to engage the oral-reliant communicators in their communities. One of those thought-leaders is Dr. Ezekiel Ajibade, senior lecturer at Nigheria Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Ajibade will be joining us to discuss some of the concerns but also some of the practical steps that he and others are taking to help institutional gate-keepers recognize the necessity of orality for theological education in the twenty-first century. Such strategic conversations carry implications not only for places such as Nigeria but also for many other Majority World contexts.

Orality & YWAM: An Interview From The Ground-level - Ep 2.5

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 04:00:00 -0400

Re-Imagining Bible Translation Through YWAM and Orality: An Interview From The Ground-level

In this last year, Vikki Wright and the YWAM Arua (Uganda) team have followed the Holy Spirit into the whole new world of Oral Bible Translation (OBT). They have already experienced God do some tremendous things and Vikki will be joining us to share in more detail how YWAM is trying to faithfully and orally promote Scripture access and engagement among groups of people with little to no Scripture in their mother tongues.

For more information on the next generation of Bible Translation, read more here:
https://lausanne.org/about/blog/the-living-word-for-living-languages

Oral Scripture Engagement: A Grassroots Discussion — Part 3 - Ep 2.4

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0400

We are excited to have Dr. Ray Neu with us again this month on our God Speaks webinar/podcast. He will be modeling for us how to apply contextualized, oral hermeneutics to a biblical passage. This episode promises to be engaging and practical. We welcome you to join us as we seek to better communicate God's Word today.

Oral Scripture Engagement: A Grassroots Discussion — Part 2 - Ep 2.3

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0400

This month, we will continue our experiential learning together as we explore how God shapes different people's character in the Bible through various life experiences. Specifically, we will examine the intersections God offered to people and how they responded to those opportunities and the choices they made. Such investigations will contribute to developing arobust oral character study.

Dr. Ray Neu has learned some of the more practical and pragmatic aspects of doing Oral Hermeneutics in an African context. In the next several episodes, Ray will help us examine what the Bible itself says about interpretation as we explore treasures for today by considering the progressive development of characters found in the Bible.

This promises to be eye-opening, insightful and fun.

Oral Scripture Engagement: A Grassroots Discussion — Part 1 - Ep 2.2

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0400

In their book, A Return to Oral Hermeneutics, Steffen and Bjoraker reengaged us in a vital discussion for today both in terms of missions as well as better Bible understanding for all of us.

Ray Neu has learned some of the more practical and pragmatic aspects of doing Oral Hermeneutics in an African context. In the next several episodes, Ray will help us examine what the Bible itself says about interpretation as we explore treasures for today by considering the progressive development of characters found in the Bible.

This promises to be eye-opening, insightful and fun.

Reaching the Oral Majority: through Orality & Prayer - Ep 2.1

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 06:00:00 -0500

Want to reach the world for Jesus? Most of the world's population is oral-preferenced. That means we need to incorporate orality into all of our mission strategies. But how do we do that? We begin with prayer.

Join us for this next episode of God Speaks: Conversations on Orality and the Gospel as we explore the relationship between orality and prayer even as we PRAY together for the world's Oral Majority.

Orality, Advent, & New Creation: Reframing the Coming of Christ Jesus - Ep 1.11

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In this episode of God Speaks we explore the connections between orality and advent. Rather than being a presentation, this episode features a brief story performance and a discussion on how Jesus' incarnation impacts all of our communication.

Orality and the Arts - Ep 1.10

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Embodying the Spoken & Artistic Word
With Special Guest: Roce Anog-Madinger:

Jesus shared stories. We know that. But Jesus must have also listened to the people’s stories for 30 years before he started teaching using parables, symbols, or metaphors. Roce will be sharing how the arts helped her listen to people’s hearts by ‘listening’ to their arts.

Together with her husband Chuck, they head the Institutes for Orality Strategies based in Manila. Roce is also currently a PhD student in Indigenous Studies in UP Baguio. She volunteers part time for SIL Philippines and is teaching the Orallity & the Arts course at the Asia Graduate School of Theology.

Orality and Real Life Relationships - Ep 1.9

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Episode 9 - Orality and Real Life Relationships:

Putting Theory Into Practice

Having been involved in Christian ministry since a teenager, Jim is dedicated to making God look good, Jesus well known and Christians well trained.

For that reason his dedication to the Lord targets ministries emphasizing the practical. Orality fits nicely into that niche. He has been trained in two storytelling ministries and several years ago launched his own, WalkTalk, telling Bible stories as one walks through life.

Trainings in WalkTalk have taken him far and wide. WalkTalk enables people to learn Bible stories easily and tell them effectively for the purpose of Christ-like discipleship: telling stories to persuade, equip and mobilize.

https://saturationglobal.wordpress.com/toolsoverview/storytelling/

Questioning our Questions - Ep 1.8

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 21:00:00 -0400

In this episode, we explore the questions that have shaped much of our traditional engagement approaches to Scripture. Dr. Tom Steffen and Dr. Bill Bjoraker will help us discover how oral hermeneutics invites us to reconsider our key questions as we seek to understand and communicate biblical message.

Hebrew Hermeneutics revisited - Ep 1.7

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0400

To fully appreciate orality, it is critical to deepen our understanding of the Hebraic communication paradigm. In this episode, Bill Bjoraker & Tom Steffen will explore God's intentional engagement with the children of Israel through meaning-filled expressions such as symbol, ritual, and materiality.

Orality & Character Theology: Relevant Theologizing - Ep 1.6

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 04:00:00 -0400

The lives of the saints are the hermeneutical key to Scripture—S. Hauerwas

This webinar seeks to explore how engaging oral hermeneutics naturally leads to fresh ways of theologizing that can complement systematic and biblical theology. Building on previous episodes, the discussion will explore how orality and character theology allow for powerful connection and application between biblical characters of old and our lives today.

Oral Hermeneutics Outlined - Ep 1.5

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 02:00:00 -0400

This conversation will begin with a brief and broad consideration of the typical text-reliant, systematic hermeneutical approaches of today. With those markers in place, Tom and Bill will spell out what they are offering by way of an oral hermeneutic and model this in a practical storytelling demonstration.

https://godspeaks.buzzsprout.com

The "Big Forgot" in Text & Teaching - Ep 1.4

Mon, 23 May 2022 23:00:00 -0400

This conversation will delve into Tom and Bill’s chapter on how orality has shaped and interfaced with text in the making of the canon. The goal will be to help illuminate how our text-centric paradigm as a holdover from the Enlightenment (that was discussed in episode 3) is a relatively recent development. Furthermore, it will help illuminate how rather than orality being considered some new or modern trend, it has been instrumental all along.

How Did We Get to Here: The Enlightenment verses “Right-Brain Rising”? - Ep 1.3

Sun, 15 May 2022 00:00:00 -0400

In this conversation, Tom & Bill answer the question: How did we get to this place communicatively in the twenty-first century? The discuss will offer some brief descriptions of Christian communication prior to the Enlightenment and then delve into how the Enlightenment played such a critical role in reshaping the nature of thinking and communication. With that established, we can then explore how things are changing today and what we mean by the “right-brain” rising. The goal will be to provide broad categories of how epistemological shifts have occurred and how relevant those are to us today as we engage God’s word and seek to share it. We will need to openly acknowledge these developments have been, broadly speaking, within the Western world, but have had massive impact on Majority World contexts as well.

In His Image: The Divine Origins of Human Communication - Ep 1.2

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Narrative: In the first episode, we explored how biblical orality invites us into a bigger communication narrative of embodied, interpersonal communication with the Triune Creator himself. This episode shifts the attention from the vertical axis to more of the horizontal one: how did God design human persons to live and communicate in community with one another? Picking up where the first episode finished, this conversation will explore creation, Eden, and divinely ordained early Hebrew practices that created such a rich symphony of oral, but also multi-modal, embodied, communication.

The WHY of Orality within Global Missions: Towards a theology of communication - Ep 1.1

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 08:00:00 -0400

In this episode, Billy Coppedge explores why orality is critical for the future of global missions. It will approach this by briefly looking at the nature of global missions today and critical issues that are being raised. One of the themes running through all such discussions is the nature of human persons and an argument can be made that most (if not all) of today’s crises involve some failure for interpersonal communication to happen. We will explore how critical this is because at the heart of all reality is the interpersonal communion or communication within the triune God himself. All reality flows out of the God who himself lives in perpetual interpersonal communication between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This places communication not just on a pragmatic footing—how do we get our message across, but on a much theological foundation. When we talk about interpersonal communication, we talk about the nature of God himself. We will delve into how this is unique for human persons who communicate in time and space and how significant embodiment is to human interpersonal communication. This naturally will open the door to talk about the Incarnation and begin discussing the communication methods God himself is modeling for us in and through the story of his people and Christ Jesus. All of this discussion paints the backcloth for the why of orality.