Nepali Chronological Bible Storying Sets
produced by Orality Strategies
Before you story . . .
We rejoice in the fact that God has placed Nepali people in your life. We rejoice further that you desire to communicate the message of hope and wholeness through Jesus Christ to your Nepali friends and neighbors. Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) is a method of communicating the Biblical message that has been greatly blessed by God as He's used it in a wide variety of contexts to draw people into His family. However, as you consider utilizing this approach with Nepalis (particularly those of Hindu backgrounds), we offer a word of caution.
It is the position of Trinity International Baptist Mission that CBS approaches must always be contextualized so as to maximize their potential for effectively communicating spiritual truth to people of various cultures. Effective communication means that a message is both faithfully delivered and received with correct understanding. When utilizing CBS among Nepalis (and many other Hindu groups as well), it is critical that the storyteller take time to understand how certain stories will be received and understood. Here are a couple "rules of thumb" that we have found to be extremely helpful:
1. Do not begin your CBS process at the beginning! We recommend that with Nepali Hindus, you begin by telling stories about Jesus Christ. We suggest spending as much time as possible focused exclusively on the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Very often, when storying begins with creation and the Fall, Hindus can be quickly turned away due to miscommunication regarding the issue of sin (see #2).
2. Before storying from the Old Testament, take time to carefully understand the issue of sin and "fallenness" within the Hindu worldview. Again, it is the issue of sin and guilt that trips up many efforts to communicate the good news of Christ to Hindus. When you say something like, "We're all sinners." Such a statement simply doesn't enter the ears of your Nepali friends in the way you intend. Nevertheless, in order to share the Good News with people, we must also share the "bad news." With Hindus, however, this is a delicate process. We have therefore created a couple resources to help you to begin to understand how to do this. This is, of course, only a beginning. Still we strongly recommend reading these articles prior to telling your friends stories about creation and the Fall. The first article is the brief "Repentance, Sinfulness & Hinduism", which provides a good introduction to the subject. The second is "Holistic Spiritual Conflict in the Context of Folk Hinduism" which provides a more in-depth look at the "bad news" as Hindus often understand it. (Note: Many other concepts present potential communication stumbling blocks for Gospel-sharers. As a general rule, it is a good idea to seek familiarity with your listeners' pre-understanding of various ideas so as to more effectively build communicative bridges to Biblical truth and avoid building walls of misunderstanding.)
3. All storying should be done in the context of real relationships! You might think that it goes without saying, but it unfortunately does not. Everything you communicate from the Scripture should be accompanied by a life of loving and reciprocal relationships with your Nepali friends -- relationships that they perceive to be close. It is often the case that naturally individualistic and monochronic Westerners perceive a cross-cultural relationship to be much closer than do their Nepali friends. Take massive amounts of time to be with people, to observe, to learn, to listen to their stories. When your Nepali friends are convinced that your story and theirs are truly interwoven -- when they can no longer conceive of their life story without you in it (and vice versa) -- then God's story will seem as much a natural and essential part of their lives as it is for yours. Remember Paul who said to the Thessalonians, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." (1 Th. 2:8)
Having shared these words of warning and advice, we commend to you the following storying resources and pray that God will grant you discernment and the Spirit's leading as you use them.
It is the position of Trinity International Baptist Mission that CBS approaches must always be contextualized so as to maximize their potential for effectively communicating spiritual truth to people of various cultures. Effective communication means that a message is both faithfully delivered and received with correct understanding. When utilizing CBS among Nepalis (and many other Hindu groups as well), it is critical that the storyteller take time to understand how certain stories will be received and understood. Here are a couple "rules of thumb" that we have found to be extremely helpful:
1. Do not begin your CBS process at the beginning! We recommend that with Nepali Hindus, you begin by telling stories about Jesus Christ. We suggest spending as much time as possible focused exclusively on the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Very often, when storying begins with creation and the Fall, Hindus can be quickly turned away due to miscommunication regarding the issue of sin (see #2).
2. Before storying from the Old Testament, take time to carefully understand the issue of sin and "fallenness" within the Hindu worldview. Again, it is the issue of sin and guilt that trips up many efforts to communicate the good news of Christ to Hindus. When you say something like, "We're all sinners." Such a statement simply doesn't enter the ears of your Nepali friends in the way you intend. Nevertheless, in order to share the Good News with people, we must also share the "bad news." With Hindus, however, this is a delicate process. We have therefore created a couple resources to help you to begin to understand how to do this. This is, of course, only a beginning. Still we strongly recommend reading these articles prior to telling your friends stories about creation and the Fall. The first article is the brief "Repentance, Sinfulness & Hinduism", which provides a good introduction to the subject. The second is "Holistic Spiritual Conflict in the Context of Folk Hinduism" which provides a more in-depth look at the "bad news" as Hindus often understand it. (Note: Many other concepts present potential communication stumbling blocks for Gospel-sharers. As a general rule, it is a good idea to seek familiarity with your listeners' pre-understanding of various ideas so as to more effectively build communicative bridges to Biblical truth and avoid building walls of misunderstanding.)
3. All storying should be done in the context of real relationships! You might think that it goes without saying, but it unfortunately does not. Everything you communicate from the Scripture should be accompanied by a life of loving and reciprocal relationships with your Nepali friends -- relationships that they perceive to be close. It is often the case that naturally individualistic and monochronic Westerners perceive a cross-cultural relationship to be much closer than do their Nepali friends. Take massive amounts of time to be with people, to observe, to learn, to listen to their stories. When your Nepali friends are convinced that your story and theirs are truly interwoven -- when they can no longer conceive of their life story without you in it (and vice versa) -- then God's story will seem as much a natural and essential part of their lives as it is for yours. Remember Paul who said to the Thessalonians, "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us." (1 Th. 2:8)
Having shared these words of warning and advice, we commend to you the following storying resources and pray that God will grant you discernment and the Spirit's leading as you use them.
| nepali_cbs_stories_text_with_english_translation.pdf |
