S-T4T

“That reminds me of a story. Have you heard about…?”

Storying has proven to be highly effective in teaching the Bible and its principles to oral learners. The Storying Training for Trainers (S-T4T) strategy has been developed to make storying more easily transferable and accurate in order to better facilitate its use in church-planting movements among oral learners. It is simple, effective, reproducible, and utilizes the power of stories.

From the beginning of the training, S-T4T equips believers to share effectively their faith, disciple others, and train others to do the same.  There is a built-in accountability system that encourages those attending the training to immediately share what they have learned and to share it accurately. It is an intentional church planting strategy founded on stories from God's Word.  It makes His Word available to all people in a way they can understand, respond to and reproduce.

S-T4T merges two best practices in the fields of church planting and cross-cultural communication to form a highly transferable model of training trainers to share effectively God's Word, make disciples, and implement a reproducing church planting movement strategy.  These best practices are Bible storying, with its oral communication principles, and T4T (Training for Trainers), a proven evangelism, discipleship and church planting strategy. 

As S-T4T combines oral communication with the principles of T4T, the intentionality of reproductive church planting in T4T becomes accessible to the world of those who do not communicate via literate means. The worldview-sensitive communication of God's Word through storying is infused with the intentionality and accountability of T4T.  This hybrid approach is put within the framework of the five parts of a Church Planting Movement strategy plan, simply referred to as a CPM Plan.  This gives T4T practitioners the tools they need to communicate to oral learners and Bible storying practitioners the tools to see stories used to plant reproducing churches.

Below is an example of S-T4T being used:

As the two walked through the foothills of the Himalayas, the young man – a local believer – asked his companion, “Why are you here?” His question opened the door for the visiting teacher to talk about the importance of helping people share their faith in cultures where few people learned through reading and writing. “I’m like one of those people,” the young man said. “I’m illiterate, and I always thought that I couldn’t do much for God because of that.” The two began to discuss how the young man could indeed have an impact on people following Jesus and starting new house churches in the area, even if he couldn’t read or write. Continuing their hike, they walked by a small village and heard a man yell from his fields, “Come join us for tea,” pointing to a small house nearby. “I would like that,” the teacher told the eager learner beside him, who loudly responded “yes” to the farmer. They soon found themselves sitting in a pleasant garden in front of the man’s house. The man, a few of his family members, and the two guests sipped the hot sweetened tea of that region as they talked about the local legends of the hills and mountains towering above them. “That reminds me of a story,” the visiting teacher eventually said, anxious to not only share the Good News with his hosts, but to model what he had been describing to his new disciple. The teacher then shared a brief story about his life and how he found personal significance through God’s love for him. When he finished, he asked if he could share another story, this one from the Word of God. The family heartily agreed, and when the teacher finished, one of those listening said, “That’s a true story.” The two guests then prayed with the family and made arrangements to share more stories during the coming weeks. As the teacher and his disciple walked away, the young man said, “It’s that easy, isn’t it?” “Yes,” replied the teacher, “it’s that easy.”


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