Kenya Bible Storying Training Fund

Kenya Bible Storying Training Fund

Nairobi, Kenya

Serge's George Mixon and Ben Nihart lead a growing team of Kenyan nationals who train other Kenyan church leaders in "Bible storying" as a method for discipleship and evangelism.

Chronological Bible Storytelling (CBS) is one of the exciting tools currently being used throughout the world to plant churches among unreached people groups. While CBS is a fairly recent development in the world of missions--as a method of communicating a mature gospel message–in its most basic form, it is actually as old as biblical history.

Our sovereign God decreed that the historical events of the Bible occur in a certain order and that people remember them in stories that were not only written down, but passed down through generations by mouth. These stories, starting with the story of creation and extending all the way through the stories of Jesus and the early Church, have become for us a clear history of God working out His plan to bring redemption to a sinful, broken world.

As God was working out history so that we might be saved, he was also--through His stories-- teaching us along the way about Himself, man, and how sinful man may be restored into relationship with a merciful God.

What is Chronological Bible Storying?

  • It is chronological. Instead of taking shortcuts to present the gospel, CBS teaches gospel truths in a slower, fuller way that is particularly valuable in long-term relational evangelism and discipleship. CBS involves teaching Bible stories in chronological order, beginning with creation and continuing through stories of Jesus. Doing this lays a firm foundation of who God is, who man is, and how God wants to relate with men. In CBS, one might use 25 to 45 Bible stories that are essential to the redemption message, all presented in the same order in which we find them in Scripture.

  • It is Bible. CBS is telling Bible stories accurately and compellingly, using them to teach key principles of redemption, helping listeners to respond in repentance, faith, and obedience to the Savior revealed in the stories.

  • It is storytelling. Africans are storytellers. Storytelling has been neglected for too long in the church as a vital way of communicating God's full-orbed message, especially in Africa. Most essential life truth and wisdom that passes down through the generations in Africa is communicated in an oral method - through story and proverb in the context of community - rather than through books and note taking. Most people, literate or not, prefer to learn life lessons through story. Stories help isolated truths make sense because they give context. Stories compel people to listen and are easy to pass on, thus enabling lay people to more naturally and powerfully share the gospel message with others. We help people learn God's stories by heart in order to tell them in their entirety with feeling, and persuasion. Then truths found therein are communicated and discussed through simple questions and dialogue that help the people reflect on the story themselves under the leader's guidance and to see how their own story intersects with God's story.

What is the Kenya Bible Storying Training Fund?

George, Ben, and their team now lead year-long trainings in 10 to 15 different locations throughout Kenya and other parts of East Africa. They have rapidly growing needs for funds for transportation, food, lodging, material production, and support for key trainers. They also would like to see the expansion of this work to help Serge teams in other countries in East Africa.

When you support the Kenya Bible Storying Training Fund you are meeting these critical needs and propelling this program forward.

Serge strives to follow donor intent. All giving to Serge is under the discretion of the Serge Board and is used to further the broad mission of Serge. We will give preference to the project and field the donor designates.

Kenya Bible Storying Training Fund

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