God’s Word comes alive through Oral Bible Storytelling.
“The voice of the woman at the well was no longer letters, phrases, or sentences. She was suddenly speaking to me!” recalls Oddmund Pettersen. “Silent reading for decades had kept her voice silent; now, I ‘heard’ it for the first time.”
Oddmund joined Seed Company 11 years ago as a field project manager, overseeing translation projects around the world. When he first participated in an Oral Bible Storytelling (OBS) activity in 2015, he deemed the experience a failure on his part. A Norwegian, he had worked hard to memorize a story in English, which is not his first language. “The story did not stick to my brain,” he says.
He had not yet learned the vital difference between memorizing and internalizing Scripture stories in one’s own language. With internalization, storytellers picture the story and participate in it rather than just memorizing words. When they tell stories, they share God’s Word in the format of stories crafted through careful study and meditation on the text.
After starting his current role training people in OBS strategies, Oddmund felt inspired to tell Bible stories in his own church. He began with the story of the woman at the well. As he prepared by internalizing the text in Norwegian, “something strange happened, if I can use the word ‘strange,’” he says. “The text came off the pages and became alive.”
“The text came off the pages and became alive.”
Oddmund wasn’t sure how his audience would respond, but as he started telling the story, the atmosphere changed. After a few minutes, he noticed people taking off their glasses to wipe away tears. Others lifted their hands in the air. God’s Word was speaking to them in a new way.
“OBS is more than a method—it is a movement of God’s Word taking root in people’s heart languages,” Oddmund says. At an OBS workshop in Tanzania, he noted the joy on participants’ faces as they internalized and crafted Bible stories in their languages, carefully choosing the right words to express the heart of the narrative. Esther, one of the storytellers, said that “after just two weeks of sharing these stories, God’s Word has moved from the page into my heart.”
By presenting Scripture portions in story format, translation teams using OBS often see greater local awareness, interest, and ownership in Bible translation efforts. Community members who help test translation drafts are more involved and eager to support the effort. People are engaging with God’s Word in meaningful ways that lead to heart change.
As Oddmund puts it, “The Word goes from my heart to the heart of the audience.”
