In the Know

When speaking truth to unreached people groups on the final frontier of the great commission, OneStory keeps key concepts and realities in mind.

Key Term
“Orality refers to reliance upon the spoken, rather than written, word for communication. Orality is an ancient phenomenon that continues to the present. …Purely oral societies pass along everything that matters from one generation to another without putting anything into writing. They rely on the spoken word including its sung and chanted forms.”
— International Orality Network (ION)

Key Stats
50 percent of the remaining people groups waiting for Bible translation to start are oral-based cultures.
— Seed Company

5.7 billion people in the world are oral communicators because they are non-readers or only have basic reading comprehension skills. That is over 80 percent of the world’s population.
— ION

Key Thought
“Many learn better by hearing than by reading. Text may have its advantages, but hearing should not be considered an inferior transmission mode. This is an important distinction because the value that our society has placed on literacy sometimes leads to the misperception that literacy and intelligence or sophistication go hand-in-hand. Sophisticated and productive participation in a society based on texts requires literacy, but not so in a hearing-dominant society.”
— The Lost World of Scripture, by John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy. 2013, InterVarsity Press

_{Photo courtesy of ION}