Oral Bible Schools (OBS):

An STS Oral Bible School allows literate and nonliterate students to learn from the Bible side-by-side. OBS students learn 296 Bible stories and are equipped to tell those stories accurately. These students are then able to lead others to find and personally apply many of the deep spiritual truths in those stories. Oral Bible schools remove the literacy barrier that has kept many otherwise gifted believers from being laborers in the harvest. These graduates often become leaders in their churches, as well as have fruitful outreach, discipleship, and church planting ministries.

In July 2009, a Filipino Bible teacher was deeply impacted at an STS workshop. As a result of that workshop experience, he developed the vision of expanding the STS workshop into a Bible school. He continued teaching his students but adapted his teaching style to include the Simply The Story method. His first school model was a combination of vocational training, topical Bible teaching and some STS-style learning of stories. Unfortunately, this approach mostly attracted students who were drawn to the financial benefits the job training promised.

This man’s idea prompted us at Simply The Story to design a purely STS-based Oral Bible School curriculum. We desired to teach only Bible stories and how to prepare and share them deeply with others. The vision for STS Oral Bible Schools grew and more schools followed. Each STS leader learned from what their co-workers in other countries discovered, and every OBS took on its own local flavor.

Now …. praise the Lord, there are thousands of Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools going on around the world.

Design of STS Oral Bible Schools

The basic structure of an Oral Bible School is, twelve students, hosted locally, shepherded by national STS instructors. They use the STS method to learn Bible stories and study them oral style. No faculty—no campus—locally supported.

The students, a mixture of non-literate, semi-literate and preferred oral learners, learn how to dig deeply into Bible stories to discover treasures and how to teach others through discussion.

Oral Bible Schools can be organized in many different ways. Our leaders have experimented with a variety of different models for Oral Bible Schools. We have found that no one schedule works for all locations.

Typically, the 12 students divide into two groups and each group prepares a different story. After the preparation, one person goes as the storyteller to the other group. They tell the story and have a full discussion. Through that process, the five members of the group who hadn’t learned that particular story learn the new story as well. By the end of the preparation/presentation cycle, both groups have experienced two stories. The storytellers have homework, they must also learn the story they didn’t work on.

As a result of all this time spent together in the Word, not only do these people learn the process of STS, they gain a deep understanding of God and His Word. They also develop very deep relationships with one another.

The time that the groups meet really depends on the situation in their particular area. They may meet at home, at church, or under a tree. If they are farmers, they may stop during planting or harvesting seasons and start up again later. They may meet on a two-weeks on and two-weeks off cycle. They adjust the schedule to fit their needs.

In cities in India, OBS groups oftentimes meet in the evening, five nights a week. In the US, there are groups that meet once each Saturday because that fits their schedule. In the Middle East, there are people who meet every other Saturday. They wish they could meet more often, but that’s all the time they have. Oral Bible Schools can be adapted to fit whatever the situation.

The leader in the Philippines referred to earlier, has been doing Oral Bible Schools in many different ways. He’s even done some using his cell phone. A group of men get together and have an STS Bible study. They set up a cell phone as a speakerphone in the middle of the group. Our Filipino leader checks in with them once a week in this way. At one time, he may have six cell phones lying in front of him and he’ll be working with six different Oral Bible Schools from all around the country, all at same time.

In Africa, the most common schedule has been two weeks on two weeks off. Each month that the students are part of the Oral Bible School, they attend two weeks of school and return home for two weeks. This schedule allows the students to complete the STS-OBS eight-month curriculum of learning and preparing Scripture passages and stories in about a year and a half. Because of the flexible structure of Oral Bible Schools, the schedule can be easily adjusted to meet the needs of each group of students.

During the two weeks that the students are in school, they learn stories and practice them in local outreaches. When back in their home villages, the students tend to their ministries, families and fields. This alternating schedule makes the students' time away from their homes and villages much less of a hardship.

In each two-week period, the students to learn from 15-20 stories. While at home, they put those stories to use! That home-practice time solidifies the stories in the students’ minds and places the stories deep in their “heart pockets.”
By the time of graduation, most graduates know nearly to 300 stories, which they then carry everywhere in their heart pockets. STS oral schools are producing dynamic church planters and teachers.

The graduates have also been found to have a deep knowledge of Biblical theology. Although they haven’t studied systematic theology as part of the Oral Bible School, an understanding of narrative theology comes as part of understanding the Bible stories themselves. This surprising benefit has been documented by seminaries in the west.

History of OBS

Oral Bible Schools have developed and evolved over the course of years. From the very beginning, the vision for Simply The Story Oral Bible Schools has been to see the untapped resource of non-literate leaders equipped with the Word and empowered for ministry. Watch this video to learn more about STS Oral Bible Schools, both past and present.

OBS Outcomes and Results

Many people have asked, “how successful is this really?” People wonder if non-literates, studying in this way are maintaining accuracy and really learning well. How firm is the students’ doctrinal understanding?”

Around 2010 in Kenya, a number of schools were graduating at the same time. Several seminary professors from the US were in country and the professors interviewed the OBS graduates. The professors wanted to assess the graduates’ overall understanding of the Bible and their panoramic view of the Bible. The professors also asked doctrinal questions about a variety of theological issues. These men spoke deeply with the graduates to explore their understanding. One theology professor from the US said, “I have students under me in my seminary who have studied for three years and they do not have the panoramic overview of the Bible, the grasp of the meta-narrative, like these students. And some of my students do not have the doctrinal depth and understanding that I’m seeing in some of these students.” All this after just six to twelve months spent in 200 stories. (The Oral Bible School curriculum has been expanded to include 296 Bible stories now)

It’s thrilling to see the depth that can be reached by studying stories.

Starting an STS-OBS

Local pastors and Christians who have seen the value of STS arrange for a school in their region. After they find a home or cluster of homes available for the school term decided upon by the students and leaders these leaders begin interviewing applicants. The pastors and hosts interview, screen and select twelve students out of the applicants.

The selected students, their church, family or village provide the students' food.

In those areas where non-literate students need to be able to listen to the stories, STS headquarters in USA can guide students to available resources such as recorded Bible stories, Audio Bibles and God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity. Where needed headquarters can assist in the recording of Bible stories needed for the Oral Bible School curriculum.

The school begins when local STS instructors lead a 5-day STS workshop in which they teach the twelve student 20 stories and the skill of finding spiritual treasures. The instructors stay a second week to deepen the students’ learning and presentation skills. After that, STS instructors visit monthly to encourage the students and to assist if needed.

The believers who host, often pastors, serve as spiritual guides and problem solvers. For the schools where recorded stories are not yet available, a minimum of two literate students are selected as their literacy skill is needed to read the Bible stories to the other students.

Although we originally anticipated that most students would be single, young and non-literate, the population of the schools so far has been two-thirds married, two-thirds semi-literate and an average age of 37 years old!

During each of the two-week sessions of school, weekends are generally used for practical use of story in local outreaches and churches.

If you are interested in organizing an Oral Bible School in your area, please use the contact us form for more information.