Orality and the Global Church

The International Orality Network (ION) assisted ministries in India and Africa this year by conducting multiple Orality consultations. visionSynergy Associate Bill Sunderland says, “The local leaders are taking ownership of this movement and are moving ahead with or without us.”

This is a welcomed development as this new but centuries-old method of sharing Christ’s message is gaining recognition by the Global Church. On the North American front, ION has taken a huge step forward in its development as more task forces have been formed to take on critical projects.

The research task force will be looking at the impact of Orality on Church Growth. A new task force, Music and Arts, will explore the impact of all culturally-appropriate arts in Oral-based cultures.

Turkish Internet evangelism

An ambitious group of mission workers and nationals in Turkey has caught a vision of the potential for Internet evangelism in Turkey to reach Turks with the gospel.

The group and a foundation called on visionSynergy Associate Director Rev. Dave Hackett to facilitate the convening gathering of about 50 practitioners, which was held in Istanbul in April 2009.

European Alliances in training

visionSynergy continues to develop the core partnership training sector with the leadership of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).

Associate Director Bill Sunderland represented our vS team at a pre-meeting of the European Evangelical Alliance, where the seven global regional secretaries and some 30 general secretaries of European Alliances will gather with the WEA design team.

The gathering discussed elements of the training package being developed for all the alliances within the WEA.

Younger Leader Focus leadership

In March 2009 visionSynergy held working meetings in India with the leadership of the Evangelical Fellowship of India and the Indian Missions Association (more than 230 indigenous Indian mission agencies!) regarding the visionSynergy Younger Leader Initiative, our effort to train emerging leaders in collaboration.

Phill Butler was very encouraged to find that this issue is a very high priority for them. We have agreed to meet later this year to map specific plans for India as a “test region” for this vital initiative.

visionSynergy Associate Director Michael McGill heads up visionSynergy’s Younger Leader Initiative.

India oral partnership strategy

Working with our long-time partner agency Scriptures In Use, visionSynergy Director Phill Butler facilitated formation of a national resource and training network powering oral strategies for evangelism and church planting.

Seventeen indigenous Indian mission agencies deeply committed to the vision are already seeing remarkable response among the country’s 200+ million non-literates. In the last three years alone these agencies have trained over 25,000 grassroots church planters!