Deaf communities have many of the same features that characterize oral communicators. In fact, a more comprehensive way of looking at what are called "orality" features is not that they are crucially or exclusively associated with what is spoken by mouth. They are, instead a correlation of ways of processing that are common to face-toface, highly relational societies. The correlation of ways of processing and communicating involve concrete (rather than abstract) notions; sequential (rather than random) expression of events; and relational (as opposed to individualist) contexts. Both oral cultures and Deaf communities exhibit these characteristics because they are face-to-face, highly relational cultures. Throughout the world, Deaf communities are being reached by chronological Bible storying methods. So there is reason to include them in this discussion. (It is in some sense inaccurate to call the Deaf "oral communicators." Furthermore, they dislike the terms "oral," "orality" and "oralism" because they associate the terms with nineteenth and twentieth century efforts to force the Deaf to give up sign language and learn to speak.)

An account of oral, storying strategies that were effective in leadership development comes from North Africa.30 There 17 young men (many of whom could barely read and write and some not at all) underwent a two-year leader training program using chronological Bible storying. At the end of two years, students mastered approximately 135 biblical stories in their correct chronological order, spanning from Genesis to Revelation. They were able to tell the stories, sing from one to five songs for each story, and enact dramas about each of the stories. A seminary professor gave them a six-hour oral exam. They demonstrated the ability to answer questions about both the facts and theology of the stories and showed an excellent grasp of the gospel message, the nature of God, and their new life in Christ. The students quickly and skillfully referred to the stories to answer a variety of theological questions. Given a theological theme, they could accurately name multiple biblical stories in which that theme occurs. If asked, they could tell each story and elaborate on how it addressed the theme.

The professor concluded that "the training process has successfully achieved its goals of enabling students to tell a large number of biblical stories accurately, to have a good understanding of those stories and the theology that they convey and to have an eagerness to share the Christian message. The community received the stories and story-songs enthusiastically and have made them part of the culture and church life alike."

"Various students acknowledged that they entered knowing little of the Old Testament, did not understand the relationship between God and Jesus, did not know the characteristics of God, did not know that God created the angelic beings, had not heard of being born again and did not know that Christians should not seek help from local deities. Upon entering the program these students were unable to communicate the Christian faith to other people, but by the time the training was over, they had dramatically improved their understanding of all of these matters and many more," he said. The songs and stories became so popular that when the students returned to their villages, the local people eagerly gathered to learn the new songs and stories, and frequently sang the Scripture songs and told the stories late into the night, sometimes even until dawn.

30 This account is provided by Grant Lovejoy.