T4 Global

75 years ago, the Rev. R.R. Brown began the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference. Dr. Brown was a radio preacher of some renown, and since Omaha in August is oppressively hot, the folks at WOW radio had an idea. What if Dr. Brown did 10 days of a conference that could be carried over live radio? And, what if the location boasted pleasant weather? With that, the Okoboji Conference was begun on the shores of Lake Okoboji, a vacation spot of some renown in the Midwest.
Over the years, the Okoboji Conference has hosted thousands of missionaries. Back in the day, there was a “Missionary Parade” (as in, a literal parade), and flags from various nations still adorn the walls of the conference tabernacle. Missions has always played a central role at Okoboji. The stories told by expat missionaries home on furlough shaped the lives of many conference attenders, myself included.
This year at Okoboji promises to be an historic one. The Conference is celebrating its’ 75th anniversary, and for the first time, two of the missions speakers will not be expats.
This year, Pastors Simon Mwaura and Wilfred Lenaisemoi will be speaking at Okoboji. A conference that has heard from, prayed for and financially supported thousands of expat missionaries will hear from indigenous church planters. The fruit of 75 years of faithful praying and sending will be on display.

Our methodology of taking training to oral-culture learners doesn’t just have application for the MT4 device.  One of our partners in Samburu, Pastor Wilfred, has discovered another way to put orality into play in his ministry.  A bit of background information would probably be helpful.

Our Kenyan pastors, much like their American counterparts, have certain preachers they like and emulate.  However, the typical literate, lecture-based model of preaching runs into certain roadblocks when used in an African context.  Imagine trying to preach to a congregation that has no Bibles, and even if they did have them, could not read them.  Our friend Wilfred is a T.D. Jakes fan, but as he learned, it’s hard to do T.D. better than T.D. does T.D.

In the course of developing the content for our Samburu project, Wilfred decided to try the blend of indigenous stories, songs, proverbs and retelling the Bible story in his weekly preaching responsibilities.  It was tweaked a bit, in order to include the application of the Word to the lives of the congregation.  The results have been stunning: Wilfred (Big Willy) now preaches in a Samburu manner to the Samburu.  The gathered congregation is engaged, and participates in the preaching event.  People stop him during the week to ask further questions about what they heard on Sunday.  Oral-culture Samburus are hearing the Word in a powerful way.

Wilfred called this the “T4 Style” of preaching.  We have, however, compromised.  It is more than just a style – it is a model of preaching that builds cultural bridges, lets the Word do the heavy lifting, and is authentically African.  One of our indigenous leaders pioneered this method, hence, the T (4)- (Big) Willy preaching model.