About SPARK
From SPARK
"If Christians are serious about actually communicating with the lost and discipling believers, then `orality' will supersede ineffectual literate approaches," Mark Snowden 1
Introduction
This site will help you reach the lesser-known language groups with God's Word through the use of oral strategies. SPARK is a Scripture Promotion And Resource Knowledgebase.
SPARK provides written, visual, and oral strategies to communicate to oral ethnic groups. See oral methods. Twenty percent of the world's population, 1.25 billion people, are speakers of lesser-known languages, and many of them are oral communicators. (Go to the worldmap website for locations of these groups.)|1|
The average literacy rate among these oral communicators is about 12 percent.|2| That means that 88 percent of them are not yet able to read! It is ironic then, that the majority of the world's Christian workers present the gospel to oral communicators using highly literate communication styles.[3] SPARK points to a better way.
The focus is not on products but on guidelines and methods aimed at increasing effectiveness when working with oral ethnic groups. While the site does include some print strategies, the primary focus is on other strategies.
Why is SPARK Important?
Dr. Herbert Klem wrote that he tried to interest several of the older African leaders in literacy. They said they were too old to become Christians. They were convinced they were too old to learn to read, and they thought they had to read to become Christians.[1]
“After over 150 years of literacy-based mission strategy, we will still miss millions upon millions if we continue believing that people must read in order to receive the Word.” Dr. Herbert Klem. [2]
“Seldom do people come to Christ exclusively by reading the Bible.” Dr. Wayne Dye.
For other websites related to orality issues click on this link.
The Host of SPARK
This site contains contributions from many Christian organizations. It belongs to the wider Christian evangelical community.
Primary Audience
The primary audience are churches, mission agencies, Bible translation organizations, and media producers who are focused on a ministry to the lesser-known language groups. The audience includes:
- Those who desire to use media for effectively communicating God’s message.
- Those with limited resources.
- Those who have the ability to navigate the site and make downloads as desired.
Within these categories, the individuals who would be the priority focus will be:
- Program directors/developers
- Product developers/producers
- Disciplers/trainers
If you fall within the above category, you can be both a contributor and a user of material on SPARK. You can be of any nationality or from any organization. Agency administrators or local level community leaders are not thought to be the “priority” audience, but will perhaps be “doorways” by which the priority individual could learn about and be connected to the SPARK site.
Application
SPARK is designed to help people make media choices largely through:
Your Right to Use SPARK Content
Unless otherwise specified, write-ups and products actually on SPARK may be translated and adapted as long as you:
- Give credit to its original creator or, if no name is given, put “From www.vernacularmedia.org.”
- Do not sell it for profit, and
- Put the same restrictions on your own resulting creation or copy.
For further details, see Copyright Issues.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions can help you learn more about SPARK.
