The WHY of Orality within Global Missions: Towards a theology of communication - Ep 1.1

In this episode, Billy Coppedge explores why orality is critical for the future of global missions. It will approach this by briefly looking at the nature of global missions today and critical issues that are being raised. One of the themes running through all such discussions is the nature of human persons and an argument can be made that most (if not all) of today’s crises involve some failure for interpersonal communication to happen. We will explore how critical this is because at the heart of all reality is the interpersonal communion or communication within the triune God himself. All reality flows out of the God who himself lives in perpetual interpersonal communication between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This places communication not just on a pragmatic footing—how do we get our message across, but on a much theological foundation. When we talk about interpersonal communication, we talk about the nature of God himself. We will delve into how this is unique for human persons who communicate in time and space and how significant embodiment is to human interpersonal communication. This naturally will open the door to talk about the Incarnation and begin discussing the communication methods God himself is modeling for us in and through the story of his people and Christ Jesus. All of this discussion paints the backcloth for the why of orality.