Founded by Cru in 2003, StoryRunners exists to equip the world’s 7,000 unreached people groups to produce and use oral Bible stories to launch communities of multiplying disciples. We are passionate about equipping followers of Christ in every unreached oral people group in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
How do we do it?
StoryRunners has a three-pronged strategy: developing stories, equipping believers to lead story groups, and introducing principles of movement building. We accomplish all of these objectives in a School of Storying workshop. The School of Storying is a fast-track and innovative residence workshop with local people who develop The Promise, a series of 42 Bible stories from Creation to the Return of Christ, in their own language in just four weeks. Here’s how we do it.
1
Detailed planning and preparation goes into selecting a focus language and finding a small group of local speakers to participate in a School of Storying workshop.
2
Our team leads the School of Storying workshop, coaching local speakers as they develop, test, and refine each Bible story so that it is Biblically accurate, is easily learned and retold, is appropriate to culture, and sounds natural to the hearer.
3
Throughout the workshop, the participants continuously learn new Bible stories and tell them in the community in one-to-one and small group evangelistic formats.
4
The participants lead story groups in their communities so that people hear the Word of God for the first time in their heart language. These stories change lives!
During a School of Storying, we work hard to ensure each story is biblically accurate, is easily learned and retold, easily understandable in a non-Christian cultural context, and uses everyday language that anyone in the culture can understand. We focus on developing the stories, as well as teaching principles of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting through a story group.
To learn more about the School of Storying, click here.
StoryRunners Distinctives
Speed
Forty stories developed in just four weeks.
Reaching Oral People Groups
The final result is seeing followers of Christ in communities of faith where
no one knows His name.
School of Storying Three-Part Focus
1) Developing oral Bible stories.
2) Training local ministry leaders to lead story groups to reach others for evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
3) Equipping them in church planting principles using stories from the Book of Acts.
Local Ownership
StoryRunners trains local ministry leaders to lead School of Storying projects on their own. Their knowledge of local languages and cultures makes them more effective, and they are often able to go to areas forbidden to Westerners.
Story Movements
- Regularly gather for prayer, Bible stories, worship, and fellowship.
- Actively draw people to Christ through life, word, and deed.
- Have recognized spiritual leadership.
This is our end goal for every project we are involved in! We want to see these stories change lives.
What Others Are Saying
“We dream of the day when Christian researchers will travel from nation to nation, city to city and village to village throughout the Earth and find no unreached people groups. The possibility of this dream becoming reality is before us today. Through the vital work of StoryRunners, we can take huge steps to overcome literacy as a barrier to the spread of the gospel, introducing millions to Jesus.”
Steve Douglass – former President, Cru/Campus Crusade for Christ International
“One of the most innovative and breakthrough strategies being implemented in evangelism today is that of
delivering the gospel through scriptural stories. The StoryRunners ministry of Cru produces 40 oral Bible stories which provide a biblical foundation for evangelism and church planting among the most remote peoples of the earth. This is a powerful strategy and a great investment.”
Paul Eshleman – Founder, JESUS Film Project
“I think the School of Storying is one of the best strategies to quickly build movements everywhere. Since my training in October 2011, my church membership has tripled. God’s Spirit has used StoryRunners to help us become more effective in evangelism, discipleship, developing group leaders and planting churches among people who don’t have the culture of writing.”
Parfait Mitchai – Cru, Francophone Africa