So That All May Hear
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Bible storytelling opens new paths to discipleship in Thailand
In Thailand, stories carry meaning in ways that Western-style sermons cannot. “Thailand is an oral culture,” SP staff Suzy Triplett explained. “Information is passed along through stories, proverbs, and songs. No matter their socioeconomic class, that’s how people store information in their minds.”
While searching for ways to share the gospel more effectively in Thailand’s oral culture, Suzy attended a storytelling workshop in Chiang Mai. Participants spent days memorizing and retelling Bible stories aloud. At the time, she wasn’t sure how impactful this method would be.
Months later, something shifted. “I found myself reciting the stories in my prayers,” Suzy said. “That’s when I realized how deeply they had shaped my own spiritual formation.”
"I found myself reciting the stories in my prayers. That’s when I realized how deeply they had shaped my own spiritual formation."
Her realization marked the beginning of her ministry centered on Bible storytelling—sharing Scripture orally and guiding listeners to discover its meaning together.
The story development process is highly contextualized for its audience, being both rigorous and collaborative. A team of twelve Thai believers crafts each story using Scripture. It goes through six rounds of testing to ensure it is meaningful, culturally understandable, and reproducible, with a final check by a Thai pastor.
The storytelling approach addresses a few challenges. First, the Thai Bible translation uses formal language that's difficult even for educated readers to understand. Secondly, the prevalence of functional illiteracy in urban poor communities adds another barrier to accessing Scripture. Storytelling allows God’s word to be heard and understood in a way that aligns with how Thai people naturally learn and remember.
The impact goes beyond accessibility. Last year, Suzy led a storytelling group through eight stories from the life of David. Some participants had been Christians for years, yet Buddhist beliefs about earning merit still shaped their understanding of the gospel.
Before the study began, seven of the twelve participants said they believed they needed to perform good deeds to be accepted by God. After hearing and discussing the stories together, eleven strongly disagreed with that statement, including a Buddhist.
“Many of them, who had been Christians for years, told me it was the first time they truly understood what the Bible teaches,” Suzy said. “As they studied David’s prayer of repentance, they realized that sin is against God alone and that the Holy Spirit empowers repentance, so we don't have to earn it through making merit to Buddha or to God.”
"Many of them, who had been Christians for years, told me it was the first time they truly understood what the Bible teaches."
For Suzy, this season brings new challenges and opportunities to trust God. She hopes to expand storytelling ministry into churches across Thailand by meeting with Christian leaders, seminaries, and Bible institutes—a process that requires much faith, since Thai Christianity is largely rooted in Western teaching models—to help them understand the importance of orality.
“The gospel is perceived as a Western religion because of the way it’s taught,” she explained. “But when I watch the way Thai Buddhists respond when they hear the story of God’s redemption, it resonates deeply.”
As most Thai pastors are trained in Western-modeled seminaries, many have inherited Western assumptions about how Scripture must be taught—biographical, topical, expository preaching, to name a few. Suzy hopes to help leaders recognize that the gospel can be communicated in different ways.
“Storytelling is often misunderstood,” Suzy said. “People think it’s just for evangelism, children, or people who can’t read. But it’s an adult discipleship curriculum that I’m using with college graduates who are thriving in it. I hope they start to see it’s a legitimate disciple-making tool for everyone.”
Her prayer is that storytelling will one day become foundational to discipleship and church planting throughout Thailand.
This story was published in the 2025 Annual Report.
