Proverbs

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(The contents of a previous page titled "Proverbs" has been moved to "Quotations".)

Proverbs are short, repeatable sayings found in many language communities of the world. A number of people in Chrisitan ministry have found ways to use proverbs in ministry, both passages from the Old Testament book Proverbs (Leatherwood 2002), but also local proverbs.

Local proverbs can also be fruitfully used in ministry. Even Jesus and Biblical writers used local proverbs in their ministries (Mieder 1990:8-10). One of the best known examples is in Luke 4:23, where Jesus used a local proverb to introduce a topic, “I am sure you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Doctor, heal yourself’.” He also quoted another local proverb, saying, “The saying is true, ‘One man plants, another man harvests’” (John 4:35). To illustrate a point, the Apostle Peter quoted two proverbs together, one from the Old Testament and one from the local culture “What happened to them shows that the proverbs are true: ‘A dog goes back to what it has vomited’ and ‘A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud’,” (2 Peter 2:22).

Local proverbs can be used in counseling, as ways of making the points of sermons and lessons more memorable, as a way to show non-Christians that they are not living up to their own ethical standards (and therefore need forgiveness).

Many useful books and articles related to the use of local proverbs in ministry are found in the CD The Wisdom of African Proverbs.

A number of people involved in ministry have collected proverbs as part of their ministry strategy, such as Father Cotter who used his collection as a basis for a book listing proverbs and related Scripture texts (Cotter 1991), useful for those who teach and preach in Oromo-speaking areas of Ethiopia. Suggestions for how to collect large numbers of proverbs have been prepared (Unseth 2007).

[edit] References

• Cotter, George. 1991. Gurra Miti Qalbi Male: Wangela Goftaa Yesus Kiristosif Mamaaksa Oromo / The Ears are not Important, it's the Mind that Counts: The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Proverbs of the Oromo. Addis Ababa: United Printers. (Also available on The Wisdom of African Proverbs CD.)
• Karnga, Abba. 1996. Bassa proverbs for preaching and teaching. (Proverbs for Preaching and Teaching Series.) In The Wisdom of African Proverbs: Collections, Studies, Bibliographies, Stan Nussbaum, ed. Colorado Springs: Global Mapping International.
• Kudajie, Joshua. 1996. Ga and Dangme proverbs for preaching and teaching. (Proverbs for Preaching and Teaching Series.) In The Wisdom of African Proverbs: Collections, Studies, Bibliographies, Stan Nussbaum, ed. Colorado Springs: Global Mapping International.
• Leatherwood, Rick. 2002. Snowflakes: the common ground of God’s wisdom. International Journal of Frontier Missions 19.3:26-30.
• Mokitimi, ’Makali I. 1998. Sesotho proverbs and Gospel teaching and preaching. The Wisdom of African Proverbs: Collections, Studies, Bibliographies. Stan Nussbaum, ed. Colorado Springs: Global Mapping International. (Originally published in 1997, Proverbs and African Christianity: Papers Presented at the Consultation on African Proverbs and Theological Education, John S. Pobee, (ed.).)
• Moon, W. Jay. 2002. Builsa proverbs and the Gospel. Missiology: an International Review 30.2:171-186.
• Moon, W. Jay. 2004. Sweet talk in Africa. Evangelical Missions Quarterly 40.2:162-169.
• Moon, W. Jay. 2009. African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture: A Narrative Portrayal of Builsa Proverbs Contextualizing Christianity in Ghana. (American Society of Missiology Monograph Series.) Pickwick Publications.
• Mphande, David K. 2001. Tonga proverbs from Malawi. (Proverbs for Preaching and Teaching Series, Joshua N. Kudadjie, series editor, volume 2.) http://www.afriprov.org/ebooks/tongaproverbs.rtf.
• Unseth, Peter. 2007. How to collect 1,000 proverbs quickly. http://www.gial.edu/GIALens/vol1-1/Unseth-Proverbs-Article.pdf

[edit] External links

• http://www.afriprov.org