The ION Annual Conference is coming September 17-20, 2012.  Mark your calendars to meet at the Estes Park Center located in the Rocky Mountain National Park just outside of Denver, CO. Register here

The 2011 ION Annual Conference presented great opportunities to network, as well as for new people to connect and be introduced to the what, why and how of serving oral preferenced communicators in the context of who they are. It was exciting to hear testimonies of successful ministry, as well as benefit from lessons learned. Storying was an intregal part of the program, including sessions addressing the uniqueness of a variety of training programs. There were also the opportunities to learn about new media tools and advancing technological developments. We'll continue to focus in 2012 on the complete scope of oral preferenced communicators ranging from those that work with the unreached people groups (primary orality) as well as those who work with the literate who "choose" to communicate by oral means (secondary orality). Plan to join us and beome part of a movement desiring to serve all people in the context of who they are in a relevant way.

Avery Willis, founder of the International Orality Network, remembered

The Leadership Team of International Orality Network is deeply thankful to Shirley Willis, and the Willis family clan to have shared Avery with us and the church around the world.

Many tributes can be ascribed to Avery, yet very few words can fully describe this unique obedient servant, disciple-maker leader, mission statesman, and encourager of the modern church. God has used Avery’s energetic being to participate in large revivals in Indonesia, build a large scale discipleship process, and work with church planting movements that continue around the world today. All of his labors focused with an unwavering commitment to getting to ‘zero’ unengaged and unreached people groups.

He has spoken into the 21st century church by calling her to re-learn and re-engage in discipleship. Once he understood the challenge of making disciples of oral learners, he pursued that initiative with a passion as roughly two-thirds of the world are oral learners by necessity or preference. In this journey, he personally fully lived out his life in such a vibrant and transparent way, that even in the last seven months we have been led to a place where God wanted us to be. Planted into our hearts is a new understanding about God, how to face a pending death, radical disciple-making, and finishing well.

We have had the privilege serving alongside, walking with, and peering into the focused vision from a man of God. He was a man of great faith with a passion for reaching the lost of the world. While he is worshipping, dancing, celebrating, and gazing at God’s Glory in heaven, we are rejoicing with him that he is home – and will co-reign with Christ, as we see from scripture: “those who win the victory will sit with me on the throne in the same way that I won the victory and sat down with my Father on His throne” Rev. 3:21.

We shall miss him, and we carry forward the common resolve that Avery has commenced in this new century—to make disciples of oral learners.


Join in the Global Conversation on Orality at Lausanne.org - click here!

Arkansas Democratic Gazette article on Avery Willis and ION

For an online copy of the book, Making Disciples of Oral Learners, please download this file Making_Disciples_of_Oral_Learners

To purchase a copy of the book, please click here