Outreach to native Americans

[jambo]

I have not long finished reading David Brainerd's Diary and Journal and what a challenging and humbling read it was and so relevant for today in terms of true evangelism and the marks of true conversion. Since reading it, I have been curious about the situation of Native American people today and of church outreach activity into those communities. I know the Indians Brainerd ministered to are long gone with their territories concreted over with housing, industrial and commercial developments and I know the problems faced by such people integrating with society and the issue with alcohol and drug abuse.

However I understand there are a few hundred Indian reservations today and I would be interested to know what the situation is like on those reservations. Would there be any sort of a church on a reservation and if not would there be any church planting activity going on or even churches seeking to do outreach work into those areas?

 

[davejonescue]

Of what I understand, it kind of goes either way. There are Natives that love Jesus, and there are those that hate Christianity for seemingly robbing them of their culture by forcibly trying to make them assimilate into Eurocentric society. To kind of get a picture of what many of them view it as, it would be as if Al-Qauda came and conquered America, and replaced every church with a mosque, and made every woman cover from head to toe. Historically, it seems, instead of being "offered" the Gospel, via voluntary conversion. many were forced to convert; either by direct command, or fear of societal ostracization and/or indentured servitude borderlining on slavery. Many indigenous parents had their children forcibly removed to attend Christian schools. Though those seeds may have seemed pertinent at the time; generations later, it has bred a disdain for anything to do with Anglo-Christianity by some contemporary Native Americans, especially those trying to reassert and preserve their cultural heritage. So while it seems many Native Americans love and believe in Jesus, many have little to do with the church. At least Anglo-led churches.

Which has always struck me as odd, because we see no such evangelistic methodology in the NT that would be comparable.

 

[Phil D.]

Most of my life I've lived in areas with a significant Native American (Northern Plains) population, and by and large I have to agree with David. Due to historical events and a common cultural ethos Native Americans seem to be a particularly hard people group to reach in modern America - at least from a human perspective. My parents were with Wycliffe Bible Translators in the early 60's, and translated the Gospel of John into a local Lakota dialect. I am not aware of any lasting results from that effort. I also know of one other serious local outreach effort that was fruitless and ended after several years. On the other hand, I've also been a member of a church that had Native American members who were strong, exemplary Christians.

Maybe @Jack K will weigh in, as I believe he has some personal family experience with missions in areas with Southwestern Native Americans.

 

[ZackF]

Wasn’t Rushdooney a missionary to NAs at one time? I’ve only read small second hand accounts here and there.

 

[Phil D.]

Wasn’t Rushdooney a missionary to NAs at one time?

Yes, he wrote a book around his experience.

 

[Guido's Brother]

I served as a missionary to the Lake Babine Nation in north-central British Columbia. I wrote a book about my experiences there.

A few years ago I did a talk at Mid-America Reformed Seminary about the mission work of the Christian Reformed Church in North America in the American Southwest (Four Corners region). The talk hasn't been published (though I've been meaning to), but you can listen to it here:

Bringing the Gospel to Native Americans

Wes Bredenhof | Mid-America Reformed Seminary

www.sermonaudio.com

Though there are faithful Bible-believing churches on various N. American reserves, the need is still great.

 

[Jack K]

The strength of the church among Native American peoples varies a lot depending on which group of Native Americans you're looking at. Although there are some cultural characteristics shared by them all, there are also big differences in culture and history from one people to another. In some of those communities you'll find few churches, but in others you'll find many. And the reasons why depend on that particular people's history and culture. This makes it hard to give any simple answers to your question.

In general, the attitude of the "majority" (white) culture in the US has shifted in the past several decades. When my dad began his ministry among the Navajo people in the late 1960s, the prevailing view in much of America seemed to be that it was good to "Christianize" the Indians to help make them into good Americans. Now, people are much more likely to think Native Americans ought to hold onto their traditional cultures including pagan religious practices, so that Christianity is viewed as a corrupting influence. Some Native Americans buy into that; others don't.

The Navajos are one of the largest Native American peoples today, and they have also preserved their cultural distinctives better than most. The language is still widely spoken, and a visit to the Navajo reservation ("Nation" is the preferred term these days) will definitely feel like a cross-cultural adventure. Navajo communities also have many Christian churches, and there are a good number of Navajo believers. Both the Christian Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church undertook strong missionary efforts among the Navajos in the late 1800s and through most of the 1900s. The gospel was received well, and the strong Reformed base behind the missionary work resulted in many solid churches that survive to this day. That's something of an exception, though. Missionary efforts among many other Native American peoples had less success.

My sense in that the Navajo church is somewhat weaker today than it was when I was a part of it during my childhood. The early Reformed influence has waned, replaced by more Pentecostalism and by syncretism with native practices. But there are still many strong believers and good churches.

One particular obstacle to evangelism today is the way gospel-affirming, Bible-believing Christianity in the US has come to be associated with particular political stances, or certain views about Covid, or other current-events issues. The way these concerns have overtaken the gospel for many professing believers has hurt our witness, it seems to me, based on several conversations I've had recently.

 

[Jack K]

A few years ago I did a talk at Mid-America Reformed Seminary about the mission work of the Christian Reformed Church in North America in the American Southwest (Four Corners region). The talk hasn't been published (though I've been meaning to), but you can listen to it here:

Well, I'm going to have to listen to that. There's much I know from having lived through some of that, but also so much I've simply never heard about. I'm always interested.

 

[Jack K]

I served as a missionary to the Lake Babine Nation in north-central British Columbia. I wrote a book about my experiences there.

A few years ago I did a talk at Mid-America Reformed Seminary about the mission work of the Christian Reformed Church in North America in the American Southwest (Four Corners region). The talk hasn't been published (though I've been meaning to), but you can listen to it here:

Bringing the Gospel to Native Americans

Wes Bredenhof | Mid-America Reformed Seminary

www.sermonaudio.com

Though there are faithful Bible-believing churches on various N. American reserves, the need is still great.

I listened to your talk and enjoyed it. The question of why none of the Navajo churches or the Zuni one ended up in the URCNA is an intriguing one, especially since in many ways those churches surely were on the theologically-conservative side of the CRC at the time most of the conservative exodus was occurring. I agree that the reasons you suggest (sense of loyalty, little interest in confessional or Dutch Reformed distinctives, financial dependency) are likely factors in the answer. I could add a half dozen more factors, both cultural and historical, that probably played a role—though it would be good to ask the question directly to some of the men who would have been in a position to make those decisions at the time. I have some idea what my dad was thinking back then, but I've never asked the Navajo men I know about that particular issue.

If you ever want to research the question further, let me know and I will share some of my thoughts or put you in touch with a few of the men who were in leadership at the time and are still around.

 

[Tim]

Here is an account of a Reformed Presbyterian ministry in the late 19th century. This was in SW Oklahoma.

There are numerous RP churches in the plains today, but I am unaware of any current connection with Native Americans.

The White Chief of Cache Creek

 

[nickipicki123]

Of what I understand, it kind of goes either way. There are Natives that love Jesus, and there are those that hate Christianity for seemingly robbing them of their culture by forcibly trying to make them assimilate into Eurocentric society. To kind of get a picture of what many of them view it as, it would be as if Al-Qauda came and conquered America, and replaced every church with a mosque, and made every woman cover from head to toe. Historically, it seems, instead of being "offered" the Gospel, via voluntary conversion. many were forced to convert; either by direct command, or fear of societal ostracization and/or indentured servitude borderlining on slavery. Many indigenous parents had their children forcibly removed to attend Christian schools. Though those seeds may have seemed pertinent at the time; generations later, it has bred a disdain for anything to do with Anglo-Christianity by some contemporary Native Americans, especially those trying to reassert and preserve their cultural heritage. So while it seems many Native Americans love and believe in Jesus, many have little to do with the church. At least Anglo-led churches.

Which has always struck me as odd, because we see no such evangelistic methodology in the NT that would be comparable.

From what I understand, this is a pretty accurate assessment. Anyone hoping to do mission work with indigenous people in the USA or Canada will have to be very aware of this.

 

[jwithnell]

Residing in Juneau for a couple of years, I very much appreciated the living Tlinget culture in Southeast Alaska and the nearby Haida and Tsimshian peoples. It's hard to generalize, but Native Alaskans had very definite opinions about the churches depending on history. More than one person mentioned that the Presbyterians had brought them learning and that the Russian church had intervened against the violence of the early fur traders.

Many wanted to retain their language and heritage and were frustrated by Christianity = the English language and customs. You don't have to be sold out to the social gospel to realize they had a point.

Living in the lower 48 it's hard to picture just how far-flung communities can be when accessible only by boat or plane. Church planters likely shake their heads and say no to working permanently in a native community of 300 people. The mainline churches would send pastors up to hunt and fish for a few weeks in the summer in exchange for preaching a few times.

Even among those of us with European ancestory the church was far from most people's minds or interest. We had a joint United Methodist and PCUSA congregation, Orthodox, a smattering of others and Independent Baptists. You learn pretty quickly to appreciate the catholic (lower case) church when the Word was viewed as authoritative and salvation through Christ alone.