American Indians from 15 states and First Nations people from three Canadian provinces participated in The Gathering, a March 2–4 conference in Oklahoma City aimed at removing barriers to bringing hope to native peoples across North America through faith in Christ.
“We came from Nebraska expecting something miraculous because we need a miracle,” said Ron Goombi, a North American Mission Board missionary to American Indians in Nebraska and Kansas.
Goombi brought people from eight tribes in the two states. “Our suicide rates are so high the tribe doesn’t know what to do. The water system is breaking down,” he said. “We need to live beyond the barriers we have.”
A platform decorated simply with an Indian tepee, two feathered headdresses and a native drum set the stage at Southern Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City for the event that underscored:
• the effectiveness of telling stories, rather than sermonizing, in reaching native peoples.
• being true to the gospel while at the same time seeking to understand the worldview of American Indians and First Nations peoples.
• use of in-home groups, not just church buildings, to draw native peoples to the gospel.
“It pretty much confirmed what I had come to the conclusion of, concerning work with Native Americans,” said Richard Delores, a member of the Pueblo Laguna tribe and pastor of Laguna Acoma Baptist Mission in Budville, N.M., who brought four members — new Christians — to The Gathering.
Oklahoma City pastor Emerson Falls, a member of the Sac and Fox tribe who was among The Gathering’s organizers, had noted prior to the conference: “A lot of our Native American pastors learned to preach the western model that the missionaries taught us, which is good and effective and God uses it. But it’s not culturally relevant because our people are an oral people, and we are storytelling people, so it just doesn’t make sense that we use three points and a poem in our Native American churches, and everywhere else, they use stories.” Falls is president of the Fellowship of Native American Christians and immediate past president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Among the featured speakers, who framed their messages within a cultural context, were Grant Lovejoy, an orality specialist with the International Mission Board (IMB); Jay Jackson, a former missionary with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines who now leads a cross-cultural training ministry named Global Empowerment; Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary; and Bill Fudge, an emeritus IMB representative in East Asia who served 34 years with the mission board.
“[Though] we’re all from different places … I believe God has given us an opportunity to work together, and I think that’s kind of my highlight from it, how we can help each other, work with each other and to go forward as believers,” said Alex Sunrise, pastor of several congregations in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The Gathering was the first of two national events this spring focusing on fresh ways of reaching American Indians and First Nations people. The North American Native Peoples’ Summit, April 27–28 at Cross Church in Springdale, Ark., will aim at connecting American Indian leaders from across North America with non-natives who want to work with them.
Pandora Watchman, a Navajo from Gateway Community Church in Window Rock, Ariz., who attended The Gathering, said the American Indian context in which she lives can be daunting. “[People] feel like if they go to any kind of church — we have a lot of churches on the reservation — they’re Christian,” she said. “Even the drunk on the street will say they’re a Christian.”
The Gathering “was a lot to chew on, to think about, to pray about, but it was good; it was excellent,” Watchman reflected, saying she would be returning to the Navajo Nation “asking the Lord, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ He’s already showing me. I’ve been talking more boldly about the gospel with people.” (BP)
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