PHOENIX — Members of the Fellowship of Native American Christians (FoNAC) voted at their annual meeting to hire a self-funded, full-time executive director to help bring a “voice” to American Indians across the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“We’re here to unite us together to train Native People,” Emerson Falls said in his president’s address. “We need a unified voice.”
The North American Mission Board has invited FoNAC, which was organized in 2008, to “sit at the table with everyone else” in the SBC, Falls said.
It’s a “total new day” for American Indians, Falls said. He noted that 150 years of sending non-Native pastors to reach American Indians and of non-American Indian church construction missions teams perpetuated a dependency that has been broken as American Indians have begun saying to themselves, “We can do this!”
The four-part motion contained the executive director’s position description; directed FoNAC officers to serve as a search committee, with authority to call an executive director; authorized the officers to revise the organization’s constitution and bylaws as needed to reflect having an executive director rather than part-time president and called for the current officers to serve until the constitution and bylaws are approved. The motion was adopted unanimously.
Fifty people participated in FoNAC’s annual meeting — a record number for the group, reported FoNAC treasurer Tim Chavis of North Carolina.
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