The NABS community, along with many other guests from around Sioux Falls and surrounding communities, gathered together for the annual NABS missions banquet. What a wonderful time. We had several NAB missionaries participate and several Native American guest speakers.
Randy Woodley and Richard Twiss were our featured speakers for the evening. Both of these wonderful men are key Christian leaders within the Native American community, and they are passionate about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their own people.
The process in which Woodley and Twiss are engaged is commonly called the ‘contextualization’ of the Gospel. That is, they are passionate about presenting the Gospel to their own people in a way to which they can relate. While this might seem ‘logical’, missions work has not always operated from that particular perspective. Much evangelical mission work in the past has had a difficult time separating the Gospel from our white, anglo-saxon, European, Western culture. Over time, people groups begin to assume that the manner in which their Christian faith is expressed is the norm which should be replicated in all places, and among all people groups. Therefore, the history of missions has, to a large extent, been a history of Western colonialism and oppression. Unfortunately, many missionaries have operated under the false assumption that to make a foreign people ‘Christian’, they must also make them ‘Western’ (almost always an unvoiced assumption). Western music, dress, culture, social practices, etc., were thought to be inherently superior, so it was natural for Christian missionaries to attempt to ‘convert’ the ‘pagans’ to a form of Christianity that was comfortable to the Western missionary.
The problem with this type of approach to missions is that it does not account for the fact that Western Christianity is, itself, a particular manifestation of Christian faith which was derivative from a specific, historical context. Thus, the form of Christianity with which we feel comfortable is nothing more that one valid manifestation of Christian faith. We, as ‘Westerns’, practice a valid form of Christian faith, but not the only valid form of our faith. Contextualization is about allowing the Christian Gospel to take shape from within a particular culture. The Gospel does not require the adoption of any particular set of cultural norms, but is able to be shaped into a form which is able to achieve full expression within the cultural context in which it has been ‘planted’.
The Native American speakers for this year’s missions week are fully-engaged in this process of contextualization. They are coming up with creative and powerful ways in which they can share Christ with their fellow First-Nation peoples. Since Native Americans have experienced unspeakable hardship at the hands of those who called (and still call) themselves ‘Christians,’ the term ‘Christian’ itself has powerful, but unfortunately, negative connotations, which are difficult, if not impossible, for most Native Americans to overcome. This forces people such as Woodley to really ask difficult questions about what it means to be a ‘Christian.’ For example, does one need to adopt the title ‘Christian’ to be considered for inclusion within Christian orthodoxy? Woodley shared a wonderful story about someone whom he led to Christ, but remained hesitant to adopt the self-designation of ‘Christian’. However, it was clear that this individual was truly a disciple of Jesus who made a ‘personal decision’ for Christ. Woodley also shared how he was able to use traditional Indian cultural symbols and rituals in a way which remained faithful to Indian culture while also remaining faithful to the Christian Gospel. Woodley is addressing issues and situations which are at the very heart of the contextualization movement.
