NOTE FROM RAY: There was a movie called “The Gods Must Be Crazy” in 1984. Here is the basic reason for the title: While the Kalahari Desert looks like a paradise, it’s the most treacherous desert in the world, where there is no water for nine of the twelve months of the year. Much of the first twenty or so minutes is spent documentary-style, contrasting the lifestyles between the “pretty, dainty, small, and graceful” Bushmen and “civilized” man. They’ve adapted to their environment. There’s no sense of ownership--what’s there to own?--and wood is the hardest thing there. There’s also no crime, punishment, violence, laws, police, judges, rules, or bosses. It sounds like a utopia. Compare that with “civilized man”, who adapts his environment to suit him, builds power lines to run his labor-saving devices and didn’t know where to stop. More improvements mean more complications, which is why all of us are sentenced to twelve years at school to survive in this complex habitat. So when a Coke bottle tossed from an airplane is found by Xi, a Bushmen, it disrupts their concept of the gods giving them good and useful things, as clearly, there wasn’t enough of those given them. Xi, played by real Bushmen (N!xau) sets out to get rid of the bottle.
Rice Evangelism
As part of the Many Nations, One Voice gathering in Seattle in November 2003,
Richard Twiss convened us to gather Thursday all day and then on Friday morning
at the World Headquarters of World Vision in Federal Way, Washington. They fed
us well and several of the staff engaged with us in a couple sessions.
I didn’t expect to be introduced to the World Vision Storehouse project, which offers access to a large warehouse of all kinds of products from shoes to building materials. As I thought about all the needs I have seen, and the many more that I have heard about, I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities. Gee, we could rent a big truck, or several big trucks and caravan to several reservations.
But I was thinking about what it must be like to be on the receiving end. American evangelism is full of examples of “donation evangelism”.
One of the outcomes of “giving in order to get”, is that when the giving stops, so do the altar calls. In Japan, when rice was given out during evangelism campaigns, much “success” was claimed. But when the rice stopped, so did church attendance. This is where the term “rice evangelism” comes from.
I suppose we could load up pallets of SPAM and train mobile teams of “Spam-vangelists” to feed the people and preach the Gospel. Food is the primary draw at most of America’s gospel missions, which provide needed food and shelter to thousands.
But now that natives are emerging as leaders from the “inside”, I wonder if we shouldn’t take some time to discuss and work through how we might best serve our First Nations communities and urban centers.
Donate and Disciple
Part of my response here comes from 2 emails that were sent to me recently. Both
emails came from church leaders who felt “called” to native ministry and
wanted to know to which reservations they could go to begin to “donate and
disciple”. They were so sincere, but assumed that “reservation” means “needs
more commodity boxes” and that people are willing to trade a box of food for
their hearts.
There still is great poverty on many reservations, but certainly not all. It seems though, that if your reservation is poor, then your people are fair game for “donate and disciple”. On the other hand, for those denominations that want to plant a full-fledged church with a paid pastor, they are seeking out “casino-rich” reservations in order to ensure a tithing community.
One of the realities is that natives aren’t stupid and they know when they are being manipulated. But sadly, we as the church have done this for so long, that we don’t even realize that are manipulating. And many tribes have given up on the church. They have conferences and spiritual gatherings and are looking for ways to heal themselves. The church had their chance and blew it.
But we, as emerging leaders don’t have to repeat those earlier mistakes. We can learn from what the church did wrong and try to represent Christ’s love in a different way.
I think about the story of the semi-truck that arrived at the reservation with a full load of high heels and cocktail dresses, a gift from the church. It makes me think of creating our own movie called “The Church Must Be Crazy”, like the coke bottle dropping from the sky in front of the Kalihari bushman in the other movie.
As we move forward in our ministries in both urban and reservation settings, I would like to propose that we consider our approach to the people on three levels:
1) Sharing Needs - addressing visible, outward needs
2) Sharing Hurts - addressing hurts and heart needs
3) Sharing Dreams - addressing the values and vision for the future of the people
Sharing Needs
On the level of Sharing Needs, this is the most common approach, and since it is
based on “the obvious”, and little relationship is required. And lots of
good things happen of course, and many people appreciate the good that is done
for them. But sometimes “the good is the enemy of the best”. Even though you
may be doing good by painting a couple houses, what is it that the people
actually wanted? Protocol is not often employed in these missions, but it means
that rather than doing good “at people”, perhaps we could engage with people
face to face, getting to know them as people first, and then do projects second.
I remember working with the leader of an intercessory group who wanted to “be in native ministry”. She was trying to find the name of a pastor on the reservation so that she could find out what to prayer for. I suggested that I could help her to meet with some elders directly and find out about their prayer needs. She seemed taken aback and said, “Oh we don’t want to MEET any natives, we just want to pray for them”. Sometimes, the church deals with its guilty feelings by offering prayer or donated goods, and then they feel better for a while, but they rarely feel guilty enough to build meaningful relationships.
I like what Kyle Taylor wrote recently, that natives are the most “over-evangelized and under-reached people” in the world. So as the majority church is beginning to open to us, let’s spend some effort figuring out how to share the love of Christ that involves generosity but not manipulation.
Shared Hurts
The second level of Shared Hurts is where we are aiming our Talking Circles and
other Jesus-gatherings. When we can eat and share and pray together without
forcing someone into an “official” church environment, we are making good
progress. And if you are around reserve life at all, you will know that we major
in hurt.
Shared Vision
The third approach of Shared Vision is the point we come to when we are welcomed
among the elders, and that our words and works are seen to be a healing force in
the community. Many of the elders are waiting for spiritual people to come
forward, even from outside the community, to come and bear the burden and make
the way for the future. There is much talk of the restoration of the 7th
generation and I personally think we are here. Let us not lose the opportunity
to bring the Good News of Jesus to every level of service, including this third
level of leadership.
Terry Le Blanc often works at this level, engaging an entire tribe to work and dream together, planning on ways to reach the goal of the healthy community as the people envision it. He uses a process called “Appreciate Inquiry” which you can ask him about sometimes. While goods are good, dreams may be what they really need.
If we only provide goods, we run the risk of “hit and run” evangelism. If we only have talking circles, and ignore immediate needs for safety or shelter or food, then our words will be shallow.
I have learned a lot about patience from Mark Smith, a NAIM missionary in Lilloet, BC, who waited for 12 years to see the first native begin to follow Christ. And it took a few more years for them to reveal to Mark the actual sacred word for “God” in the local language. Mark was able to move from meeting the hurts of the people, and his patience was rewarded with the trust of the elders, and he is now called on for his spiritual service as an elder among the people.
Now churches that live near reservations don’t often consider the considerable investment in relationships and years to serve a native community. In the “church planting world”, you get 6 months with the charismatics and up to 5 years with the Presbyterians (yes I have researched). If you don’t have a self-supporting church by that time, your mission is abandoned or you are replaced with a “more effective” church planter. Now the church planter may have developed excellent relationships in the community, but for most denominations, quick measurable results are what’s expected, and unmeasurable relationships count for little.
Potential Strategies
As the church, the natives have not given us a very good report card. If we
are going to be Jesus’ servants to First Nations, in a way that natives can
relate to, we need to work through our opportunities.
1. I want to generously provide for people’s needs, but not in a manipulative or controlling way.
2. I want to see Jesus-gatherings that honor the ways of the people, but not get discouraged because I don’t have all the physical assets of a church and building. I don’t want to build the gatherings by bringing in truckloads of free goods.
3. I want to serve my way to earning the respect of the elders – I don’t want to “buy” my way in.
As we may come into the ability to direct resources to native communities, let’s consider some potential strategies.
A. If we are given access to a substantial amount of goods, let’s consider going right to the Tribal Council or Elders and let them know what we can do. Instead of tying this into a church or church program, give the tribe the dignity of being able to have a hand in meeting their own needs.
B. Even if the goods we can bring will help alleviate short-term needs, why not look into the root cause of the needs? You could call this “holistic development” or community development. I know that Randy Woodley teaches about this and the concept of “shalom”, referring to the healing and wholeness of a whole community.
C. If you are in an area of several tribes, consider forming a coalition that fosters relationships between tribes. One of the harsh realities of Indian country is that a lot of neighboring tribes don’t get along too well. Washington has 29 tribes and the city of Vancouver BC where I live is surrounded by 17 reserves. Bringing in goods can be used for restoring and healing relationships among tribes.
D. Among the Northwest potlatch cultures, you might consider acquiring items that could be gifted during the giveaways. Often, the foods and supplies given away during the potlatch helped the people to make it through the winter. So instead of doing a handout of boxes at the back of a truck where embarrassed people sheepishly load up their cars with boxes, bring on the potlatch and let them have their dignity and a helping hand through the winter. Besides, most communities would give anything to have a community wide potlatch with dancing and feasting and elder’s words and the giveaway. There are so many funerals that potlatches have almost been squeezed out.
Most people outside the native culture don’t see that our native problems are not simply a lack of material goods. So we cannot let people assume that simply supplying material things is going to fix things either.
Personally I am an official “scrounger”, trying to line up building supplies and commercial kitchen appliances for a couple Shaker churches. But I am having to build relationships as I go along, and not become “Mr. Donation”. I like being “ray” among the Shaker friends I have. I don’t want to embarrass or obligate or overwhelm them.
So let’s not let the “goods” be the enemy of the best. Let’s work together — “woosh jee een” (yes, that’s Tlingit).
+ray