wfn.org | UMNS Story #215 -- Title: New Native American church sets milesto ne

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New Native American church sets milestone for ministry 

April 8, 1998	Contact:  Tim Tanton (615)742-5470  Nashville, Tenn.
(10-34-71BP){215}
					  
by United Methodist News Service

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The recent burning of the mortgage note at Triad
Native American United Methodist Church carried more than the usual
symbolism that such a moment holds.

For Triad, the April 5 note burning was a milestone for a Native
American congregation that had started a church largely through its own
self-determination. Instead of following the lead of the regional
conference or the denomination - both of which provided substantial
support - the church members took the initiative in getting started. 

Standing in front of the congregation, the Rev. Kenneth Locklear lit the
piece of paper and the smoke curled up toward the ceiling. In Native
American tradition, the smoke not only carried away a $225,000 mortgage,
but lifted heavenward the commitment and prayers of a people.

"We have come here today to celebrate a miracle," said Ruth Revels,
executive director of the Guilford Native American Association and a
trustee at Triad. "A miracle that began decades ago from a need and
desire of our people who came to the Triad from the rural Indian
communities and reservations . . . A miracle that began years ago with a
vision of Indian people and the United Methodist Church . . . A miracle
wrought by God in answer to the prayers of His people."

If the story of Triad Native American United Methodist Church is one of
miracles, it is also one of prayer and hard work.

"Our ministry started with a $100,000 grant from the Western North
Carolina Conference, made possible by the Native American Awareness
Sunday Offering," Locklear told his congregation on April 5. "There is
no debating that God and God alone deemed this church to come forth out
of the thoughts of those who would serve her."

Locklear, a member of the Lumbee tribe and graduate of Duke Divinity
School, arrived in February 1993. Triad Native American United Methodist
Church began with a Bible study at Guilford Native American Association
the next month, and its first worship service was at Smith High School.
By the following May, the new congregation was worshipping in an empty
warehouse owned by the association.

"This is the warehouse where we began," Locklear told a visitor. "That
little room on the other side of the property was our office, and across
the street is the play area that SEJANAM (Southeastern Jurisdictional
Agency for Native American Ministries) helped us build."

On June 5, 1994, the church was constituted with a congregation that
included not only Native Americans but African Americans and European
Americans also. A year later, on Sept. 3, 1995, the congregation marched
the three and a half miles from the warehouse to the new church site.

Today, the church sits almost inconspicuously in a quiet grove,
surrounded by tall, slender trees that create a canopy 20 feet above the
ground. It is a place of cool green, interspersed with blooming dogwood.
The church itself is painted in shades of green. Instead of a parking
lot, it has a paved driveway that winds among the trees, offering places
for cars while preserving the natural setting as much as possible.

The vision of Triad Native American United Methodist Church is shared by
the Greensboro District, the Western North Carolina Conference and the
broader United Methodist Church. The district provided a $50,000 grant,
and the churchwide Board of Global Ministries gave $20,000. The new
72-member congregation -- including the children -- raised the
additional $80,000 and paid off the mortgage in April 1997. A few weeks
ago, payments were completed for the church's furnishings, leaving the
congregation free of debt.

A small home has been added to the church property for outreach
ministries, along with a covered picnic area for the community.
 
Triad Native American United Methodist Church represents a milestone for
the 17,000 Native Americans in the denomination. The history of Native
American work within Methodism has centered around missions. The Triad
community and Locklear's leadership were committed to building a
self-supporting church of culturally defined Native Americans, reaching
out to the world around them in active ministry.

"This is very powerful, that the General Church has given funding to
empower a Native American church to reach their community, their way,"
said Cynthia Kent, with the Board of Global Ministries' Mission Contexts
and Relationships Unit: Native American and Indigenous Ministries.
"Native people have a story to tell about who Jesus Christ is to them.
It is through your testimonies that you can say, 'This is what God has
done for me. Think about the possibilities of what God can do for you.'
"
The work of  Triad's congregation represents "a completely different way
of doing ministry," Kent said later.

"We, as the church, did not go in there and do this paternalistic thing"
of  setting up the facility and programs for the congregation, she said.

"They empowered themselves," she said. "At the very beginning, they made
the decisions, and they asked us and told us where they needed
assistance. . . . We hope that this model will be used in all annual
conferences."

As Locklear addressed the congregation during the note-burning, he
credited another source for the empowerment.

"A divine presence has entered this city and is being witnessed in this
church," he said. "It must be, it has to be the Lord. We have witnessed
the manifest love and grace of God and, week after week, enjoy His
spirit moving, acting and healing in our midst."

# # # 

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