wfn.org | Commentary: Strengthening the role of the local Native congregation

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 31, 1999 News media contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn. 10-34-71BP{178}

NOTE: The United Methodist Church will observe Native American Awareness
Sunday on April 18. A head-and-shoulders photograph of Ray Buckley is
available with this column.

By Ray Buckley*

There are 554 federally recognized Native American/Alaskan Native tribes in
the United States.  They do not speak the same language, have the same
appearance or customs. Their needs are distinct to tribe, history, location,
sustainable economic security and external social pressures. 

"Pan-Indianism" is the belief there is "an Indian" way. One voice to speak
for all Native people.  Sometimes the voice we listen to is the one of least
resistance. Those Natives and non-Natives who would imagine that they can
speak for all Native Americans should recall that the sheer diversity of
Native culture is incompatible with pan-Indianism. 

In a time when the popular notion of Native ministries within the United
Methodist Church is the creation of complex bureaucracy, the simple fact is
that the strength of Native ministry is the local congregation. Those
congregations are the least represented and the least understood in the
denomination. 

The largest recruiter of Native clergy is not the seminary or even the
National United Methodist Native American Center,  but the Native local
church. Many are second-career pastors, often Native women, who, out of love
for their people are leading multiple-church charges. These are the people
who know the varying ministry needs between the Kiowa and Blackfeet, the
Tlingit and Cherokee. They are also the most dedicated, with the lowest
salaries in the denomination and no expectation of advancement. They are
ministering to the poorest people in the wealthiest nation on earth.

The tools by which we commonly measure the success of churches are often
inappropriate for Native communities. A local Native congregation may have
low membership but be the spiritual center for an entire community. A Native
community may have retained a zero growth rate, but hundreds of its children
scattered throughout the country may look to a local church as the center of
their spiritual identity. 

Success in a non-Native local church may be measured by graph, but in a
Native community, success is measured in stability and permanence. Closing a
small-membership Native church impacts the community in the same manner as
taking away a sacred object.  

What may be effective for one local congregation may not be for another.
Native ministries simply cannot be forced into a model. 

Recently, the Native American International Caucus was seeking to "not
define an Indian, but provide ways that the church might verify Indian
status." They were examining tribal membership as one tool. The stumbling
block is that each tribe sets its own criteria for membership. Among the
Lakota and many others, one may be a full-blood Native person, but if born
outside the boundaries of the reservation be ineligible for membership.
Conservative estimates indicate that in the United States there are over
500,000 persons of primarily-Native blood who are ineligible for tribal
membership. Ministry among the Lakota and others like them would be
ineffective if the church defined a Native person as one with tribal
membership. 

In comparison, the local church's role is to be responsive to the unique
needs of its faith community. Creating a "sovereign nation" within the
church defeats the role of ministry.

Increasingly, the face of Native ministries is changing. Indigenous people
from Canada, and Central and South America are immigrating to the United
States. Many are here as political refugees. As Native people from non-U.S.
federally recognized tribes, they become people in limbo. The future of
Native ministries within the church must also include indigenous people with
no tribal status. They are one of the fastest-growing and most marginalized
groups. The needs are so diverse that no single program will effectively
meet them.  

There is specific ministry that can only be accomplished by Native people
themselves. The United Methodist Church supports tribal sovereignty (the
rights of tribes to exist as self-governing nations). This should not be
interpreted to mean that all a tribe or nation does is accepted as
incorruptible. While the church at large has the opportunity to support
broad Native issues, it is Native people and local congregations who will
become the voice of the church in issues of human rights and concerns of
social justice.  The impact on tribal communities will come from local
congregations.

There is a danger in pan-Indianism. Native congregations have struggled with
the preservation of culture and the prayerful consideration of how to
incorporate elements of specific culture into an expression of Christian
faith. They are confused by non-Native and sometimes other Native
congregations and individuals who freely borrow from their cultures to
create unique expressions of worship. That has the weight of taking
Scripture out of context.

Pan-Indianism is also viewing Native ministry apart from the local
congregation. It is establishing programs and policies that assume there is
one path to Native ministry, instead of over 554 of them. It is selecting
individuals to serve on conference or general boards and agencies because
they have some "Indian" connection, but cannot be identified with a local
Native ministry or community. 

Pan-Indianism is to strengthen our perception of "Indians" without
strengthening our involvement with and in behalf of the local Native
congregation. Our response from tribes will be in direct proportion to how
we minister to them in their communities. 

There are many Native voices within the United Methodist Church. Many have
the capacity to refresh and revitalize the church. 

Someone once asked, "What do Native people want from the church?" 

The answer is simple. Native people are offering gifts to the church. They
want the church to take them.

# # #

*Buckley is director of the Native American Office of Communications, a unit
of United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

 

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