The back page advertisement was impressive. It was colorful, dramatic and artistically appealing. The ad promoted an event that would include all the ingredients of a traditional Native powwow: drumming, dancing and all the colorful regalia found in just about every such gathering around Native North America.
But the gathering was much different from the routine powwow events that fill the calendars of most Native tribes, where Native spirituality is woven deeply and intricately into every fabric of traditional cultural events. This event was not sponsored by a tribal government or other typical group. This was billed as a "Christian Powwow" and was sponsored by a Native ministry organization that was emerging on the evangelical Native ministry scene at that time.
This particular event was symbolic and represented a major doctrinal shift in the past few decades as to what evangelical ministry organizations would sponsor or endorse as inclusive of their faith, positions, and practices.
Missiologists have been hard pressed to offer thoughtful and biblically based opposition or challenge to this movement, in fear, I think, of offending the Native leaders who have been at the forefront of this new philosophy. On the contrary, these Native leaders have been receiving warm receptions in many of the halls of higher Christian academia as they seek to reshape the thinking of the next generation of Christian leaders, ministers and missionaries.
The current political and cultural climate in North America is such that opposition to any minority group's positions or statements, for whatever reason, is at least uncomfortable, if not downright dangerous. Blaming America's dominant society for all of America's ills continues to be popular in the 21st Century.
Historical orthodoxy and positions of many Bible believing churches, denominations, and mission organizations are being publicly challenged by some of the more vocal Native leaders in this movement. Remarkably, those sharp criticisms of the larger Body of Christ have actually resulted in an awkwardly enthusiastic acceptance in churches across the land.
Right after receiving a fairly severe missiological tongue lashing, God's mesmerized and guilt-ridden people often open their wallets. This has helped further this, and other like-minded organizations and their purposes, enabling this teaching to be promoted further.
What isn't understood as much, though, is the fact that not all evangelical Indigenous Christian leaders, including myself, have bought into this new doctrinal perspective and paradigm shift in methodologies. A band of like-minded leaders have stood consistently opposed to this teaching, as it has attempted to move into the congregations in which we have oversight.
In the North American Indigenous context, culture and spirituality is not compartmentalized as it is in Western culture. Native culture and spirituality coexist as mutually necessary towards completing each other's working self-definitions. To a traditional North American Native person, spirituality is our culture, and our culture is our spirituality. Even the smallest of everyday things and activities can have significant spiritual implications.
Its closest parallel can be found within Christian faith and teaching. God calls true Christ followers to consider everything we do as done for the glory of God. Colossians 1:17 says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
But that is where the comparisons stop. Christian faith is different from the spirituality associated with any human culture. The lines between the two are being blurred when something other than biblical truth defines what Christian spirituality is for us as Indigenous people.
That is why my heart has been heavy about addressing this issue, without compromise, from the only source of true spirituality: God's Holy Word. When you have been in Native ministry as long as I have, you consistently endure a broken heart because of your people's lack of response to the only hope available that can liberate a soul. I often feel like the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, who describes my broken heart with his own when he wrote in Jeremiah 9:1, "Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people."
Native work, in and of itself, is challenging. We now have had to add to the mix a new battlefront. It is the battle against new methodologies of compromise that have made their way into evangelicalism. These can seem more appealing because they incorporate the gospel into the spiritualities born out of fallen human nature and cultures. That makes my heartache only deepen.
I love my people with all my heart. I grieve when the enemy of our souls manifests his mayhem in our communities through violence, abuses of all sorts, rampant drug use and abuse and, as my dear friend Ron Hutchcraft describes, so many fresh graves.
The hope that I have found through Jesus Christ has been the most powerful thing in my life. He has transformed me, forgiven me and empowered me to live and love life unencumbered by even the physical limitations that often destroy people and cause them to be angry with God.
The peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) is a daily experience for me, and I long to see more of my people experience all the fullness Christ offers if they'd only turn to Him, accept His free gift of salvation and live with a new found hope for eternity!
That's why I love God's Word so much and am so passionate to uphold its truths when they are being compromised by those, who Scriptures say, carry with them every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14) that is contrary to solid biblical truth.
I'm making a clarion call for believers in Jesus Christ to return to the authority of Scripture. I trust you will have an open mind and heart to understand what the issues are, what the Word of God has to say, and then respond in obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
This self-named phenomenon known as Redeeming the Culture has been incredibly surprising to observe as it has played itself out over these past few decades. I wrote words of caution as this movement was just beginning to push into evangelical Native ministry.
One of the headlines contained in the pow-wow ad was that attendees of this Christian powwow would be able to experience culturally appropriate worship. The whole theme was to experience the redeeming of the Native American culture.
This statement alone raises a key question in my mind: How does a fallen human culture determine what is appropriate Christian worship?
Is not appropriate Christian faith and practice determined solely by the inerrant Scriptures? When did things change in Christianity where cultural relevance so blatantly replaced biblical revelation?
Non-native people often have a romanticized view of our Indigenous cultures with their pageantry, color and spirituality. They often don't understood the dark side of animism and its dependence on the supernatural. Fear is often the motivator for those in animistic worship. Seeking to appease the spirits who can and do bring harm to a family is a costly endeavor, not only financially, but emotionally, and spiritually as well.
Because of this misguided romanticism and blindness to animism's dark side, it makes it easier to understand how non-native Christians would embrace this movement. Who wouldn't support Native Christian people expressing the cultural traditions and ways unique to them in their new- found relationship with Christ?
It is a popular message in a world that now disparages, with ever increasing hostility, the dominate society in America and its historical ways of dealing with the other cultures it lives and ministers among.
This perfect storm of cultural conflict and false doctrine is easily acceptable and convenient to embrace. It has been fueled because the Christian community is moving further away from its biblical anchor in historic orthodoxy, or belief in an accepted doctrine. This results in an altered orthopraxy, a practice or action based on orthodoxy, that under scrutiny cannot be supported by those abandoned moorings.
This perfect storm produces a vicious cycle. First, it abandons the authority of Scripture. Then, it disparages the messengers of the gospel. Next the cycle begins to let other than biblical sources serve as authoritative measuring rods of acceptable practices, which then results in less than biblical worship and godly living. It eventually leads to a trip down the broad road of syncretism. People become convinced that it is the right thing to do.
Truth becomes relative. Instead of Scripture having rightful authority over every human culture, the table is turned upside down as each cultural community now exercises primacy over the Scriptures. Culture now seeks to mold and shape Christianity's message and practices into its own fallen nature.
We now find ourselves in this very environment. More than ever before, godly leaders must stand together in affirmation of biblical truth that guides and informs all aspects of Christian faith and practice. While this stand is never popular, it is of utmost importance.
Where do you stand, my friend, when someone comes to your church bringing a message that doesn't line up with biblical doctrine? I cannot stand by in silence but must proclaim the timeless truths of God's Holy Word. To do otherwise would be a dereliction of my duties as a minister of the gospel.
This is an excerpt from Indigenous Faith by Craig Stephen Smith. You can order this book through Intertribal Life Ministries. See https://intertriballife.org/store/.
Craig Stephen Smith
White Earth Band of Ojibwe is president and founder, along with his wife, LaDonna, of Tribal Rescue Ministries. Craig is licensed as a Christian and Missionary Alliance national evangelist.
