http://www.wfn.org/2008/02/msg00158.html

Listening post explores Native American issues

Feb. 20, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Bill Fentum*

FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS)-The Rev. Chebon Kernell was raised in two
spiritual worlds that some people say have little in common.

He's a lifelong United Methodist who responded to a call to Christian
ministry at age 17. And he's a Seminole Native American, no stranger to the
ceremonial traditions of his ancestors.

"As a minister," he said, "I've wondered where to draw the line between the
two-or whether it should even be drawn."

That issue and others faced by Native Americans in The United Methodist
Church were analyzed Feb. 16 at a "listening post" hosted by the
denomination's Native American Comprehensive Plan.

Kernell, pastor of First American United Methodist Church in Norman, Okla.,
was among 24 clergy and laypeople invited. Participants spent two hours in
small group sessions, sharing stories of evangelism in Native communities.

The Native American Comprehensive Plan, one of five racial-ethnic plans
administered by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, plans to
hold similar gatherings across the United States during the next three
years. Information collected from the talks will be used to plan a Native
American School of Evangelism event sometime between 2009-2012.

Mistrust of the church

No more than 6 percent of the 2.7 million Native Americans in the United
States identify themselves as Christian--a statistic often blamed on
mistrust of the church.

Mission schools operated on Indian reservations from the late 1800s through
the first half of the 20th century, many of them founded by Methodists.
Children were forced to adopt Anglo-European culture, abandon their tribal
languages and convert to Christianity.

Today the Native American Church, an indigenous denomination that mixes
elements of Christian faith with tribal sacraments, thrives in Native
communities where mainline churches don't.

"They attract larger numbers of young people," said the Rev. David Wilson,
chairman of the plan's task force and superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian
Missionary Conference. "That's partly because those settings celebrate who
they are as Native people. Our (United Methodist) church hasn't always
affirmed that."

John Shotton, a member of the First American United Methodist congregation
and council chairman of the Otoe-Missouria tribe, said in a keynote address
that effective Christian evangelism among Native Americans must start with
rebuilding trust--often taking at least two or three years of tireless
effort.

Shotton told participants about Jimmy Kenner, a white Baptist preacher from
Kentucky who moved to Red Rock, Okla., several years ago to lead a Native
church.

"At first," he said, "Brother Jimmy stood out like a sore thumb. But he
started going to tribal funerals, even when he wasn't invited, to show
respect. He embraced tribal leadership and told them, 'I understand that
you have your own worship style, but I'm here if you need me.'"

That turned the key, Shotton said. Since then, attendance and activity at
the Red Rock church has picked up, and Kenner has been asked to officiate
at some funerals.

A spiritual people

"We've always been a spiritual people," said the Rev. Wil Brown, a member
of the Kiowa and Acoma tribes and former director of Native American
Ministries for the American Baptist Church. "The task isn't to introduce
God, but to introduce Jesus Christ in a way that isn't offensive to Native
people. It's a hard nut to crack."

Brown was one of several people outside The United Methodist Church who
attended the Fort Worth event. Organizers hope also to draw participants
from the Native American Church at future sessions.

Unemployment runs as high as 75 percent on some Native reservations, where
high rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide also are reported.
During the small group meetings, several people attributed those problems
to a lack of pride in Native heritage.

"Each culture God created has something to contribute," said the Rev.
Christine Eastwood, pastor of the East Homer and Truxton United Methodist
charges on New York's Onondaga Reservation.

"God affirmed all cultures on the day of Pentecost, but that got pushed
aside. We need to regain it. People shouldn't have to sacrifice their
identity, or feel ashamed of it."

Funding ministries

Native American United Methodists in the Texas Annual (regional) Conference
hold worship services on the third Sunday evening of each month at Shepherd
Drive Fellowship, a ministry of Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in
Houston. They also host an annual Houston Methodist powwow, a social event
celebrating Native heritage with music, storytelling and tribal dances.

"We hope to start a fully functional Native church," said Glenna Brayton,
who chairs the conference's Committee on Native American Ministries. "But
our immediate goal is just to survive. We're trying to run an $80,000
ministry on a $6,000 budget."

Brayton said the committee gets most of its funding through the
denomination's <http://www.umcgiving.org/content/sundays/native.asp Native
American Ministries Sunday, planned this year for April 6. However, out of
715 churches in the Texas Conference, only 91 contributed in 2007.

Some "listening post" participants said their congregations would be forced
to shut down without help from non-members and local businesses.

"Five whole people are actual members in one of my fellowships," said the
Rev. Julianne Judd, a pastor in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.
"But another 175 people drop in every month or so, and when we're in need,
they've been there for us."

More help has come when she least expected it.

"One evening," she said, "a member won the first pot at the senior
citizens' bingo hall. I told her, 'Don't forget-the preacher's accepting
your tithe!' Everyone laughed at that. But the next five winners weren't
members, and they all tithed their winnings. They gave because they've
still been a part of the life of the church."

When Native American congregations have to disband for lack of support,
members aren't likely to stay in the denomination, said Judd. "The reality
is that they'll find another Native church to go to, whether it's Baptist,
Presbyterian or Catholic," she said. "They're going to find another
gathering of Native people that will let them to be who they are."

Telling our story

The comprehensive plan's task force met the day before the listening post
to plan projects for 2008. Those include a Sept. 19-21 Native American
Women in Ministry conference and an October followup to a Native writers'
workshop held in 2007.

Last October's writers' workshop, held at the Post Oak Lodge in Tulsa,
Okla., encouraged participants to express their Christian faith in creeds,
poetry, responsive readings and short stories. Organizers hope to attract
youth and young adult writers to the event.

"There are very few Native writers in society at large, even fewer within
the Christian setting and even fewer Methodist," said the Rev. Anita
Phillips, a Cherokee and the plan's executive director. "We're still very
much an oral people."

The plan's task force seeks to publish a second edition of Voices, a Native
American worship guide first released in 1999. The revision would include
contributions from the workshop participants.

*Fentum is a staff writer for the United Methodist Reporter.

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