Strategy for the Gospel among the Native American

Introduction

Like any other missional church, the introduction of the gospel into different cultures requires various preparations and strategies for its success. For instance, the Indian Americans, also known as Native American cultural background related to social and religious practices, significantly differ from that of the Christian world (Duran, 2002). As a result, before spreading the word of God in such a community, the church members need to conduct thorough strategies. Most of the natives Americans lives in an isolated area within Los Angeles in which they majorly practice set of religion referred to the system of spirituality (Duran, 2002). Furthermore, they believe that this system of spirituality infuses every aspect of humanity, which comprises activities, ceremonies, and doctrine containing different supernatural beliefs. On the same note, Indian Americans believe in various deities related to underworld and nature, such as weather. According to Duran (2002), the worship of the Wakan Tanka covers a belief in the diverse spirits that associate with the universe indifferent manner. Based on such characteristics of Native Americans, the introduction of the gospel requires a well-organized mission church with standard approaches to convince them or change to Christianity.

Strategies

The local church should conduct training to the members selected for the mission. According to Whiteman (1981), training on cross-cultural evangelism would help the individuals both experienced and inexperienced in handling various issues while interacting with this community. On the same note, the training would equip the church members going for the cross-cultural ministries to know and understand basic concepts about the next task (Shaw, 1990). Furthermore, building a relationship with the Native Americans would make the church succeed in interacting with the communities in various ways.  Close association with religious leaders in such a community would offer a breakthrough to understand their religious practices enabling the church to compare with that of Christianity. As per Shaw (1990), comprehending such information allows the church members to the entry points with the gospel. Notably, building such relationships with Indian Americans would allow the exchange of various ideas of the religious concepts and beliefs from both sides hence coming to common conclusions.

Using the local religious institutions of the Native Americans act as a significant strategy in which church members would get involved in the learning of the various cultural and religious practices (Elmer, 1993). In this case, all members should get committed to the learning process and act learners in most cases to gain more information about the prevailing system religion. Building that kind of relationship results in incoming one of the Native Americans, which enables penetration of the gospel in a more comfortable manner (Shaw, 1990). As the bible states, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:20-22). Therefore, interactions through relationship building would enable the church members to find the open door of the Indian Americans in Los Angeles to introduce the word of God.

References

Shaw, R. D. (1990). Culture and Evangelism: A Model for Missiological Strategy. Missiology, 18(3), 291-304.

Duran, B. E. (2002). American Indian belief systems and traditional practices.

Whiteman, D. L. (1981). Some Relevant Anthropological Concepts for Effective CrossCutural Ministry. Missiology, 9(2), 223-239.

Elmer, D. (1993). Cross-cultural conflict: Building relationships for effective ministry.InterVarsity Press.