(e)mergent Voyageurs

Increasingly, the church in North America is beginning to see our need to develop and mature in our relationship to the First Nations/Native American peoples. Historically, the history of Christian missions to these diverse people groups has been that of oppression, subjugation and even genocide (be it cultural genocide or complicit in physical genocide). Over time, this improved, though still maintaining a paternalistic condescension, in part expressed in seeing them as a “mission field”, but rarely fellow Christians, bearing equal responsibility in our global missional vocation as the Church.

Over the last decade or so, YWAM in North America is increasingly becoming aware of the challenge of relating to the indigenous with integrity and care. One aspect of this has been the increasing awareness, development and use of traditional protocol as a means of relating missionally to different groups. In most indigenous cultures there are clear cultural customs and protocols that must be observed in order to respect the people, the elders and the chiefs of any given tribe. Whether this is done in a gift exchange, a traditional welcoming ceremony or some other practice, it seeks to honour the history, culture and authority structures in place. Of course, this requires careful humility, careful research and a redemptive integrity that is mindful of possible syncretism in our involvement. While I cannot go into too much detail here for the sake of space, let me ay that it can be a truly beautiful and humbling experience to be involved with such approaches.

Interestingly, those YWAM groups who most seem to be engaging with this model are either indigenous peoples themselves (such as my good friend from the Polynesian islands) or charismatic Evangelicals. The danger I have seen in this later group has been, at times, an infatuation with ceremonies (along with their interpreted spiritual understanding) that distract from the deeper roots and purposes for the protocols themselves. Increasing energy, time and resources are invested into these protocol events, seeking to involve indigenous leaders of “higher” authority (i.e. the National Chief of Canada’s Assembly Of First Nations). While these event can be important, meaningful and impactful, many of us who minister daily within First Nations communities are beginning to see some problems with this approach.

First, because we often begin and end with these ceremonies, we do not look deeper into the origins and define wordlviews that gave birth to the actual protocols. As a result, at times we unknowingly interpret these events as though they have some kind of “magical” power to them. These physical ceremonies, divorced from their traditional meanings, are largely empty, but when understood as sacramental icons of broader truths, they offer a great deal of wisdom and promise to both parties. Therefore, the event orientation of our Western culture can often attribute too much significance in a given scenario without integrating the meaning of that ceremony into our larger worldview and daily practice of missional living. It is too easy to get caught up in the drama and emotions of these ceremonies, while neglecting the incarnational expression of their meaning in our lives and communities.

Second, while First Nations culture is tribal, thus very hierarchal as a result, their understanding of leadership and hierarchy is uniquely shaped by their worldview, making it significantly different from our own, Western models of leadership and hierarchy. Therefore, in our attempt to practice these protocols with higher levels of impact, we seek out people of higher positional authority. Though these leaders are important, we often spend more time and energy into networking with leaders whose high position actually distances themselves from the very people we seek to connect to at the grassroots.

As I have been considering this, I recognized a parallel in the emerging/missional church’s exploration and engagement with ancient aspects of Christian faith. While it is significantly important to draw from the rich traditions throughout all of Christian history, we must have the wisdom and patience to explore and understand the roots of these practices, so as to allow them to have more than the emotional impact of a spiritual novelty. Further, we cannot deny or divorce our own cultural worldview entirely from our understanding, recognizing that our own biases can often distract us from the more significant aspects and relationships that we should be pursuing.

Finally, we need to recognize and be intentional that our pursuit of the beautiful diversity around us, be it cultural, denominational or historical, is not a selfish collection of self-serving Christian beliefs and practices. Rather than this shallow consumeristic approach to faith, our pursuit of diversity should be out of a genuine desire to understand and embrace as much of the fullness of God as we can, as seen in His Creation.