Would Jesus Eat Frybread?

So much happens each month, that there's no way I can cram it all into my monthly newsletter! Last month a couple of my teammates traveled out to Toppenish, Washington for an annual Nations conference called "Would Jesus Eat Fry Bread?"

Nations is a movement of Cru for Native American college students, one of Cru's many contextualized ministries (more about this later). The ministry exists to honor Native American students and faculty by restoring their lives and culture with Jesus Christ.

The "Would Jesus Eat Frybread?" conference is a chance for Native students from around the US to gather together to learn from each other. Similar to TCX (our regional Christmas Conference), students hear from speakers, worship with each other, and have a chance to get to know other Christians who are also Native.

The conference is a partnership between Cru, Intervarsity (another college ministry), and the Calvin Institute of Worship. Over 175 people attended, representing more than 55 tribes from places like North Carolina, New Mexico, South Dakota, Hawaii and Alaska.

For many students, this was the first chance they've had to talk about their questions regarding their identity as Native Americans and Christ-followers- Am I native enough? Can I be a native and a Christian?

I mentioned the word "contextualization" - this is the process of making the gospel accessible within a particular cultural context in an understandable and culturally meaningful way without losing the truth and integrity of the message.

For our Nations movement, this means providing worship using Native drums and languages. This means getting the blessing of a tribe and it's elders before hosting an event (hence my trip out to Washington earlier this year, months before the conference began). Last year, students at the conference took communion using frybread and grape soda, staples in native culture. Instead of staying at a hotel and meeting in a conference room, the gathering was held on the reservation with chairs set up in a circle.

The point of contextualization is to put the gospel in a more understandable, culturally relevant form by using elements of a people's language, customs and traditions. The message of the gospel, that redemption and salvation are possible through Christ, does not change. The method of presenting and transferring the gospel is dependent on the culture.

The website "Reaching Internationals" clarifies this concept with a great list of what contextualization is not:

• It is not a watering down or compromising of the gospel.
• It is not assimilating one culture into another.
• It is not segregation. It is not separate but equal. The goal of contextualization is communication. Contextualization may result in more separation but only to the degree that is necessary to produce truly indigenous leaders and movements.
• It does not mean each culture only reaches its own (whites/whites; blacks/blacks, etc).
• It is not going after corporate ‘diversity’ as an end in itself.

It was a privilege to be a small part of this conference. Due to my other travels this fall I stayed back in Minneapolis and did not attend, but I was able to assist in some of the travel arrangements for participants, booking more than 50 flights for students across the US.

(Next year, the conference will be held in Northern Minnesota on the Fond du Lac Reservation so I'm hoping to attend in person).

Expedition.

This year, Cru sent out 2 teams of interns on European missionary endeavors. The teams are called "Expedition" Stint Teams and spend one month in a different city, for a whole year. Here's a brief update from their time in Rovno, Ukraine earlier this fall:

"While one of the teams was in Rovno, Ukraine, a local pastor saw how the students were challenged with the gospel and how well they responded. Taras, the pastor, shared, "It should not have taken a team of Americans to motivate us to do the work that we should have already been doing ourselves, but it did. Thanks to this group of Americans, we (in our church) will now be taking the Gospel to students." 

As with any short-term missionary endeavor, it can be easy to question effectiveness. Our Expedition teams are no different, as they spend only 1 month in each location. But the above story is an example of lasting fruit left behind after our team moves on.

We seek to be what Jim Elliot prayed to be many decades ago:

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road;
Make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another
on facing Christ in me.”                   - Jim Elliott

A line on a page.

This fall I took a Church History class online. On almost a weekly basis I was astounded at how little I knew about the history of Christ followers. It was fascinating to learn more about whole centuries of history, and people who sacrificed so much to make the name of Christ known.

Our textbook for the class was 500 pages (no, I didn't actually get all of it read) and it covered pretty much the entire 2,000 years of Church History.

I happened to be paging through the last chapter one day, when a familiar phrase jumped out at me: Campus Crusade! We showed up in the textbook on page 499, in reference to Pope John Paul II, who attended a Cru retreat as a young man in Poland (here is a very interesting article about his interactions with Cru).

After reading the textbook, listening to hours and hours of lectures, and memorizing dozens of names of important people from church history, I was surprised to see Cru get even one line on the second to last page of my text book.

There have been so many instrumental people, churches, groups and movements throughout the last 2,000 years. Seeing Cru near the end of the book really put into perspective how small the organization is in relation to everything else that's happened in history. It's easy to assume Cru is the end-all-be-all when you immersed in Cru culture - even though that is certainly not true.

Seeing Cru in the textbook also gave me a new perspective on seeing how far we have come as a greater church body, and how close we really could be to seeing the Great Commission fulfilled.