“Welcome to our ceremonial garden” boomed Bert Adema from an outdoor stage set up at the Indigenous Christian Fellowship in Regina, Sask. This vibrant space was once an abandoned lot but is now complete with benches, a fire pit, and murals that tell stories of resilience and reconciliation.
Adema, director of the ICF, was on stage welcoming Indigenous Christian musicians to open the ceremonial garden with an evening concert. It’s moments like this, where cultural identity and faith can come together, that clearly illustrate the idea of sharing the gospel of a gracious God that led to ICF’s founding.
The Christian Reformed Church supports three urban Indigenous ministry centers (in Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Regina). Each shares the gospel by caring for vulnerable people and meeting urgent needs such as food, clothing, and support. Yet the CRC’s Indigenous Ministry goes beyond addressing immediate struggles to also include celebrations of resilience and taking pride in Indigenous culture. Christian worship in the new ceremonial garden was a wonderful example of this.
The Indigenous Family Centre in Winnipeg also leans into creating gospel hope for the families it serves. It does this by investing in the faith formation of parents. This summer they offered family-based activities, including a special outing to Bird’s Hill Provincial Park. This gave families a chance to step beyond the city and enjoy nature together. For many, this was a rare opportunity to experience the outdoors, as limited funds often keep them confined to the Selkirk Street neighborhood.
Due to the legacy of residential schools, primarily run by churches, there can be distrust in Indigenous communities about church outreach. Christians showing tangible acts of love at the ministry centers allows them to enter into relationships with Indigenous communities, as a precursor to sharing the gospel with words.
As senior leader for Indigenous justice and reconciliation Adrian Jacobs puts it, “Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of hand. You have to do something different with your hands (before you can expect reconciliation).”
Hearts Exchanged is one way the CRC is having a conversation about changing minds, hearts, and hands so that people are equipped to share the gospel in relationship with Indigenous people. Hearts Exchanged is an eight-month learning and action journey designed to help Reformed Christians to go beyond the headlines into deep work that wrestles with how churches can become places of belonging. It does this through exploring the history and theology that led to residential schools and other injustices. Learning from this material helps non-Indigenous Christians be more aware of potential different cultural expressions of Christianity.
In reflecting on this topic at a recent Interdisciplinary Student Conference at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alta., Jacobs said, “At the heart of love is respect and doing what is right. If you don’t respect someone and treat them right, then you do not love them.” This is what living the gospel means in Indigenous ministry.
About the Author
Victoria Veenstra