Sunday, February 11, 2007

Now I'm Reading

Once again this week I was principal. She is sick again and so I had to fill in. Some firsts that I had to do is run a staff meeting (and boy was it short), go to an admin meeting that was being teleconferenced and other admin things. I am getting a little worried about the sickness and pray that she will heal and come back knowing what is wrong and knowing what to do to prevent another episode.

Inspite of the chaos of teaching and being an administrator at the same time, I was able to read another chapter of the book that I got for Christmas. The book is called "Whiteman's Gospel" and is written by Craig Smith, a native Christian who runs a mission program for Native teens called On Eagles Wings. Now anyone who knows me should not be surprised that I am reading a book on Native ministry written by a native minister and recommending that EVERYONE should read it.

So let me mention some highlights of the book for you that made me stand up and cheer and other highlights that made me want to weep in repentance. First is the notion that God uses the underdog. The Bible is full of stories of God using the unexpected and because of this there are many parallels with native ministry. God revealed himself through a tribal people of colour. Hmm sounds familiar. The book makes a hypothesis that if Native Americans became involved in cross cultural ministry, they would be very well accepted because itstead of a top down message (like white people give), it is more of a lateral message between peers who have experienced oppression and poverty.

But before that happens . . . and here comes the hard part. Before that happens we need to switch our paradigm on native ministry. Our ministry needs to be based less on the plight of Native Americans and more on their potential. We need to look less at the problems and more at what God created them to be. He told stories that maddened me about the "well-intentioned" sending a bag of high heels with only the left shoe available to natives living in the desert or sending a bunch of used tea bags. Talk about the crumbs off the table. How can Natives rise above their poverty when that is how we treat them? How can we look at what was done in the past in horror, when horrible things are still being done to them? We must remember that native christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ who are fed and sustained by Christ himself. We need to remember that we do not feed them.

This book has opened my eyes to new truths and confirmed things that I already knew and believed. So if you can get your hands on it, read it.

Have you read any good books lately?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jen!

I recently finished reading a book called "Days & Nights in Calcutta". It was written by an Indo-American and her French Canadian husband in the 1970s. Its about their experiences during a sabatical in India.

I've started re-reading "The Divine Conspiracy" which is a must read by Dallas Willard. My brother and some friends have started a book club based on it . . . its worth a second read.

jerlight said...

I'm reading "Emergent Church" by Dan Kimball. It has a great summary of post-modernism and I am excited to see his ideas for ministring in a post-modern (not anti-modern) context.