Stories tagged with: native americans

• COVID-19 shifts, doesn't stop Navajo Nation mission

  by Kayla Rinker/The Pathway, posted Thursday, June 25, 2020 (4 years ago)

  

  River Bluff Fellowship photo

  OZARK, Mo. (BP) -- With the Navajo Nation on strict lockdown due to an extremely high per-capita coronavirus infection rate and resulting cases, Scott Watson, lead pastor of River Bluff Fellowship in Ozark, knew the decision to modify the church's annual mission trip to Kayenta, Ariz., was the right one.

  "We've been going there for 13 years and bringing 30-50 people each time we go and we love it," Watson said. "But we decided to change our plans for two reasons: First, we did not want to go there and increase their anxiety and make a terrible situation even more difficult for them, and second, healthcare on the reservation is limited under normal circumstances so we wouldn't want to put our people at risk and add to the medical strain." Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: 'My heart's primary focus'

  by Gary W. Hawkins , posted Thursday, July 11, 2019 (5 years ago)

  Gary Hawkins, executive director of the Fellowship of Native American Christians, recounts his tumultuous years as a young adult before learning of God's unconditional love and call on his life Read More

• Native Americans utilizing print & video for ministry

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Wednesday, June 19, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  Photo by Marc Ira Hooks

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Ledtkey "Lit" McIntosh, one of the stalwarts who helped develop the Fellowship of Native American Christians, retired as FoNAC's chairman during its seventh annual meeting June 10.

  Reflecting the group's interest in reaching younger Native Americans, Jordan Kanuho of the Pawnee and Navajo nations was named FoNAC's new chairman. He is pastor of Belvin Baptist Church in Okmulgee, Okla. Read More

• Native Americans to offer culture, evangelism insight

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Friday, April 26, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  BP file photo by Van Payne

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- A variety of Native American tribes -- Seminole, Pawnee, Choctaw, Navajo and others -- will be represented in each tribe's traditional garb at the annual meeting of the Fellowship of Native American Christians.

  The event, set for 10 a.m.-noon Monday, June 10, is open to all Southern Baptists with an interest in Native Americans or in ministry with Native Americans. Read More

• Native Americans to discuss Gospel contextualization

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Friday, April 20, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  BP file photo by Matt Miller

  DALLAS (BP) -- A presentation of the Gospel message to demonstrate a contextual way of ministering to unreached and under-reached Native people will be part of the Fellowship of Native American Christians' annual meeting in June.

  "Everyone is welcome," FoNAC Executive Director Gary Hawkins told Baptist Press. "In the past few years some have told me they would've enjoyed attending our meeting but thought it was only for Indians, which is far from the message FoNAC wants to project. Read More

• 400 years: Pocahontas conversion discussed

  by David Roach, posted Tuesday, August 01, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Image from Wikimedia Commons.

  JAMESTOWN, Va. (BP) -- Four hundred years after the death of one of the most well-known Native Americans in history, scholars say Pocahontas' profession of faith in Christ is among the few facts known with certainty about the famed daughter of a Virginia Algonquin chief.

  Yet her conversion -- along with other key details of her life -- is absent from some contemporary portrayals of Pocahontas' life.

  "Most of what we think we know about her is legend," said Helen Rountree, author of multiple books and scholarly articles on Pocahontas. "We've actually got very few records that even mention her." Read More

• Native American evangelism: past & present examined

  by David Roach, posted Tuesday, August 01, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  BP file photo by Bill Bangham

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Following a two-day evangelism training session in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix, the Fellowship of Native American Christians is setting its sights on what executive director Gary Hawkins calls "self-propagating, self-promoting, self-supporting" efforts to reach American Indians for Christ.

  "It is absolutely essential for the [Gospel] message to become owned by indigenous people," Hawkins told Baptist Press in written comments. FoNAC must achieve "a contextualized, culturally relevant ministry while maintaining doctrinal soundness." Read More

• First Indian Baptist aims for multi-tribal reach

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Tuesday, August 01, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo provided by First Indian Baptist Church

  PHOENIX (BP) -- When pastor Shaun Whitey asked First Indian Baptist Church in Phoenix to write down their tribal affiliation, people from nearly all of Arizona's federally-recognized tribes were represented in the congregation that Sunday, 22 people groups in all, which Whitey described as typical.

  The church reaches a broad cross-section of tribal groups in its aim to carry the Gospel to all the state's reservations, Whitey said, yet faces an ongoing challenge of adequately preparing disciples who multiply other Christians. Read More

• FoNAC plans for 'Dimensions to Native Ministry'

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Friday, April 21, 2017 (7 years ago)

  PHOENIX (BP) -- Evangelicals interested in ministering among Native Americans across North America are invited June 10-11 to a two-day conference entitled "Dimensions to Native Ministry." Read More

• Native American network spreads its wings

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Tuesday, June 21, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by Chris Carter

  ST. LOUIS (BP) -– A woman in Kingfisher in western Oklahoma started crying when she encountered a prayerwalking team of Native Americans from eastern Oklahoma last year.

  "She asked what we were doing, and when we said we were praying about starting a church for Native Americans, she started crying," said Emerson Falls, chairman of the Fellowship of Native American Churches. "She said she'd been praying for a church to be started there."

  Falls spoke during FoNAC's annual meeting, June 13, prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's 2016 annual meeting in St. Louis. Read More