Who are the "Least Reached"?

DearMBchurch.ca:
           As pastor of my church, I recently filled out a survey from the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. It’s called the MB Church Transformation Survey. One question reads: “Please indicate if your church ministries will be focused on any of the following cultural, religious or other least-reached people groups: Aboriginal Peoples, Francophones, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists.”
            First off, some statistics I’ve read from Census Canada suggest that 2 out of 3 Canadian Aboriginal people are Christians. That seems like a large number, hardly the “least reached”. Except, perhaps, if you remove the 40% of Aboriginal Christians who are Catholics. Are we basically calling Catholics non-Christians? I already had a blog post about that problem in the MB church: "Sawing Off Our Own Legs".
           But more to the point, in my view, I think you could argue that Inuit and First Nations in Canada have been one of the most reached cultures in terms of Christian evangelism. And this has been tragic.
            Today we are reaping the very bitter fruit of the evangelism done to these peoples. Beginning in the 1600s and continuing until today (to this very survey question), most evangelists assume that First Nations know nothing about God. As Christians we came in and told them they had to forget everything they knew about spirituality because it was evil and adopt everything about our religion. This has been disastrous! Cultural genocide happened at the hands of our missionaries.
            What is it saying about God, to assume that God was unable to reach or communicate with a whole continent of people for thousands of years? Is God that powerless, that uncaring? I think God has always been active in Aboriginal cultures. To call Aboriginal Peoples a “least reached group” is simply bad theology.
            And to label Aboriginal Peoples this way reflects a very dangerous colonial and racist attitude. It assumes a position of power over: “We have the knowledge about God, you are lost unless we share it with you.” In 2016, why are we still referring to Aboriginal Peoples as “the least reached”? Have we learned nothing from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings?
            Can we share about Jesus? Absolutely! And with joy! But can we do this with humility, trusting that God has been active in every culture?
            Speaking as a white person, I think we have so much to learn from Inuit and First Nations spiritualities. Aboriginal people I have met are way more in tune with God’s presence in creation than almost every white person I know. We need to be reached by them! We need to learn from them how to truly revere God by respecting creation.|
            So if we have to talk about “least reached people groups”, maybe we should put white people at the top of the list. Maybe God is trying to reach white people through the wisdom of Aboriginal spiritualities.
            The question I quoted at the beginning of this post was from a “Transformation Survey”. I think that the MB church needs transformation. I think God is calling the MB church, and every church in Canada, to repent of our theological pride and our racist past that continues even to this day.

Love, Carol Penner, Lendrum MB Church

Comments

[Alanna Giesbrecht]

Amen.