One Church Many Tribes Review

Though I’ve titled this a ‘review,’ it’s more of a reflection on the book “One Church Many Tribes: following Jesus the way God made you” by Richard Twiss (Taoyate Obuajin, of the Rosebud Lakota/Sioux).

“One Church, Many Tribes” was published in 2000; and author Richard Twiss has since died.

Through the pages of this book, he voiced his dream to see indigenous peoples encouraged to worship God through their own forms of music and dance; and to see the Western/white church welcome many indigenous Christian leaders.

The first of these dreams has been coming true over the last few decades.

The modern missions movement has embraced the idea of seeing God worshiped through a variety of cultural expressions, with an emphasis on fulfilling Revelation 7:9: “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.”

Unfortunately, though, it seems his dream of multiple indigenous Christians being welcomed as leaders and important voices has yet to happen. I am only familiar with three indigenous Christians who have influenced the Western church: Richard Twiss, Terry LeBlanc, and Randy S. Woodly.

This book’s most encouraging chapters, I found, are the final two. One tells the story of the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People. And the other explores how First Nations have a window to preaching the gospel in countries hesitant to trust Christians; thanks to a global fascination with them as a people.

I recommend this book to any Christian who’s interested in learning more about the ways God is using indigenous peoples to impact and build his Church.

True Canadians

Before last year, I don’t believe I ever stopped to think deeply about racism.

That may sound odd. After all, I dealt with an openly racist character in Kingdom of Bats, and The Quest and The Loss are largely about interracial interactions. It’s not as though the topic hasn’t crossed my mind.

However, I haven’t deeply thought about how it’s relevant to my life here in Canada.

Canada, in theory, embraces multi-ethnicism, and holds our Native population in highest regard. So being “racist” is, generally speaking, uncool. Doesn’t happen.

…Right?

I’d been thinking and praying about racism after the death of George Floyd, when someone said something to me that caught me off guard.

“I’m not racist,” she assured me. “But can’t they find any REAL Canadians to do (such and such a job around our community)?”

I hadn’t noticed before that the workers looked East Indian. Not because I don’t notice race, but because (admittedly) I tend not to notice people, period.

Somehow, if all the workers were white, I don’t think she’d have been so quick to assume they were recent immigrants… or declare them not “real Canadians.”

Since that event, I’ve been on a quest to learn more: I’ve collected books on racial justice for our church library; worked through some of the resources provided by an organization called “Be the Bridge;” and continued praying about the topic.

It’s a journey that I’m glad I decided to take.

I’ve actually found it’s been a great boost to my faith.

One thing that amazed me was discovering the passionate Christian leaders among African-Americans and Aboriginals. Many Christians who leave the church do so because they can’t stand the church’s hypocrisy. Yet, here are people who have suffered under some of the church’s greatest hypocrisies, and their Christian faith has endured, even thrived.

I’ve found that the story of the Israelite’s exodus from slavery takes on greater meaning when preached by an African-American. God giving Israel a specific land to call home becomes special when seen through a First Nations perspective. And many of Jesus’ actions and words take on greater meaning when viewed from a Jewish cultural context.

There’s a lot we can learn from people who have a different history and perspective.