PHOENIX -- There is a need to reach out more to American Indians and bring them to Christianity with the knowledge that becoming Christian does not mean losing their heritage, leaders of the Fellowship of Native American Christians said Monday.
The fellowship held its annual meeting in advance of the Southern Baptist Convention, the annual two-day event that begins today at Phoenix Convention Center.
There are about 15.2 million Southern Baptist members in the United States, but American Indian congregations make up only 440 of the 50,464 Southern Baptist congregations in the nation, according to figures released by the convention.
Lit McIntosh, president of the Fellowship of Native American Christians, used a parallel between David and Goliath to explain the proportion of American Indians who do not have a relationship with Christ -- which he said accounted for approximately 90 percent of the American Indian population -- and the amount of work that lies ahead for the fellowship.
"God has given us a God-sized task," McIntosh said.
The fellowship held a training conference Sunday and Monday, with two programs devoted to addressing treatment and prevention with regard to two leading causes of death among American Indians: substance abuse and suicide.
There are 2.9 million American Indians -- about 1 percent of the population -- in the United States, according to the National Congress of American Indians. American Indians are 510 percent more likely to die of alcoholism and 62 percent more likely to commit suicide in comparison with the rest of the U.S. population, according to the National Congress of American Indians.
Adding to the problem, fellowship Treasurer Timmy Chavis said, is a 70 percent divorce rate among American Indians.
Leading American Indians to Christianity reduces the likelihood of both substance abuse and suicide, the fellowship said.
A̶l̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶a̶f̶f̶i̶l̶i̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶S̶o̶u̶t̶h̶e̶r̶n̶ ̶B̶a̶p̶t̶i̶s̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶l̶l̶o̶w̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶C̶h̶r̶i̶s̶t̶i̶a̶n̶ ̶ The Christian fellowship is affiliated with the event* and is one of the groups permitted to meet during the annual convention of Southern Baptists, whose numbers have fallen by more than a million over the past 10 years, according to a Baptist Press article published Friday.
While white churches and church missions remain the most common racial group in the denomination with 40,597 congregations, nonwhite membership in Southern Baptist churches increased by 117.25 percent -- from 637,934 to 1,385,933 -- between 1998 and 2015, according to figures released by the convention.
The convention listed 9,867 nonwhite congregations. According to the current figures, nonwhite congregations comprise one-fifth of all congregations counted by the Southern Baptist Convention.
Macintosh said more youth was needed to continue with the fellowship's mission.
"I'm getting older ... and don't have the energy that this needs to have," McIntosh said. "We have some young men and women who are talented, and we need them to take hold of this ... for [the fellowship] to grow and do what we prayed [about]. We need to begin something that's going to carry on."
Ginny Andrews of West Palm Beach, Fla., spoke about her personal success despite her struggles on the reservation where she grew up and the backlash from her family when she decided to become a first-generation Christian.
"Growing up Lakota, I was taught that we are a strong and proud people, but my strength comes from the Lord," she said. "I'm still proud to be Lakota, and I'm proud to be a follower of Christ first and foremost before I am Lakota."
Andrews said she turned to drugs and alcohol after being sexually assaulted at the age of 18.
"You name it, I probably did it," she said.
At first her relatives were against her, Andrews said, because "being Native and being a Christian, as I've heard often, is an oxymoron." But over time, she said, they also became Christian while maintaining Lakota traditions.
"My dad, my mom, both my sisters and my nephew and two children have all accepted Jesus Christ as their savior," said Andrews, drawing a chorus of "hallelujahs."
Now a college graduate with degrees in theology and accounting, she is a Bible study teacher in a church with about 1,000 members and works part-time managing the church's financial accounts.
"I don't know who you guys are impacting, but I do know that Jesus came from the sick and the lost," Andrews said. "There's a lot of sick and lost people on our reservations. In the world, there's a lot of sick and lost people."
Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, spoke briefly about the denomination's commitment to American Indian churches, emphasizing the group's unity with the convention.
"We love you," Page said. "You are us; we are you. We feel deeply a part of what God is doing in your churches. We want to come alongside you to minister with you. We are aware ... of the deep needs among Native American peoples, of the deep losses and the pain that is generationally being carried forth. And I know of the deep desire of a part of Native American leaders to break those cycles and make a difference in their communities.
"We want to assist in any way that we can, and we want to come alongside you -- not ahead of you, not behind you, but alongside you."
Metro on 06/13/2017
*CORRECTION: The Fellowship of Native American Christians is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Its affiliation was reported incorrectly in a previous version of this article.