June 21, 2010
By Jackie Macadam

Mike Peters, pastor of 4Fires Ministry in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a member of the Odawa tribe, says the Bible is his plumb line.

"When I consider the sacred ways of the Native American peoples, I can find many of them within its pages," he says.

Peters, who helped organize today's Pow Wow in the park, sees parallels in his people's spiritual traditions and Christianity. "For instance, Native Americans ‘smoke' prayers in a sacred ceremony," he says."They use special blends of natural plant materials,which give off a beautiful perfume when burned, and the perfume takes the prayers to God."He finds that an "incredibly similar image" to the reference in Revelation to an angel sending sweet-smelling incense and prayers to God.

Few Native Americans in the United States are Christian, he says, largely because missionaries refused to take native beliefs seriously. "If you weren't prepared to accept the full European picture, the clothes, the hair ... then you were not even considered human."

Peters has nonetheless became a Christian and works with Native American youth through his church.

"I was an urban Indian, like 72 percent of Native Americans. When I was a kid I used to run to school. Not because I wanted to get there quickly, but because if I was caught by the other kids, I would be beaten, my clothes torn ... "

By the time he was 19, he says, he was an alcoholic and trying drugs. One night, he was about to smoke marijuana when he thought of his father, who was an alcoholic.

"I just realized I didn't want a future like that ... I just knew I had to begin praying for help ... That very night I flushed my drugs and the desire to drink alcohol was taken away. I haven't drunk since. God set me free that night."

Soon after, he began studying Native American culture, fascinated by its spirituality, seeing many aspects in common with Christianity.

The Uniting General Council 2010 in Grand Rapids, United States (June 18-28) marks the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Uniting General Council 2010