Working Together To Create a Healthy Church Multiplication Movement Among America's First Nations People.
The Native Alliance is a family of evangelical churches that are a part of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), a protestant denomination in the evangelical tradition, that is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. You can get to know more about the history, doctrine, vision and world wide work of The C&MA by visiting their website at www.cmalliance.org.
Our History:
The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) has for over seventy years proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to the aboriginal people of the United States of America. The history of the C&MA’s Native American ministry is rich in its stories of commitment, personal sacrifice and compassion for America’s original inhabitants. Some of the prominent contemporary leaders in the denomination had, at one time, served in the Native work. The denomination has been enriched by the lives, testimonies, and ministries of men and women from numerous tribes that were won to Christ through the pioneer efforts of The C&MA.
In contrast to its rich history is the realization that for the past forty years, even with the personal sacrifice, commitment, and enthusiasm of the missionary force working among Native Americans, the work has not always progressed well. This led The C&MA to address a few years ago how it conducts its ministry among America’s First Nations people by organizing a Native American Task Force to study this issue.
The defining moment of years of study, discussion and negotiations culminated in April, 1998 with the report of the Native American Task Force which included recommendations for major changes in how the Native work was to be administered. This report received initial approval in principle by the Division of National Church Ministries in the summer of 1998, and received final approval by the C&MA’s Board of Managers in its December, 1998 meeting.
One of the recommendations of the Task Force was to include a Strategic Plan, developed from within the Native American District, that would establish the future direction the Native American District must take in order to create a healthy church planting movement among Native Americans nationwide. It would be a blueprint for change, and would seek to build consensus of those critical to the outcome.
For the first time in the history of The C&MA Native ministry, the Native American leadership has been entrusted with the responsibility of strategically planning for the future growth, development and maturing of the Native American District. Decisions that used to be made for the native people by national denominational leaders are now being made by native people in a truly indigenous district structure. Native leadership has been empowered to lead the ministry forward, and the blessing of God is evident. The Native Alliance ministry is now being looked at as a model for change by other denominations and mission organizations.
Our Vision:
We are committed to a vision for the future that includes the planting and growing to maturity native congregations nationwide that are reaching their communities, regions, and also the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Strategic Plan mentioned above is one of the documents you can download and retrieve for your personal review. The Strategic Plan gives a detailed review of our mission, vision, core values, strengths, weaknesses, goals and strategies for the growth of this ministry.
An important reminder as you look at this plan is to realize that this entire plan was prayed for, dreamed of and birthed by the Native American leadership, and not something imposed from outside. It’s our plan that we believe God has given us for our future, and to us, that is very significant!
Recent Changes:
After five years of having a full functioning district status, we have seen remarkable growth towards biblical maturity and health in our existing churches. One of the challenges we faced, though, was to extend Kingdom ministry to new areas needing churches to be planted. To address this reality, our divisional leaders determined this need would be best served by reorganizing the Native work into an association rather than a district. This way, twenty-two geographic districts will now be able to help plant new Native congregations within their geographic regions, and our churches will be more closely related to the larger Body of Christ as member churches of the geographic district in their area.
Pray with us that this change will result in many more Native Alliance congregations being planted, new workers raised up, and new resources to enable an even greater ministry to go forward.