Mission as Giving and Receiving Hospitality Second-Year District Superintendents Mission Encounter

"Hospitality is a clear and high value of the Native community", observed one district superintendent. "This is an awesome extension of God's Love through the people of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference congregations. They express a deep spirituality, such as found in the Beatitudes...they know of their need of God."

As recipients of the gracious and spiritual hospitality of the Native American communities of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, ten District Superintendents from all five US Jurisdictions encountered the core of United Methodist mission this summer. The Mission Encounter for Second-Year District Superintendents is an annual program of the Mission Education Program Unit of the General Board of Global Ministries. This year’s Encounter was a six-day journey among the native congregations and people of Oklahoma.

The group was hosted by The Rev. David Wilson, OIMC (Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference) Conference Superintendent, with assistance from several conference staff and leaders from around Oklahoma. They formed a community in the Encounter and came to understand not only more about the UMC and GBGM missional enterprise, but also more of their own needs in mission.

"We caught a vision of what makes a congregation 'tick'... According to one participant. "The shared values and importance of persons, such as with the children, was very evident in these churches."

Several congregations were visited, where the DS’s learned of local programs and ministries, including native language instruction, work with youth, and the tragedies of substance abuse among native persons.

In addition to a half day spent learning more about the General Board of Global Ministries as a whole, and how superintendents can impact the missional outreach of the churches in their districts, J.D. Colbert, a banking executive and leading lay person of OIMC, gave the group a thorough presentation on issues of economic development among native American communities, and Ann Saunkeah, Executive Director of the UMC Native American Comprehensive Plan for Mission did the same for church-based ministries.

The group worshiped with the congregation of First American United Methodist Church, in Norman, Oklahoma, finding here a vibrant and exciting multi-generational community of faith. "We experienced an 'awesome spirit', at this church stated one DS.

But it was not all discussion and site-visits. The DS’s "got down and got dirty" as they participated in a Volunteer In Mission worksite at the Nagawee UMC in Shawnee, OK. As some from the group painted interior walls of the reconstructed church building, a few others dismantled and cleared away an old, long unused outhouse! District Superintendents have many talents! "Because of the 'work' experience," according to one participant, "there was a healthy balance in the week's program."

The DS’s discovered that the struggles of the congregations in their charge have many similarities to those of these ethnic congregations, and the majority churches might well learn much from the native experience.

One such learning came from the involvement and leadership of lay persons. "OIMC expects lay involvement, and quality lay involvement."

The whole encounter was an eye-opening experience for these vital church leaders. "The encounter was significant as the first-hand experience of mission....to see where my life touched that place through mission."

And they also saw the value of such mission study trips. "How do we engage churches beyond themselves? Perhaps best through encounter experiences such as this?"

"This was a very meaningful week," concluded one DS, and that really sums up the encounter for the whole group..."Mission facilitates the empowerment of indigenous persons...we saw this happening through OIMC, as a real community of people serving and guiding each other."

Several simply stated that is was a real privilege to be on this trip.