黑料历史 International Ministries has established the First Peoples Initiative to reach Indigenous people in North America with the gospel. Initiatives are significant, cross-cultural endeavors that target a geographic area, a people group, a religious background or a large urban center. Each initiative includes local gospel endeavors called projects that contribute to the larger gospel initiative.
THE PLACE
The First Peoples Initiative focuses on creating gospel movements among First Peoples throughout all of North America. Approximately 5.2 million First Peoples live in the United States, and approximately 2 million tribal people live in Canada. The majority of enrolled tribal members in the United States live off of Indian reservations, with a large number living in metropolitan or urban contexts. First Nations people in Canada also live both on reserves and in a variety of contexts off reserves.
The People
In many Native tribes throughout the United States, 4% or聽less of the people follow Jesus. Many social problems聽plague First Peoples on this continent. The suicide聽rate among young Native Americans is 2.5 times聽higher than the national average. First Peoples in North聽America also suffer from high rates of financial poverty,聽alcohol and drug addiction and broken families. Many聽Indigenous leaders and scholars refer to the term聽鈥渉istorical trauma鈥 to note the high presence of trauma聽among tribal people in North America. Yet, within these聽people lies significant gospel potential.
THE IMPACT
Many tribal people in the United States and Canada view Jesus as the “white man’s God” and have a distorted image of Jesus. They have yet to recognize that, like them, he came from a tribe 鈥 the tribe of Judah. First Peoples Initiative is passionate about leading the indigenous peoples of North America to meet, know and follow Jesus.
