News

At Indigenous Seminary, Students Learn the Power of Faith Embedded in Identity

The newly accredited school promotes a theological education that’s not at odds with culture.

Graduation ceremony at NAIITS

Graduation ceremony at NAIITS

Courtesy of NAIITS

Much of Terry LeBlanc’s adult life has been driven by one question: Can you be fully Indigenous and fully a follower of Jesus?

His answer has been a resounding yes.

Over the past three decades, he and others have built a seminary to offer theological education to Indigenous people in the United States, Canada, and the world, so that they can answer yes too.

NAIITS, previously known as the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies, was founded in 1998 with a vision of seeing “men and women journey down the road of a living heart relationship with Jesus in a transformative way which does not require the rejection of their Creator-given social and cultural identity.” In 2021, it became the first Indigenous school to receive full accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools. NAIITS can now offer accredited master of arts, master of theological studies, and master of divinity degrees, as well as doctorates in Indigenous Christian theology.

Last year, NAIITS received two grants worth $6 million from Lilly Endowment to do just that. The school will use $1 million to develop a master’s program in trauma-informed spiritual care. The other $5 million will go toward creating the Canadian Learning Community for Decolonization and Innovation, a collaborative project with four other universities.

LeBlanc, who is Mi’kmaq-Acadian and holds a PhD from Asbury Theological Seminary, said NAIITS teaches people how to reimagine the relationship between faith and culture. The academic term is decolonization, which LeBlanc said doesn’t mean diminishing the power of Jesus or the gospel, but making space for Indigenous perspectives and learning to see Indigenous identity and culture as God-given instead of something to be discarded.

“There is often an assumption that Indigenous cultures are negative and should be left behind,” LeBlanc said. “All theology is culturally bound and engaged, and none is ideal or perfect. But we believed that we too could embed our faith in our culture and identity.”

At the school’s 20th annual symposium this June, scholars and church leaders looked at how Christian faith can be expressed through Indigenous music. Historically, some Christians have condemned using drums, saying they are inherently sinful. The NAIITS teachers believe they can be used to proclaim the gospel and worship God.

At the gathering, in Manitoba, one professor taught people an Indigenous worship song on drums and shakers. The people sang with him: “Jesus is good medicine / good medicine, ah hey.”

NAIITS also celebrated 11 graduates at the symposium. The school operates on a trimester schedule, with students taking online classes for two semesters and attending a third in person. The in-person trimester takes place at three partnering institutions—Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia; Tyndale University and Seminary in Toronto; Kairos University in South Dakota—so NAIITS does not need to maintain a physical campus. NAIITS also parnters with Meachum School of Haymanot in Missouri and Sydney College of Divinity Australia.

Keeping the education mostly virtual allows students to remain in their own communities, which is less disruptive and less expensive. NAIITS hopes the graduates will form deep connections to better minister in their own contexts. At the same time, they come together enough to form a common bond.

“It’s a community—we share life together,” LeBlanc said. “It’s not simply academics. And it’s also not simply Indigenous people coming together and having a hug fest.”

As NAIITS expands its vision and reach, its leadership is also growing—and changing. LeBlanc, the school’s founding director, is transitioning to director emeritus and will join the NAIITS elders along with his wife, Bev.

NAIITS leadership is being taken up by Shari Russell, who is treaty-status Saulteaux (Anishinaabe) from the Yellow Quill First Nation in Saskatchewan. Russell, who is also an ordained officer in the Salvation Army, is an example of how NAIITS hopes to help people reconcile their faith and culture.

“I didn’t know what it meant to be Indigenous and a follower of Jesus,” Russell said. “And then I met these guys. It’s truly been a wonderful journey.”

As a child, Russell and two of her siblings were removed from their home on the reserve—separated from their family and community—and put in the child welfare system. This is known in Canada as the “Sixties Scoop,” part of the long and brutal record of white Canadian Christian attempts to “help” by eradicating Indigenous culture.

That history left many, like Russell, with the sense that they had to choose: If they were going to follow Jesus, they would have to completely assimilate to Western Christian culture. If they were going to embrace their Indigenous identity, they would have to reject Jesus.

NAIITS proposes the two can be reconciled and were, in fact, never really opposed. For people like Russell, NAIITS offers the space to reclaim and relearn the parts of their identities and cultures once taken from them.

“It’s been a process. Even for some of the founders,” said Russell, who was reunited with her family and joined NAIITS in 2002. “A lot of people have been wounded before. But people come to NAIITS because it’s different.”

Danny Zacharias, a NAIITS New Testament professor who met LeBlanc while working on his doctorate, remembers when LeBlanc urged him to make his Indigenous identity central—as a person and a Christian.

“That wasn’t something we were told was important,” said Zacharias, who is Cree and Anishinaabe on his mother’s side. “We were even told it was demonic sometimes.”

But Zacharias, who is ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, came to see that LeBlanc was right. The integration of his Christian identity with his cultural heritage was transformative for him.

“Indigenous believers would say, ‘I am an Indigenous Christian’—not that I’m ‘just a Christian,’” he said. “It’s both the decolonizing of theology and rethinking what gets packaged with the Christian message.”

Another faculty member, Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson, a Yankton Sioux poet and writing professor, said the NAIITS community is special because of its Indigenous leadership.

“In the mainstream, most of the academic voices who were speaking were outside of those Indigenous communities,” said Jackson, who is also a NAIITS PhD student. “When that happens, there is a level of disconnection.”

Since the beginning, NAIITS has been Indigenous taught and governed. The school also welcomes non-Indigenous students, but their total number is capped.

Part of the mission of NAIITS, according to Russell, is to create a space where Indigenous people can do theology. But the goal is to do more than that. Indigenous theologies challenge “the Western framework Christian theology often comes in.”

She said that many Christian theological perspectives, for example, begin with the Fall in Genesis 3, when sin enters the world and separates humanity from God. Indigenous theologians, on the other hand, often start with the beauty and goodness of God’s creation.

According to Russell, a learning community that cultivates those kinds of insights not only leads to healing and flourishing for many Indigenous Christians—fully Indigenous, fully followers of Christ—it can also be a blessing to the broader church.

“The value that Indigenous world-views and epistemologies bring to our expression as Christ followers sometimes is missed,” Russell said. “But there’s so much that we have to bring that will enhance, I think, the full body of Christ.”

Hannah McClellan is a reporter in North Carolina.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said NAIITS was founded in 2000. It was founded in 1998 and incorporated in 2000.

Also in this issue

Our cover story this month explores the question, Does it matter if Christians declare their personal pronouns or use those given by others? Also in this issue: the changing face of atheism, reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream,” how churches in Appalachia are responding to the opioids crisis, and a closer look at repentance in the Gospel of Luke.

Cover Story

Should I Offer My Pronouns?

15 Percent of Churches Laid Off Staff in COVID-19. Many Are Still Looking for Work.

Reclaiming MLK Jr.’s ‘Dream’ 60 Years Later

With Eyes to See Addiction, Appalachian Churches Respond to the Opioids Crisis

Christians Could Change Adoption Laws in the Middle East. Will They?

Lawsuit Seeks Information about Missing Malaysian Pastor

A Russian Pastor Spoke Out Against Putin’s Invasion. It Cost Him His Church.

Your Mind Is on God’s Mind

Paul Put His Own Stamp on the Ancient Pattern of Opening and Closing Letters

Testimony

Jesus Met Me on the Morning of My Funeral

Repentance Is Both Vertical and Horizontal

Excerpt

Some of My Social Justice Allies Are Terrifying, and I Value Them for It

A Washington Church Grows Great Commission Wheat

Mormons Expect More of the Next Generation. Why Don’t We?

A Righteous Cry

A Chorus of Replies about Church Worship

Jesus Loves Opioid Addicts

New Atheism Is Dead. What’s the New New Atheism?

Western Theologians Need Non-Western Theologians—and Vice Versa

Review

Since When Did Pleasing God Become an Unattainable Ideal?

Review

Repairing the Evangelical House Means Renewing the Evangelical Imagination

New & Noteworthy Books

View issue

Our Latest

In the Divided Balkans, Evangelicals Are Tiny in Number, but Mighty

A leading Serbian researcher discusses how evangelicals have made a tangible difference.

Chick-fil-A Launches an App to Help Families Be Less Online

It offers the wholesome, values-centered content Christians expect from the closed-on-Sundays chain, but does the platform undercut its message?

Being Human

Anxiety Is on the Runway in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

Steve Cuss and his daughter, Kaylee, talk about the film’s relationships, patterns, and systems.

Egypt’s Redemption—and Ours

The flight of the holy family is more than a historical curiosity. It points us toward the breadth and beauty of God’s redemption.

News

Ghana May Elect Its First Muslim President. Its Christian Majority Is Torn.

Church leaders weigh competency and faith background as the West African nation heads to the polls.

Shamanism in Indonesia

Can Christians practice ‘white knowledge’ to heal the sick and exorcize demons?

Shamanism in Japan

Christians in the country view pastors’ benedictions as powerful spiritual mantras.

Shamanism in Taiwan

In a land teeming with ghosts, is there room for the Holy Spirit to work?

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube