When the Covenant Annual Meeting voted to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery in 2021, delegates from our congregation at Community Covenant Church in Upsala, Minnesota, were there. We did not agree with everything in the statement of repudiation, but we affirmed that the doctrine was the cause of much harm to Indigenous peoples and that the Church has at times been complicit in the harm. We affirmed the need to seek forgiveness for that harm, coupled with an attempt to form partnerships with Indigenous peoples.
By God’s arrangement, within a few weeks of the Annual Meeting, we met Paul Jorgensen, one of the directors of the Mokahum Discipleship Ministry in Cass Lake, Minnesota, which he oversees along with Paul Mitchell, a Native American pastor. The school provides practical Christian living skills with biblical and academic learning.
Over the past three years, we have developed a partnership in ministry. We have traveled to the school to prepare classrooms, help build a garage and shop, and teach a class in conflict management. In return, the students and the two Pauls have come to our church to teach Sunday school, lead worship, preach, teach us about Native American culture, and share the challenges of reaching Native Americans with the gospel.
We have shared meals together at both Mokahum and Community Covenant. Some very creative ideas have surfaced as we go forward—including one suggestion to hunt together and prepare a game feed for one of our communities. Another is to accompany the Mokahum students as they go on a mission trip to a Native reservation.
We are joined by our mutual bond in Christ, a willingness to learn from each other, and the joy of discovery. We are becoming mission friends in a way our Swedish ancestors might have appreciated, and we are thankful to God for how he is moving.
