Christianity Today July 24, 2026 9 min signal 2026-07-24

When does biblical contextualization become syncretism?

Archived text mirror, captured for personal reading when the Signal ran. Formatting is approximate — read the original at the source.

Christianity Today

July 24, 2026

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Images courtesy of Ryan O’Leary / Edits by CT

Ministry anywhere can be challenging, but Christians ministering to Native American tribes must navigate particular tensions.

On the one hand, many Native people remain suspicious of Christianity because of historical trauma inflicted on their communities by Christian churches and denominations, and many of them promote traditional religious practices that they believe can help them heal from the past.

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But there’s also cause for optimism. Powerful conversion stories to Christianity, however sparse, are growing among tribal people. A new crop of young Native evangelicals carry a passion to reach their people. And many Indigenous Christian leaders are—day in and day out—faithfully loving and serving their communities.

I recently had a conversation with one of those leaders, Ryan O’Leary, about what he’s seeing in ministry, including native-language revitalization efforts, racial reconciliation, and ongoing Native debates about religious contextualization and syncretism. O’Leary is a member of the Ojibwe tribe and president of the National Association of Native Evangelicals, an organization aiming to equip, unite, and encourage Indigenous Christians. He’s been involved in Native ministry for 25 years and has helped lead a number of justice-oriented initiatives. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Bible translation projects and some Native American ministries play a vital role in revitalizing Indigenous languages, most of which are considered endangered. How are those efforts going, and what kind of impact is it having on the ground?

I think results are mixed.

SIL Global has some powerful participatory language initiatives where they bring together people who want to learn Indigenous languages through conversational groups instead of in formal academic classes. Bible translation projects and other ministries also play a role. Wycliffe, the Bible translation organization, works with Native speakers to create writing systems for previously unwritten tongues. Some Native pastors alternate languages during sermons, like Jackie Holgate of Arizona’s Mountaintop Church, who switches between Navajo and English. And InterVarsity’s Native Ministries encourages students to sing in Native languages, among other discipleship measures.

But we could be doing so much more. I don’t see a lot of evangelistic ministries, Native or not, prioritizing language revitalization. Many Natives in the US already speak English, so people might think it’s not critical. Translation work, in particular, can also be slow and difficult—the Choctaw Bible translation has been in progress for 200 years.

But the work is still needed. Pentecost shows us God is the giver of language, and I believe it’s one of his good and perfect gifts (James 1:17). Language connects us. I’ve seen that ministering to Native people in their own languages can lead to more trust and intimate conversations. It can be a way to heal historical trauma tied to Native languages. And we should revitalize languages that are endangered in part for purposes of justice, reconciliation, and redemption: A lot of tribal members were conditioned not to transmit their languages in Indian Residential Schools, many of which were managed by churches and denominations.

Today, many young Natives are losing their culture. I appreciate the language revitalization work emphasized by the tribal college movement, for example. I teach business classes at a tribal college. These schools aren’t Christian colleges, and I don’t agree with everything they teach, but they are doing wonderful work around languages that churches could learn from and partner with. It would be a powerful witness after some people claiming Christ sought to destroy Native languages.

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You learned your family’s Indigenous language in your 40s. What was that journey like?

I learned Ojibwemowin in the classroom. Native language use was required by Leech Lake Tribal College, a school in Minnesota where I teach courses.

I’m not proficient yet. But learning has also been an enjoyable (and fascinating) gift. I was finally able to verify my clan. I use Ojibwe as much as I can in the classroom. I use it to introduce myself when I preach to Native and non-Native people and then translate what I said to English. It’s hard to pick up. And it can be humbling when you can’t acquire a good accent in a Native language. But Natives simply appreciate and respect the effort.

I’ve heard you say that language revitalization can bridge broader gaps among Native Christians who disagree on ministry methods among Indigenous populations. Can you talk to me about that?

One of the most divisive issues in Native ministry is what parts of Native culture to use and not use.

To oversimplify it: On one side you have those who believe all of Native culture, including aspects of traditional Native religions, are redeemable. On the other, you have those who believe we can’t learn anything from Native culture; it’s demonic. They say we don’t find our identity in culture; we find it in Jesus. For example, Craig Smith, a respected Native Christian leader, notes that in the Old Testament, when objects were used for idol worship, they were ground down and destroyed. Not redeemed.

My response is that it’s impossible not to have culture if you have language, wear clothing, eat food, style your hair and clothes, and listen to music. We can express parts of our culture that align with biblical truth without veering into compromises. There’s a middle ground we can have in all of this. And that’s a key benefit of teaching Native languages. They’re a neutral ground created by God, neither evil nor syncretistic—yet honoring and reviving his image in Native culture.

What specific practices are leading to disagreement today?

People disagree, for example, on whether or not to incorporate Native drumming or on “smudging”—a ceremony of burning sage in a bowl as an act of purification—during prayer and worship. They disagree on sweat lodges, a traditional spiritual experience where people hallucinate because it’s so hot and attempt to commune with spirits. Some Christians say they can use sweat lodges to commune with the Holy Spirit, though other people can try to commune with multiple spirits.

People also disagree on powwows, gatherings that incorporate elements from Native religions and have a spiritual dimension. Some would choose to observe a powwow yet avoid dancing in it, hoping to build relationships to ultimately evangelize. Others avoid them altogether.

So some believe incorporating these practices is contextualizing the gospel to Native communities, but others say it’s syncretism.

Much of it is like the biblical debate over food sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 8). Paul exhorts us toward liberty as well as protecting others’ hearts (vv. 4–6, 9). But one chapter later, he encourages cultural participation for the sake of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:20–22).

I believe we must always reject syncretistic practices and not try to incorporate it into the church or in our lives. But we can support and encourage the practice of biblical contextualization.

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What do you see as the way forward in light of these debates?

I use this rubric to discern between syncretism and contextualization:

First, does this cause other believers to become weaker and stumble or become spiritually stronger (1 Corinthians 8:9–13)? Secondly, are we using God’s Word as the supreme decision-making authority (Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 3:16–17)? Thirdly, are we motivated by a love for God and all people, including those with whom we disagree (John 13:35; 1 Corinthians 13:1)? Thinking in these terms will help us navigate disagreements.

Similarly, what do you see as the way forward for Native American communities and the American church? How do we inch closer to ethnic reconciliation and justice?

Part of what has always been needed is the whole counsel of God. Reconciliation is biblical (Ephesians 2:14–15; 2 Corinthians 5:18). And the word justice came out of Jesus’ mouth (Luke 11:42), so it’s important for Christians to engage in dialogue about what biblical justice looks like.

Proverbs emphasizes the need to gain understanding. As more non-Native people come to learn about Native ministry, we can help them understand what we, as Native people, have gone through and who we are today, both in terms of our strengths and struggles.

One time, a colleague and I went to a pregnancy care center to teach their staff about Native people, history, and ministry. Afterward, I got a note from an employee there who told me that she had held some animosity against Native people because her non-Native son had been mistreated by some young people at a reservation. She told me she was touched by what we had shared and that she was letting go of the hostility that she held.

Another Christian ministry that has taken steps toward ministering to Native people asked Craig Smith and me to train their 1,200-member staff. To me, that’s evidence of God at work on behalf of Native peoples.

Truth telling and education are part of justice, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, including about history. People who know true history are likely to have more empathy, compassion, and understanding, which will help with reconciliation.

I typically use the example of a basketball game where one team has been favored by the refs. At halftime, the score is 110–2. What will happen if they call it evenly the second half? Could the other team ever catch up? That kind of understanding of history and of each other brings us to a place of biblical humility, and humility is critical for reconciliation.

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