For several years I’ve been attending two churches: Albuquerque Mennonite Church, where I’ve served in various roles over the years, and Good Medicine Way, a Methodist-related Indigenous church plant.

Good Medicine Way is led by Casey Church, whom I first met at a New Mexico Conference of Churches gathering where I was the representative Mennonite. A graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, Church is a descendant of Leopold Pokagan, leader of the Potawatomi band that bears his name in southwestern Michigan.

Church and I learned that we had been born within about 50 miles of each other and that I had grown up on the ancestral land of his people in northern Indiana.

He and Lora, his wife, who is Diné (Navajo), invited me to Good Medicine Way, a congregation of local and online attenders who use Indigenous spiritu­ality and culture in a non-Western expression of church.

This includes ceremonial practices like drumming and music created by Indigenous songwriters, smudging (incense), dancing, giveaways, occasionally the peace pipe and other forms of prayer.

Online guest speakers have included Indigenous theologians Randy Woodley and Mark Charles, and Sarah Augustine, who is Indigenous and Mennonite. Augustine leads the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which I’ve been part of since its inception. This has sparked my interest in connecting with Albuquerque’s Native people.

A key resource for Good Medicine Way is an Indigenous translation of the New Testament, First Nations Version, which places Creator Sets Free (Jesus) within the context of Native culture. Published in 2021 by InterVarsity Press, it’s gained traction among Mennonites as we engage with the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery.

The lead translator of First Nations Version is Terry Wildman of Maricopa, Ariz. Recently, Church and I joined Wildman and his wife, Darlene, who were visiting Good Medicine Way, at an Albuquerque restaurant. I was curious about how the vision for the First Nations Version came into focus.

Terry Wildman is descended from Ojibwe and Yaqui people, along with English, German and Spanish settlers. Born in Michigan, he connected with his Indigenous roots as a young adult. Becoming a follower of Jesus at 18, he was called to ministry in Baptist congregations and eventually the Vineyard movement, where he honed his songwriting skills.

In the late 1990s, the Wildmans felt a call to ministry among Native people. After training with Youth with a Mission, they were assigned to the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona. There they had contact with the Mennonite-affiliated Hopi Mission School, now Peace Academic Center. One of their children attended the school. 

The idea of an English Bible for Native people developed over a long period. One catalyst was a Bible study in a tribal jail. As they searched for study resources, the Wildmans found a box of New International Version Bibles, which they passed out to the group.

“Many of the inmates had difficulty reading,” Terry Wildman said. “They usually responded to questions with answers they thought the leaders wanted to hear. The experience was less than satisfying.”

The Wildmans found a supply of Hopi New Testaments, but most of the people were not able to read from these either.

Ironically, while missionaries worked to translate the Bible into Native languages, the federal government, often with the help of church institutions, stripped Indigenous people of their languages through boarding schools and other means of cultural assimilation. Boarding school children were punished for speaking Native languages.

Samples from the First Nations Version

Creator Sets Free comes forward — Mark 1:9-11

It was in those days that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) came from his home in Seed Planter Village (Nazareth) in the territory of Circle of Nations (Galilee), to have Gift of Goodwill (John) perform for him the purification ceremony.

Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was a mature man of about 30 winters. The time had come for him to show himself to all the people and begin his great work. He waded out into the river to have Gift of Goodwill (John) perform the ceremony.

As soon as Creator Sets Free (Jesus) came up from the water, he saw the sky open. The Spirit of Creator came down like a dove and rested on him. Then a voice from the sky spoke like distant thunder, “This is my much-loved son who makes my heart glad!”

His first followers — Matthew 4:18-20

Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was walking by the shoreline of Lake of Circle of Nations (Sea of Galilee) when he saw two fishermen throwing out their nets. They were One Who Hears (Simon) also called Stands on the Rock (Peter) and his brother Stands with Courage (Andrew).

He said to them, “Come, walk the road with me and I will show you how to fish in a new way — for two-leggeds.”

They dropped their nets right then and became his followers.

The Lord’s Prayer — Matthew 6:9-13

When you send your voice to the Great Spirit, here is how you should pray:

O Great Spirit, our Father from above, we honor your name as sacred and holy.

Bring your good road to us, where the beauty of your ways in the spirit world above is reflected in the earth below.

Provide for us day by day — the elk, the buffalo, and the salmon. The corn, the squash and the wild rice. All the things we need for each day.

Release us from the things we have done wrong, in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us. 

Guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray from your good road, and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways. Aho! May it be so!

Additions to scripture are in italics.

Terry Wildman began to experiment with rewording portions of scripture in a Native-friendly way, in English, to share in the prison ministry. Also, he used a talking stick passed around a circle, an Indigenous custom that respects all participants equally.

“The men and women began to interact more with scripture, asking meaningful questions and relating more to what they were reading,” he said.

During this time the Wildmans formed Rain Ministries. They had already produced a couple of music CDs and recorded the biblical story, from creation to Christ, in a Native way. They called it The Great Story from the Sacred Book. Submitted to the Native American Music Awards, it won Best Spoken Word in 2008.

As they traveled with their singing and speaking ministry, the Wildmans shared reworded portions of scripture at tribal centers, with Native congregations and at powwows. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

One Native elder said, “You say it in English the way we think it in our language.”

Terry Wildman began to feel called to create a more complete translation of scripture. In 2014 he and Darlene published When the Great Spirit Walked Among Us, a harmonization of the Gospels in a First Nations style. It caught the attention of OneBookCanada, a Bible translation organization.

In 2015 a partnership between Rain Ministries and OneBook moved the translation effort into high gear.

A 12-member advisory council from different tribal heritages and regions was formed. Advice from Wycliffe Associates led to identifying about 180 key terms and using them consistently. These included Creator Sets Free, a literal translation from Hebrew, as the name for Jesus.

The advisory process expanded as small groups, college classes and Native ministries began to use the First Nations Version. Readers sent ideas and critiques, not unlike the community approach Anabaptists are using to create our study edition of scripture, the Anabaptist Community Bible.

The First Nations Version has been used in hundreds of Indigenous circles, Native and non-Native churches, study groups and a secular university’s religious studies department. More than 70,000 copies have been printed.

Terry Wildman continues the translation work from his home office. A First Nations Version of Psalms and Proverbs is expected to be ready for publication a year from now.

“When I’ve needed inspiration, I often look to the writings of elders like Chief Joseph or Black Elk,” he said. “I try to think of the Bible as if our elders were telling us the stories. When I get stuck, Darlene encourages me to wait for the Spirit’s inspiration.

“As far as we know, this is the first English translation done by Natives for Natives. Our prayer is that it will open Native hearts to Creator Sets Free ­(Jesus) and that it will be a gift from our Native people to the dominant ­culture in North America and to the body of Christ in English-speaking nations worldwide.”

Ken Gingerich of Albuquerque, N.M., has been an artist, graphic designer and writer for Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church USA and other Mennonite-related organizations. Now retired, he does design work for his passion projects and maintains an art studio at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque.