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“Evangelism is living out how Christ wants us to live,” said the Rev. Mike Flowers, who with his wife, Libby Ticheli Flowers, serves the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota. “We don’t always get it right, but when that happens, we admit it, and trust that God is a grace-filled God and forgives us. 

“We don’t carry Bibles with us. People on the reservation have been preached to ... for years, and that doesn’t work. But because of the way we live, not a week goes by that we don’t have an opportunity to explain our faith and what it means to be Christian.”

The couple recently received a Harry Denman Evangelism Award in the Dakotas Conference. Mike is a licensed local pastor, and Libby is a conference missionary serving the Spirit Lake Tribe with a ministry of presence and service. 

They host 400 to 500 Volunteers in Mission each summer. The tribe defines the jobs and provides the materials, and the VIMs supply the labor. The couple also hosts monthly programs for young people and adults that begin with a hot meal followed by games, movies and “Conversations of the Faith” that focus on the role of faith in good times and bad. 

“At our first ‘Conversation of the Faith,’” Mike said, “we sat down with someone who is a traditionalist, following Native American culture only. We began discussing the similarities between our faith and his culture. At the end of the conversation, he asked, ‘When do you have services?’ ‘We don’t yet,’ I said. ‘When you do, let me know, because this is the church I would come to.’ 

“Never before had anyone from a church sat down to talk with him about commonalities. All he had ever heard from Christians was, ‘If you don’t worship the way we worship, you’re not saved.’ That’s not the way we operate or share the love of Jesus Christ.”

The Rev. Beverly Bartlett is associate pastor for congregational life at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York.