5 Small Loaves Ministry Begins on Navajo Reservation

Twelve years ago, Mark Charles served as  pastor of the Christian Indian Center, a  Christian Reformed Church ministry in Denver, Colo.

He and his wife, Rachel, left there two years later, feeling the call of God to live in a traditional hogan on the Navajo Reservation, which is located in parts of  Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.

Now a member of the CRC Board of Trustees, Charles says he wanted to immerse himself more deeply in the culture and spirituality of his own Navajo heritage.

“I understood that the primary purposes of this call was to experience life on the reservation, learn more about my Navajo language and culture, and identify more closely with our native peoples,” says Charles, who grew up in and remains a member of the CRC.

“Because of this, I made the intentional decision to shed all of my leadership responsibilities and positions. I knew that eventually I would be called again to lead, but first my call was just to ‘be’ among my people and allow the Creator to deepen his work in me.”

To make ends meet, he worked as a computer consultant and, after a few years, started to share what he had been learning on the reservation in various settings, to groups both inside and outside the CRC.

With all of this experience, particularly in working to heal the wounds separating native and non-native people, Charles says, he and his wife have decided  to launch a new ministry called 5 Small Loaves.

Based on the stories of Jesus feeding large crowds with a few loaves of bread and fish, the ministry’s focus is to reach audiences with the message of reconciliation found in the teachings of Christ.

It is a message they have been developing and sharing over the years. And now they see it is time to offer the message to broader audiences.

“We sense that the season of being in the ‘wilderness’ is coming to an end, and a new season of building partnerships and leading is beginning,” says Charles in a blog describing the ministry.

“It is our hope that through this organization, we will be able to not only engage in dialogue where we are invited, but also to initiate and bring these conversations to various communities, groups, institutions and organizations throughout the country. 

“We will also be able to receive people for training and provide education on issues of missions, contextualized worship, and other aspects of culture and faith.” 

The new ministry will serve as an umbrella for much of the work he has been doing — creating a voice for Native Americans to wrestle with their past and helping non-natives to better understand that history.

Among other things, he says, the new ministry will give him the chance to conduct conversations and dialogues on some of the more difficult issues, especially the ways in which Christian churches have treated native people.

Others will be joining the ministry as well.

Instead of relying on typical fund-raising model to support the ministry, he says, they are using a different approach known as online crowd-funding.

Although he has begun the new ministry, Charles says he plans to stay connected to the work he has been doing with Christian Reformed World Missions and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. He is also a member of the CRC’s Doctrine of Discovery Task Force.