In the past, the American Christian church and its denominations operated as tools of colonisation, aiming to erase Native culture and to dehumanise Indigenous people unless they buckled under the oppressive coercion and converted to Christianity. This is evident in the myriad methods of Indian removal or, as the government was wont to call it, ‘the Indian problem’. For example, the Native American boarding school era of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when genocidal practices of abuse were effective tools of coercion, was marked by spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional abuse, along with displacement of persons on the land and disruption of language and culture. These developments are still not widely known or taught within US history. Yet it is imperative to know the boarding school was just one method of removal. For so many Native Americans, roots of bitterness are embedded in generations of their families because of these abuses, and they refuse to have anything to do with any churches. Today, science recognises the effects of intergenerational trauma as passed down genetically. There is much concern about the generational consequences of colonisation, not just for Indigenous people but for the Christian church as well. People often incorrectly refer to Indian removal as harsh treatment and this diminishes the truth of genocide. When non-Native Christians learn about the complicity between church and government, some do not know how to process this legacy of sin and shame passed on to them.

It is necessary to discuss how some church denominations are enthusiastic or feel compelled to be multicultural churches, but if the cultures remain segregated inside of the church walls, out of a need for continued hierarchy, how far have we come and what needs to change? If one attends a conference about building multicultural churches but the white church is missing from the conversation, what change is possible? The very people who need to do the arduous work of learning new ways to grow the body of Christ are absent from the conversation and addressing the major obstacles. The conference might provide insights that can help to end the struggle by offering practical asset-based teachings to help churches rise from the ashes of misguidance and false prophets that started the problem.