Geronimo and You (S&S II)

“Just two years after Cortes (the Spanish Conqueror) first laid eyes on Tenochtitlan (Aztec capitol), the entire Aztec empire – a civilization that traced its roots to centuries before the time of Christ – had collapsed. The Aztecs weren’t alone."

"A similar fate befell the Incas. The Spanish army, led by Pizarro, captured the Inca leader; a year later (with all their gold in hand) the Spanish killed the him and appointed a puppet ruler. Again, the annihilation of an entire ancient society took only two years.”

The Spanish moved North, conquering every group of people whom they encountered, until they reached what is today Southwestern USA.

“You’d think that against an army like the Spanish, the Apaches wouldn’t have had a chance. But that wasn’t the case, ‘By the late seventeenth century, the Spanish had lost effective control of Northern Sonora and Chihuahua to the Apaches. The Apaches had successfully wrested control of North Mexico- not that it was ever their desire to do so.’ This wasn’t a single accidental victory, however. The Apaches continued to hold off the Spanish for another two centuries.”

How’d they do it?

The Apache are a decentralized, open culture with no clear leader.

“If and when a leader does emerge, that person has little power over others. The best that person can do to influence people is to lead by example. There are rules and norms but these aren’t enforced by any one person. Rather, the power is distributed among all the people and across geographic regions. Basically there’s no Tenochtitlan, and no Montezuma.”

Without a king like Montezuma (Aztecs), how do you lead a people group?

“The Apaches had a Nant’an (a spiritual leader and cultural leader). The Nant’an led by example and held no coercive power. Tribe members followed the Nant’an because they wanted to, not because they had to. Geronimo is one of the most famous Nant’ans in Apache history.”

“Geronimo never commanded an army. Rather, he himself started fighting, and everyone around him joined in. The ideas was, ‘If Geronimo is taking arms, maybe it’s a good idea. Geronimo’s been right in the past, so it makes sense to fight alongside him.’”

“Because there was no capital and no central command post, Apaches decisions were made all over the place. A raid on a Spanish settlement, for example could be conceived in one place, organized in another, and carried out in yet another. In one sense, there was no place where important decisions were made, and in another sense, decisions were made by everybody everywhere.”

Doesn’t this sound similar to the early church? As I read Acts I can’t help but see the similarities: very limited positional power, people coming together as equals to engage in the mission of letting the world hear the good news that Jesus is alive. Spiritual movements cropping up all over the place, led by example.

The Apaches and the early church hold many principles for movement launching on your campus. Before we get to it, however, we need to start by recognizing two of the characteristics that made these organizations so powerful: commitment and empowerment.

They both made a commitment to the mission – the Apaches were fighting the Spanish, and the church was committed to the gospel. Next, they empowered people to engage in the mission in their own cultural context. In effect, the message was: “Here’s what we’re doing…now figure out the best way to do it in your world.”

Each group of apache knew the lay of the land in their area and thus they were the most capable people to perform a raid on the Spanish. Ephesians knew the culture in Ephesus, and thus were capable of reaching their friends and neighbors in Ephesus. As we seek to launch movements in every group of people on campus we are praying for athletes to come to Christ who can then reach athletes, greeks to launch greek movements, and so on. The mission is to launch spiritual movements everywhere so that everyone knows someone who’s a follower of Jesus.

That’s what we’re doing. Now, how are we going to do it? What is your part?