Southern Baptist mission efforts among Indigenous peoples in North America reached a milestone this year as the International Mission Board reported commissioning its first Lumbee Native American couple to serve Canada’s First Nations.
RJ and Elayna Locklear, along with their son, Ezra, relocated this summer to Calgary, Alberta, where they will serve as church-planting strategists among First Nations communities in the region.
“First Nations often do not have a traditional Western worldview, so ministry on a reserve where they live requires a missiology that accounts for that,” said Jeff Clark, an IMB missionary focused on rural, unreached people groups. “Our goal is that every reserve in Canada has a culturally relevant, gospel-preaching church.”
Members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Locklears bring shared Indigenous heritage and cultural experience to their ministry. Their path to the mission field, however, involved years of unexpected delays.
RJ was initially scheduled to serve in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted those plans. After marrying Elayna in 2022, health issues further delayed their departure. In 2025, the couple welcomed their son before finally arriving in Alberta in 2026.
“The timing was perfect,” RJ said. “We believe that God delayed us until now for this specific job and time to serve First Nations peoples and to share our story as Native Americans with them.”
The Locklears' work is part of a broader partnership between the IMB, the North American Mission Board and the Canadian National Baptist Convention to mobilize Indigenous believers for church planting.
IMB President Paul Chitwood emphasized the role Native American believers can play in reaching people who remain unreached.
“Far too many Native Americans and First Nations remain unreached and even unengaged with the gospel,” Chitwood said. “Clearly the most effective workers will come from our Southern Baptist First Nations and Native American churches, of which there are several hundred across the United States.”
The ministry team faces a complex road ahead. Historic mistreatment of Indigenous peoples by Christian institutions has created long-standing barriers to the Christian message.
Missionaries say their focus is on building long-term relationships and sharing the Christian message through culturally relevant ministry across generations.
