Antioch Church in India!
Antioch Church in India!
One of the privileges of traveling to many cities and towns is the opportunity to witness and experience God’s marvelous acts among His people. It was a dream that became a reality as I drove up the Blue Mountains in South India and reached a small colonial town. I was there to preach during the worship service in a church founded more than hundred years ago serving the needs of the British community. Now this congregation of around 100 people is all Indians from different regions, languages and castes.
Eleven years ago when the new pastor took over, the first thing he did was to remove all the empty pews in the church building and challenged the small group of worshippers to start praying. As they enjoyed worshipping the Lord with contemporary music and songs, they were challenged to seek out those outside the church who did not worship like they did. A new Engineering College had started nearby. The pastor and elders started to meet these engineering students as well as other schools students in the town and invited them to youth rallies held on Sunday evenings. This youth rally had games, snacks, music, skits, street plays and dance along with worship and prayer being the major focus organized by the youth themselves. Many young people from other faith started to know the Lord and made decisions to follow Him. The pastor started a “Foundation Course” (adapted from the Alpha course) at his home on Sunday afternoons as a chief tool to stir up the church for evangelism and to help these seekers to grow spiritually. As the numbers grew, the pews were brought back one by one into the church building again.
They continued to pray for the unreached and, in particular, they were burdened to help unknown Bible translators and Gospel workers in remote areas with a Christmas gift parcel every year. The congregation donated useful items to make the parcel and this became a blessing to meet individual needs miraculously. The church soon became a giving church.
As they prayed, they were challenged to be concerned for North India and also beyond the shores of our country. They formed teams of young people to visit a mission field in Orissa every year and help in practical ways. This motivated the congregation and soon they were praying that God will choose one among them to be sent to Far Eastern countries. After praying for nearly seven years, the Lord raised a young engineering graduate who committed his life for this vision. But they wondered how can a small church send him to the Far East? It was at that time, two years ago, during a conference in that town, I met the Pastor for the first time and shared about Interserve’s vision of coming alongside local churches and facilitating them to send professionals to other needy countries. It was a miracle when God opened the doors and provided the funds to enable them to become a ‘sending’ church as the young man was commissioned and sent to the far away land. Many are now following his footsteps!
This church is a praying, worshiping, discipling, giving and sending church like the Antioch Church in the first century (Acts 11: 19-30 & 13: 1-3). Nothing is impossible with God. Your church and our church can also become an Antioch church making disciples locally and globally! John Amalraj
© 2010, INFOCUS, Interserve India
One of the privileges of traveling to many cities and towns is the opportunity to witness and experience God’s marvelous acts among His people. It was a dream that became a reality as I drove up the Blue Mountains in South India and reached a small colonial town. I was there to preach during the worship service in a church founded more than hundred years ago serving the needs of the British community. Now this congregation of around 100 people is all Indians from different regions, languages and castes.
Eleven years ago when the new pastor took over, the first thing he did was to remove all the empty pews in the church building and challenged the small group of worshippers to start praying. As they enjoyed worshipping the Lord with contemporary music and songs, they were challenged to seek out those outside the church who did not worship like they did. A new Engineering College had started nearby. The pastor and elders started to meet these engineering students as well as other schools students in the town and invited them to youth rallies held on Sunday evenings. This youth rally had games, snacks, music, skits, street plays and dance along with worship and prayer being the major focus organized by the youth themselves. Many young people from other faith started to know the Lord and made decisions to follow Him. The pastor started a “Foundation Course” (adapted from the Alpha course) at his home on Sunday afternoons as a chief tool to stir up the church for evangelism and to help these seekers to grow spiritually. As the numbers grew, the pews were brought back one by one into the church building again.
They continued to pray for the unreached and, in particular, they were burdened to help unknown Bible translators and Gospel workers in remote areas with a Christmas gift parcel every year. The congregation donated useful items to make the parcel and this became a blessing to meet individual needs miraculously. The church soon became a giving church.
As they prayed, they were challenged to be concerned for North India and also beyond the shores of our country. They formed teams of young people to visit a mission field in Orissa every year and help in practical ways. This motivated the congregation and soon they were praying that God will choose one among them to be sent to Far Eastern countries. After praying for nearly seven years, the Lord raised a young engineering graduate who committed his life for this vision. But they wondered how can a small church send him to the Far East? It was at that time, two years ago, during a conference in that town, I met the Pastor for the first time and shared about Interserve’s vision of coming alongside local churches and facilitating them to send professionals to other needy countries. It was a miracle when God opened the doors and provided the funds to enable them to become a ‘sending’ church as the young man was commissioned and sent to the far away land. Many are now following his footsteps!
This church is a praying, worshiping, discipling, giving and sending church like the Antioch Church in the first century (Acts 11: 19-30 & 13: 1-3). Nothing is impossible with God. Your church and our church can also become an Antioch church making disciples locally and globally! John Amalraj
© 2010, INFOCUS, Interserve India
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