BPI Manual Hindi

Here is a manual to help you with training for Church planting movements.

यहाँ है हिन्दी तुम्हें चर्च रोपण में प्रशिक्षण के नेताओं के साथ मदद मैनुअल प्रशिक्षण हूँ.

BPI_Hindi

 

 

Church Planting Movements

Evangelism Follow up

Discipleship

Hindi

Church Planting

House churches

Best Practices Training Manual

Strategy Coordinator training

Mumbai Ministry

                                       

You will find a great feature on Mumbai ministry at go2southasia 

View a multimedia presentation about Mumbai at http://www.commissionstories.com/?p=141).

Find other great articles here

http://www.go2southasia.org/slumdog.html

Please see these articles about Mumbai ministry:

http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=30667

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30660

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30659

Best Practice Manual for Strategy Coordinators

Here is the practical manual in Church Planting Movements.

Many Christian Leaders have been trained as Strategy Coordinators for reaching an unreached people group or geographic segment. This manual represents some of the latest strategies that have proven effective to facilitate a Church Planting Movement among an unreached people. 

Click this link to get the BPI training manual in English:

bpi-training-manual_20082

BAKHT SINGH: Church Planting Philosophy

This post consists of excerpts from the book by T. E. Koshy on Bakht Singh. Bakht Singh has been called the greatest church planter of India of the 20th century. Here I have only pulled out remarks that relate to Bakht Singh’s Church Planting philosophy and indigenous church planting practices.

I recommend you order and read the entire book which can be ordered at:
http://www.brotherbakhtsingh.org/index.html

EXCERPTS FROM “BROTHER BAKHT SINGH INDIA”
“An Account of 20th Century Apostolic Revival”
By T. E. Koshy

Notes excerpts compiled by BDB

A Note from the Publishers
Page 7: His undivided focus on preaching the word of God, and starting new churches where positive responses were marked are highly exemplary. Not only the churches attached to the assemblies he started, but scores of other churches, barring denominational differences, which are also influenced by his style and results of ministry.

Introduction
Page 17: Indeed he was India’s foremost evangelist and indigenous church planter of world renown.

Page 19: “…for India has thought that if she took one she would have to take both – Christ and Western civilization went together.”

Page 20: “Many seriously ill were healed when Bakht Singh prayed for them, even deaf and dumb began to hear and speak.”
He noticed that even the churches were not free from segregation and discrimination based on caste.

He preached and practiced the priesthood of all believers, regardless of their status in life.

Page 21: He encouraged his listeners to pray that the Lord would raise up people like Hannah, Samuel, David, and Solomon so that God’s glory would fill the church. His vision of the church came out of his vision of the Living Lord Jesus Christ. The church consists of the redeemed people of God, which is expressed locally as a local church.

The purpose of the church is to express the Living Christ, in obedience to the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, that in all things He (Christ) might have the preeminence. This reality has to be expressed within the cultural and linguistic background of the people so that the “foreignness” of the church may be removed, without changing the distinctiveness of the church.

This distinctiveness makes the church all inclusive of all believers, of all backgrounds, all taking their part in the building up of the local church without having any distinction of clergy or laity. This led him to plant indigenous churches on the basis of New Testament Principles practiced by the early apostles and disciples. His desire was to do God’s work in God’s way.

Page 22: He also started an ‘open’ Lord’s table to which every believer was welcomed. He believed and practiced that all truly born-again believers are part of the Universal body of Christ and welcomed all believers to the Table of the Lord without any question being asked. Bakht Singh also began Holy Convocations, nine-day family gatherings where people from cities, towns, and villages, with various ethnic, caste and color backgrounds, converged together, living, eating, meeting, fellowshipping and praising God together.

Page 23: Bakht Singh believed that the living Christ was the Head of the Church and therefore in everything he acknowledged His ways rather than doing things based on human traditions or culture.

Page 24: He taught believers in the local assemblies the importance of tithing.

Page 26: In 1956 Dr. Billy Graham invited Bakht Singh to open his Madras Crusade with prayer.

Chapter 1: Bakht Singh Goes to Glory: The Home-Call of a Man of God

Page 57: “In all my missionary experience I think these churches on their New Testament foundations are the nearest I have seen to a replica of the early church and pattern for the birth and growth of the young churches in all the countries which we used to talk about as the mission fields.” (Norman Grubb)

The early years of his ministry were marked by mighty miracles and wonders, including physical healings and great revivals. People fell to the ground crying out for God’s mercy. After serving for seven years as an itinerant evangelist and revivalist in British India from Karachi in the North to Kerala in the south, and in the East from Calcutta to Cape Comorin in the Southwest, the Lord constrained him to launch an indigenous New Testament church plating movement that eventually saw hundreds of local churches planted throughout India, Pakistan, and parts of Sri Lanka.

Because of what the Lord has accomplished through him, particularly in planting indigenous churches based on New Testament principles, he can rightly be called the father of the indigenous church movement in the post-independent India.

Chapter 3: Bakht Singh Goes to the West

Page 86: I have no ambition for any other experience. The longing of my soul is that You should speak to me and show me Thy way day by day.

Chapter 4: One Body; One Spirit

Page 89: God alone knows the role the Global Church plays in relation to every believer – both born and unborn.

Page 90: In India at the turn of the 20th century the Lord burdened men like praying Hyde and other to pray without ceasing for revival in the Punjab.

Page 92: Twice a week, over one hundred of the saints were on their knees praying for something that would glorify the Lord in India.

Page 93: She (Lady Ogle) also felt that Bakht Singh was the man of God He had chosen to bring back His glory to the church in India.
In 1941, when Bakht Singh went to Coonoor to spend time in prayer to know the mind of God regarding His will for the future of the work, these men also joined him; they sought the Lord’s mind together for the future ministry in India.

Page 94: Bro. Durham could not be confined to the limits of missionary imperialism; he was ready for the advent of an Indian brother, called of God, and who would fit the true apostolic features of the book of Acts.

Page 95: It was through the publication of these books that the name and the work of Bakht Singh spread so widely, not only in India, but gradually throughout the world, because of the GLS marketing facilities far beyond the shores of India.

End notes: J. Edwin Orr, Evangelical Awakenings in Southern Asia (Minneapolis, MN:Bethany Fellowship, Inc. 1975)

Chapter 5: A Chosen Vessel for God’s Glory

Page 97: Following his conversion, God enrolled Bakht Singh into His school of suffering to prepare him to be the kind of vessel He wanted him to be.

Page 102: He became the greatest evangelist and church-planter in India in the 20th century. Here again, we see the important role of Christian homes in discipling and preparing new Christians as effective witnesses for the Lord.

Page 104: But because of Sadhu Sunder Singh’s reputation, they thought Bakht Singh also was a preacher.

Page 105: He realized that God was speaking to him through the onions, chillies, and other ingredients. The thought came to him that believers are like onions or other ingredients used in cooking. Some are hot like chillies, others are strong-smelling like onions, and others are fragrant like spices, but when all are ‘mixed’ and ‘cooked’ by the Holy Spirit, then a sweet smelling aroma of divine love will be emitted.

Page 108: “If I am suffering now, it must be for some divine plan known to God.” He thus learned to trust God completely.

Chapter 7: The Place of Glory: Martinpur and Beyond

Page 152: From 1936 onwards, the Lord brought about mighty revivals in many villages, towns and cities. From the north of India, Punjab (now part of Pakistan) to Kerala in the south, the fire of revival broke out and spread to more than 70 places in the course of ten years. The Lord began answering the prayers of many of His servants who loved and prayed for the people of India, such as Praying Hyde in the North.

Chapter 8: Revival that Swept Across the Sub-Continent

Page 194-195: One of the characteristics of his ministry was the all-night prayer meetings. It was arranged in a bungalow by Red Hills Lake, near Purushawalkam, and several hundred attended.
For example, most denominations where he spoke did not practice “believer’s baptism” as taught in the Word of God, so he began to emphasize the importance of believer’s baptism.

One day, a Hindu girl who had given her heart to the Lord, approached Bakht Singh asking for baptism. This created a new situation, as neither Bakht Singh nor his team members had baptized anyone. Moreover, denominational leaders were opposed to believer’s Baptist, so he sought the counsel of his fellow workers.

It was agreed eventually and they all including the girl be baptized, at the Cooks Road Baptist Church, Madras.

Page 196: Bakht Singh felt that wearing jewellery and showy, colourful, expensive clothes were signs of worldliness. When Bakht Singh came and saw the wife’s jewellery, he told her unless she removed it all he would not take food in her house.

Page 199: After the message, the Lord’s supper was served to the large audience.

Page 201: End Notes – (4) There were many, particularly the liberal theology of German theologian Rudolf Bultman’s book, “New Testament and Mythology” (1941) heralded the beginning.

Chapter 9: Jehovah Shammah: A new Beginning

Page 205: The great commission includes the planting of New Testament Churches.

Page 206: A few of the denominational leaders became alienated from the gathering of these new believers because of jealousy and suspicion, as these leaders began to feel that something was happening which was not under their control, and they were afraid. ——

And some of the liberal, western missionaries that their position and authority were being undermined.

Page 207: They unitedly closed the doors of all their churches to Bakht Singh’s ministry.

Page 208: —-to go to Coonoor, South India. After much prayer, he decided to go in May 1941, for an extended time of rest and waiting upon the Lord to know His will regarding his future ministry.

Page 210: He did not mention anything about starting new work nor did he encourage them to come out from the denominational churches. In fact, he had no intention of starting another church to meet the spiritual needs of the believers who were like sheep without a shepherd. He departed for the Nilgiris, leaving the brethren confused in heart.

—mountains of Nilgiris. (Nilgiri means blue mountains.) This was going to be his “Mount Sinai,” where he, along with his team members, would be waiting on God for the next forty days or so to know God’s will, and plan for future ministry.

Page 211: Brothers Flack and Golsworthy. The Lord used them greatly to help him understand some of the deeper things of God, particularly the church and body life, including the controversial practice of laying-on-of-hands. The time they spent together in Coonoor was a real turning point in the history of the Lord’s work, both in India and abroad.

Page 212: During the ten years that Bakht Singh had been serving the Lord in India, beginning in 1933, he had seen large numbers of new converts backslide within a few months of conversion.

Page 213: However, what was bothering him was that he could not see much lasting blessing. —went back to visit perhaps a year later, much of the blessings had leaked away, and the new converts were hardly to be seen.

Page 214:—ought not to spend any more time discussing their problems, knowing that too much discussion often prevents them from finding God’s will.

Page 215:—such as Brothers Flack and Golsworthy who had been greatly used of the Lord in follow-up Bible studies in different places and denominations following his campaigns.

Pages 217-218: Would they be accused of being schismatic or making division? Would they be shut out of all the churches in Madras? Almost certainly. But they must be faithful to the Lord, to His Word, and to His people. Their primary consideration therefore was that they should not be “Disobedient to the heavenly Vision.” Fundamentally, it was not circumstances, nor the fears and prejudices of men that had brought them to that. Nor was it the Christian pastors; they did not blame them.

Rather, it was the rigidity of lifeless, sectarian Christianity which resisted the Word of God and its ever-renewing work that led to the crises. It was the message of the spiritual and heavenly nature of the church which provoked resistance and opposition leading to the crisis. When they reached Madras Central Station, the so-called church came with posters, “Bakht Singh go back.” What an irony!

Page 219: One of the brethren located an old, dilapidated building in a Muslim cemetery on Pallavaram Hill near St. Thomas Mount for the night of corporate prayer.

Page 222: Human and artificial “lights” were being gradually extinguished, and a “Greater Light” was about to rise, – The Living CHRIST Himself! “He shall be as the Light of the Morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.” (2 Samuel 23:4)

Page 224: As mentioned in Acts 2:41, they first had a baptismal service where sixteen believers, both men and women, were baptized in a small tank adjoining the school. After the tank was filled and before the baptism, Bakht Singh gave a message on baptism explaining its significance and importance. He also explained the importance of the laying on of hands. He was the first to enter into the tank and, with his face shining, he baptized them.

Page 226: It was on that day that the Assembly we now know as Jehovah-Shammah was born through the travailing prayers and obedience of His people.

Chapter 10: Jehovah Shammah: To the Praise of God’s Glory

Page 230: “Jehovah-Shammah”, which means “The LORD is there.”

Page 231: Bakht Singh stated this in his own words, “That which would now develop should not be another exclusive body or sect of Christian people, another denomination. It was to be an expression of the heavenly and universal Church in its unity and calling.

The first thing to be avoided, then, was a distinguishing name. When regenerated by the Holy Spirit they are at the same time ‘baptized by one Spirit into one Body.’ “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all members of that one body, benign many, are one body: so also is Christ. (I Cor. 12:12)

Page 232: —-every believer, regardless of his background, however insignificant or influential in society, is equally precious, equally important and equally necessary to the body of believers.

Page 249: —-for God’s work through the House of God and were sent out for ministry from the House of God.

Page 251: —-They came to ask why he was baptizing since he was not ordained to do so, and moreover, why he had now started another church in Madras.

Page 252: —-Jehovah Shammah was not a church. It was a place they used for gathering the local church, and for the boarding and training of believers.

Page 257: —-Again, they saw that communion service must be expressive of the church as one body. They were convinced that they must welcome all true children of God to partake with them at His Table without reference to any caste or colour, nationality or sectarian label which they might have. If they were born of God, then they were in the same family and should be welcomed equally.

One of the brethren would open the service with prayer followed by songs of praise and worship. Most of these songs were composed by Indians set to Indian melody. Psalms were made into beautiful songs
of worship, set to Indian tunes and in local languages.

Page 258: —was given for spontaneous worship, during which time any brother or sister, constrained by the Spirit, was free to worship the Lord in his own language with no petitions but only expressing praise and adoration.

Page 260: Bakht Singh did not believe in any form of membership per se. Membership into the Body of Christians was by the new birth, not a formality of joining a local body of believers as is practised in denominational churches. Thus believers were invited to come forward singing and put their offering in the box provided in the hall.

Brahmins, high-caste, low-caste, and out-castes would sit down together to eat a communal meal prepared by His people in Jehovah-Shammah’s kitchen. The love feast helped greatly to break down the wall of caste or social separation which was a major problem even among Christians, especially at that time.

Page 261: On some Sundays, the day would begin with baptisms before the sun became too hot for the open-air baptistery. Music too, had its part to play as the believers sang to the accompaniment of a harmonium and tablas, tambourines and other instruments commonly used in India. The halls echoed with the songs of the redeemed.

Page 265: After much prayer, Bakht Singh named Khadija Esther, and Miriam he named Ruth. In 1950 Esther was married to Jordan Khan and Miriam was married to S. Martin, co-workers of Bakht Singh.

Page 266: According to the Scriptures the elders are the ones who should take the spiritual lead in the life of the local church. For months, prayers went up to God that He would in due time, show His choice of elders.

Page 267: Holy Convocations – based on the account in Leviticus chapter 23 concerning the seven feast of Jehovah.

Page 270: But as believers return to their homes throughout the hole of India with a deep and satisfying work in themselves, you can imagine how the work will multiply as these go from town to town and village to village and tell what God has done. In 1943, they began a door-campaign, or door-to-door evangelism.

Page 271: —-“Gospel raids.” After much prayer—–would travel together for a visit of several days to places at a distance from Madras. Their aim was to spread the gospel and at the same time to strengthen and encourage the local believers in their won witness.

Chapter 11: Andhra Pradesh and Beyond
Pages 275-276: —spread of the New Testament Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh was astronomical. —-beginning on September 25, 1950, the Lord had raised up literally hundreds of local churches in Andhra and other places across India and abroad through the ministry of Bakht Singh—-. ——the Assemblies founded by Bakht Singh and his team were the fastest growing churches in India, particularly in Andhra. “Tell me what is your secret or strategy?” He then replied that he had no strategy or method.

He and his co-workers had no extra qualifications but were simple people without much education. They simply decided to all things by prayer and oneness and total obedience to the Word of God, without any compromise.

“The Lord works if we honour God’s Word.” Many students were born again—–Andhra Christian College, Guntur.

Page 278: —-the actual church planting ministry in Andhra began with the establishing of an Assembly in Cuddapah in 1945.

Page 280: —-so they sent a circular letter around warning all their people that Bakht Singh was coming and that they should boycott his meetings.

Page 281: It was if they were being carried along on a strong current of God’s moving, as they served Him in what was chiefly an evangelistic ministry from 1943 to 1950.

Page 282: They had accepted Him as their Saviour, and all eight members wanted to be baptized.

Page 283: Then he asked them, “What about you? If you bury in baptism those who in fact have not died to sin, how do you think that you can justify yourselves?”

Page 297: How exactly has this multiplication of churches taken place? Were they personally responsible? Of course, there have been many to blame and criticize, accusing them by saying, “Starting new churches everywhere!” – That was the charge! Well, of course, they were not responsible for much that has happened, but it was the work of the Lord. —-MESSAGE of THE WORD OF GOD, and not the personal efforts of Bakht Singh or any of his co-workers.

In most cases they were not on the scene when the crucial developments were taking place. They would come to know about them afterwards. And even then, their policy had been not to interfere but to let the Lord work things out.

Page 298: Many of the churches to be found throughout the land have come into being through a few believers from a town or a village attending one of the Holy Convocations and seeing the ‘House of God’ being expressed, tasting of its joys and seeing its responsibilities.

While they returned to their own places, the time would come when they could no longer tolerate the old – the dead denominational system with its spiritual bankruptcy, it politics, carnal divisions and strife. Usually they would find the “old” skin so rigid and inflexible that any “new wine” simply could not be contained therein, and in the end there would be a “bursting”, As Bakht Singh said: “We never preached or taught that the believers should in any way seek to precipitate a “bursting” or separation, but just as people never build houses in graveyards, so the living cannot abide with the dead. —-into a “new skin”.

It has not come about on any one’s instigation, but rather it has been the spontaneous result of “new life” being experienced and new “vision” being granted. The new life has been so vital and the new vision so compelling that things took their own course locally without our intervention.”

But in other cases, perhaps more particularly in the cities and larger towns which have strategic value for the spread of the gospel, the beginning and the development of the work has been the direct result of their labours. The Assemblies in such places as New Delhi, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Vellore, Guntur, Hyderabad and many other places across India are the result of their direct and continuous labours.

Page 299: According to the need and as led by the Lord, Bakht Singh would send a brother or two, like Paul sent Timothy or Titus, to take care of the newly formed fellowships. He then kept transferring these brethren, who were known as “God’s servants,” within two or three years to other areas or places where their ministry was needed for strengthening believers and establishing new Assemblies.

These appointments were not meant to be permanent, but unfortunately some of the God’s servants have been reluctant to move on to new places, and this has caused much spiritual loss and strife in a number of Assemblies, particularly in Andhra Pradesh.

Pages 306-307: Until mid 80s, Nepal was closed for the gospel. In 1956 they sent a group from Kalimpong to permanently reside at Katmandu. This is the method employed by both Bakht Singh and Jordan Khan. It provides a focal point of fellowship for the new converts, as well as being an avenue of strength and encouragement.

There is a vibrant Assembly in Katmandu and thirty or more parts of Nepal. There are now hundreds of functional local churches or assemblies in Kalimpong and Darjeeling districts, Skkim and Nepal and in other North Eastern parts of India.

Chapter 12: The Riches of God’s Glory: Worldwide Impact

Page 311: The Lord brought about unusual spiritual awakenings which swept across various cities, towns and villages from Karachi in the North-West to Kerala in the South-West.

Page 315: I have been praying for somebody who knows Hindi because we want to record messages for those Indians in South America.

Page 320: “Our responsibility is not only to see that men and women come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to disciple them and to teach them the whole counsel of God through the local expression of the Body of Christ, which is the church.” —-newly converted international students the concept of the New Testament Church so that when they go back home they can apply these New Testament principles within their own cultural background and thus increase the body of Christ in other parts of the world. —-Apostle Peter were baptized and “they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and in fellowship, in breaking of bread and prayers.” (Acts 2:41,42)

So Bakht Singh encouraged this author to start a house church based on New Testament principles in orders to disciple and equip the newly converted international students.

Page 321: A large number of believers have begun to gather in various homes with a sincere longing to worship God in Spirit and in truth. There are many who have been seeing to understand God’s order for His Church,—–.

Page 323: While he was with us, he again emphasized the importance of starting a house church based on New Testament principles on the basis of Acts 2:42.

Page 354: —-on July 12, 1941 there came a paradigm shift in his vision and mission. He began emphasizing the important of local churches that would function under the Headship of Christ.

Page 359: —-‘right hand of fellowship’ (Gal. 2:9) into the local church where I was baptized. Brother Bakht Singh was happy about this, recognizing that in both practices the intention was to express the identification of the local church with the person being welcomed in.

Chapter 14: Salient Features of Bakht Singh’s Life and Ministry in Relation to the Church
Page 431: 1. The concept of the Church: The Church is a spiritual community of the redeemed people of God of all classes and castes and nationalities.

Page 432: It is the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Head of the living Church. It is all inclusive in the sense that it includes all the believers in Christ Jesus. According to the new Testament, the Church includes only those men and women who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

We can see this from Acts 2:47 where the Lord added souls daily to the Church – not to a building, but to a group of people who believed in the Lord Jesus and had received His Holy Spirit.

Through the reading of the Scriptures, Bakht Singh identified the two major aspects of the church, one local (visible) and the other universal (invisible).

Page 433: Every local church should be administered by elders as we see in Acts. “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.” (Acts 14.32) “The provision or appointment of elders in all the churches appears vital to their constitution as a local church.”

Bakht Singh rejected ecclesiastical order on the basis of the Word of God. He rejected the distinction between clergy and laity, and preached and practised the priesthood of all believers.

He emphasized the function of the body of Christ of fulfilling the purpose of Christ to show forth the four-fold purposes of the Church: 1) His fullness (Eph. 1:23); “Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all;” 2) unity of all believers (Eph 2:15); “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph 2:22; 3) His wisdom (Eph 3:9-10), “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God,

Page 434: —-and 4) His glory (Ep 3:21), “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” Bakht Singh did not believe in church membership per se, but only recognized that membership which was based on new birth when such are united to the Body of Christ through the Holy Spirit.

He emphasized the functions of the church based on Acts 2;41-47 which include: baptism of new believers; teaching of the Word; fellowship, and the Lord’s Table, as well as prayers and worship on a weekly basis at least. He taught and practised that the church as a corporate body must be actively involved in evangelism, discipleship, planting of new, living assemblies and ministering to the needs of both believers and non-believers.

Page 435: (a) Baptism: Baptism must follow repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; it cannot precede it in any form. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:3,4) Thus the Scriptures are clear: water baptism was not to be made a means of salvation or a method whereby people joined the Church or became recognized as members of the Church. (b) Laying on of hands: Bakht Singh practised the laying on of hands following baptism. “We saw also from the Word of God that ‘laying on of hands’ was associated with baptism, usually after (but) sometimes before; for example, Acts 19:5-6.

Pages 437-438: In this fallen world where the Body of Christ is divided by so many natural and human factors, the laying on of hands can be a beautiful symbolic expression of our relationship and oneness in the Body of Christ, provided it is done in love and in the Spirit of Christ.

This is all the more true and significant in a country like India where believers range from high-caste to outcaste, and they avoid each other like the plague. Bakht Singh, with the help of the Lord and in the light of the Scriptures, succeeded in breaking down such barriers and helping the believers to realize that in Christ, regardless of their place or position in society, they are equally precious equally important and equally necessary in the sight of the Lord and in the Body of Christ.

Pages 438-439: The Lord’s Table: Bakht Singh believed in and thus practised the weekly observance of THE LORD’S TABLE in obedience to the Lord’s command, Who said, “this do in remembrance of me.” (I Cor 11:24) The Table was open to all true believers regardless of their nationality, colour, caste and status, but believers were advised to partake of it worthily. (d) Praying for the Sick: Bakht Singh believed in the gifts and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

He also believed in praying for the sick, based on such scriptures as Mark 16:18, “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Page 439: Choosing of Speakers: Bakht Singh did not believe in “pre-arranged” ministry, meaning that he did not plan or arrange before hand who should be the speaker or preacher at any particular meeting. This way, he felt that the Lord’s man with His message for His people would speak under the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God.

The only exception to this was when they were lead of the Lord to invite one of His servants to conduct a series of meetings.

Page 440: The Body Life: Bakht Singh believed that the living Christ is the head of the Church and that He should be in charge of all the affairs of the local church, which is his Body and through which he functions in the light of God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, everything should be done for the edification of individual and collective members of the Body, and for the extension of His Kingdom, for the glory of God.

Page 441: Many local churches throughout India and Pakistan came into being in one of three ways. In the cities and larger towns, the beginning and development of the work had been the direct result of the labours of Bakht Singh and his team.

Secondly, in many other places, particularly in villages, the Assemblies were the result of the labours of the ordinary believers who were greatly influenced and challenged as they saw the living reality of the Church in action by attending the Holy Convocations and other services.

Thirdly, Assemblies were established through the labours of men of vision, and commitment, who, while they were gainfully employed, set their priorities to found living local Assemblies. For example, George Rajaratnam of Madras was used of the Lord to begin Assemblies in Madurai and many other places. C. D. Benjamin of Hyderabad, was used by the Lord to start more than 30 Assemblies in various parts of India, including Kothagudem and the neighboring areas, while serving as an engineer. Similarly the Lord used scores and scores of others to found living groups of believers.

Page 442: One of the great secrets of the expansion of the work of the Assemblies in connection with Bakht Singh was the corporate functioning of believers employed in secular jobs or full-time workers giving themselves wholly to the work of the Lord to fulfill the Great Commission to build His Church.

The Provision of Shepherds: As Assemblies began to multiply, the need for shepherds after God’s own heart became a pressing necessity. The Lord answered their prayers for the need of shepherds in two ways. There were small groups of local churches which had come into being through the labours of one or two brethren living there who, by preaching the gospel and expounding the Word, had brought souls together and built them up and they gave the necessary shepherding. —who had a shepherd’s heart to care for and to feed the flock of God.

But then there were other places where a few believers had begun to seek the Lord together, but with no manifest gifts for shepherding or ministering present among them. Such had appealed to Bakht Singh saying, “Please send us someone to help us.”

They asked the Lord to call and set apart for His service those who could, for a short or long period of time meet the need of these churches where there was no evidence of local gifts present. The Lord again had been faithful in providing such servants and had sent them to meet the need in many places.

Pages 443-444: 2. God’s servants or Full-time workers: From the earliest days in Madras, there had been those who had left all because they felt a call to serve the Lord full-time.

Some of them seemed very unpromising for such important or responsible work, being often young and immature. —-help the local believers to become mature in the Lord, so that local leadership, as elders and deacons can be chosen from among them to carry on the work. Just as the Apostle Paul sent Timothy, Titus and others for a period of time to strengthen the believers, Bakht Singh, too, practiced the same principle by sending God’s servants wherever their help and ministry were needed.

The usually practice was that those men were transferred from Assembly to Assembly within three to four years with a few exceptions where some of them stayed on for a longer period. His transferring God’s servants was very unique. Every year following the Holy Convocation in ‘Hebron’, he would hold two days of workers’ meeting. During the meeting he would pray and seek the Lord’s mind about the transfer.

Then at the close fo the meeting, he would mention the names of the brethren and the places of their transfer in his prayer. That was how the brothers were informed where and when they were transferred to. From the late ‘70s onwards, however, as Bakht Singh became extremely busy with the work worldwide, he did not have sufficient time to insist on the transferring of God’s servants periodically as he should have done.

As a result, in a number of Assemblies God’s servants stayed on and began to “lord it over” the flock like some denominational pastors.

Page 445: Sisters also have been a part of the work over the years, particularly those who came to Bakht Singh and elders expressing a desire to serve the Lord full-time. They, too, had a share in various aspects of the ministry, namely VBS, the Hebron Messenger, Bible correspondence courses, the outreach ministry, visitation, and kitchen duty and in so many other areas of work – in relation to ‘Hebron’ as well as other Assemblies.

Bakht Singh taught believers to contribute generously and joyfully to the work of the Lord.

Page 446: 3. The training of workers: Bakht Singh did not believe in any formal Bible school or seminary training as a prerequisite to the work or the ministry of the Lord.

Page 447: 4. Indigenisation of the new Testament principles in the local churches:

Bakht Singh was not after any national church. He believed in only one Church which is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as expressed locally, nationally and internationally. He repeatedly said that there is no Indian Church or Chinese church or American Church, but only one universal Church, which is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He believed that sectarian divisions, i.e. denominationalism, defeat these high and holy ends, for one group excludes another group. Indigenization is not Indianisation. It simply means applying the New Testament principles of the Church within the cultural background of the people without compromising the Word of God. It also means self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating fellowships under the Headship, Lordship and Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ and and under the direction of the Holy Spirit in the light of the Word of God.

Page 448: George Verwer, who worked in ‘Hebron’, Hyderabad, in close fellowship with Bakht Singh made the following observation about his ministry: “Bakht Singh’s ministry is a phenomenal example of contextualization in its earliest days without compromising the Word of God. He liked the simple and old gospel mats on the floor with their chappals or shoes off, singing authentically Indian music with Indian musical instruments.

His messages were long, simple, filled with Scriptures and with appropriate witnessing stories and explanations. He was humorous and a man of great chrisma. Following the worship service on Sundays people sat on the mats on the floor and had meals together – love-feast, fellowshipping with one another.

Page 455: Bakht Singh’s vision of the Church was to have local churches that were free of denominationalism and sectarianism in order to show forth the fullness of Christ. After much prayer and fasting, the Lord led him and his co-workers to establish local churches which met not in ‘expensive church buildings’ but in simple inexpensive halls or houses. Believers were encouraged to sit on mats on the floor with the men on one side and women on the other.

Page 456: They sat with their shoes off. The gifted men of God composed songs of praise and worship using Indian melodies and Indian instruments. Bakht Singh believed in the priesthood of all believers based on the Word of God (I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6) and the Assemblies were led by godly men rather than ‘ordained ministers.’ It was indeed a real breakthrough.

Many who came in contact with these Assemblies felt at home, realizing that one can be a Christian and also at the same time an Indian. Writing about Bakht Singh’s life and ministry, Dr. Robert Finley of Christian Aid Mission, who knew him better than most people in the West, wrote the following: “As a planter of churches among many nations, Bakht Singh exemplified God’s purpose for His Kingdom as clearly as any man in church history.

Page 457: These Assemblies established by Bkaht Singh and his co-workers were self-propagating and self-governing in the sense that Bakht Singh taught, prayed and mobilized the local churches to evangelism the un-evangelized people, people reaching people. He taught from the Scriptures that their responsibility was to give generously and cheerfully for the work of the Lord, which they gladly did so that there was no lack of finance for the work of the Lord.

At local assembly meetings on Sundays, a large box or basket was place on a table and believers were given opportunity to go forward and place their offerings in the box as part of their worship.

Page 458: 5. Place of worship: From the very beginning, the Assemblies had met together in rented houses for worship and weekly activities like in ‘Jehovah-Shammah,’ Chennai. They felt they should not spend too much money on physical buildings for the service of the lord. Whenever the houses became too small for the gathering, they built tent-like halls (or pandals) for the gatherings.

Page 463: Every local church took the initiative to construct an appropriate facility within their means. He believed that every local church was autonomous and therefore every local church should be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating.
Bakht Singh did not believe in centralized control or the federation of churches. He believed in the spiritual unity and fellowship of all the scattered Assemblies both in India and abroad.

Page 473: 7. Seeking the Lord’s will corporatively and individually: Thus the speakers for each meeting were selected not by prior assignment but by corporately waiting and seeking the mind of God. George Verwer was amused and surprised by this practice of selecting speakers at the last minutes before the meetings. “To me, as a Westerner so well organized, we had to know months in advance who is going to speak. In contract to that, Bakht Singh would wait upon God and often even he did not know who was going to minister in the evening meeting until about the time it came just before the meeting.”

Page 476: 8. He discovered and practiced Biblical worship, and encouraged all the saints both male and female to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth: Through the revelation from the Word of God, Bakht Singh realized that God created us and redeemed us to worship Him.

Page 478: “At ‘Hebron’, Hyderabad, one Lord’s day the worship went on from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and even then the worship was cut off when it was most strong and vigorous…the time given to pure worship on the Lord’s Day mornings is a secret of growth hidden for centuries.

Page 479: 9. He encouraged fellowship among the saints by introducing the love-feast: One of the salient features of the Assemblies has been the ‘love-feast’ following the Sunday Worship service. Some Assemblies prepare all the food themselves for all those who would come.

Page 482: 10. One of Bakht Singh’s salient contributions was re-introducing the “Holy Convocations”: We read about these Holy Convocations in the Old Testament, particularly in Exodus and in Leviticus chapter 23.

Page 483: These Holy convocations have been one of the hallmarks of Bakht Singh’s work and ministry.

Page 491: 11. He had passion for God and compassion for souls-Evangelism and Gospel raids: Bakht Singh preached a Biblical gospel for salvation particularly at a time when it was not popular to preach the Old Gospel. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.” (I Cor 15:3-5) “Neither is there salvation in any other : For there is non other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

His life and ministry demonstrated that he had a deep love and passion for the Lord which was expressed outwardly as he was moved with compassion for the souls of men and women whom the Lord loved and died for.

Chapter 16: Conclusion
Page 536: As Bob Finley pointed out: “As a planter of churches among many nations, Bakht Singh exemplified God’s purpose for His kingdom as clearly as any man in church history. In the Book of Acts, our Lord revealed a pattern by which His kingdom eventually spread in every people, tongue, tribe and nation. Clear examples were demonstrated in the lives of Barnabas of Cyprus and Saul of Tarsus. In the Twentieth Century the pattern was duplicated in the life and ministry of Bkaht Singh of India, who went home to glory on September 17, 2000 at age 97.

In his auto-biography Norman Grubb wrote: “But in all my missionary experience I think these churches on their New Testament foundations are the nearest I have seen to a replica of the early church, and a pattern for the birth and growth of the young churches in all the countries which we used to talk about as the mission fields.”

Page 537: Dr. Kinnear: “Some of the special features of these Assemblies (local churches) were first of all, simplicity – it was going back to simple procedures, based on prayer, based on the Word of God, based on corporate worship of the Lord’s people; secondly, the fact that it was scriptural and was Indian, free from the restrictions and limitations created by foreign institutions, missions or denominations. There was liberty and freedom to follow the Lord as the Lord led.

Click Here for free downoadable Gospel Tracts for Hindus

Gospel Multiplication among Hindus

There is a great need for the gospel to reach and bless the Hindu for whom Christ died. In the past India has seen encouraging response to the Gospel from the oppressed communities and from tribal. In our day we are seeing a new response to Christ from the caste Hindu. One of the approaches to Hindu ministry that is facilitating many Hindus coming to Christ is through T4T. We have been using T4T and seeing response among the Hindu.

A small group of us took T4T in January of 2003 from author of T4T. He told us very simply how he used T4T to see incredible response in Asia where there was no response before. In November 2000 he trained 30 people in an area of Asia with no churches. By the end of 2001 there were 906 small groups and 10,000 new believers.

Since that time we have trained many Hindu background believers and we have been seeing many Hindus coming to Christ and new house churches started by these new believers. T4T stands for Training for Trainers. In T4T every believer becomes a trainer. The new believer is transformed into a multiplying trainer by using very simple concepts that can be passed on from new believer to new believer.

1. Evangelism

The Engine that drives T4T is evangelism. In T4T we address two major reasons why most Christians do not share their faith. The first reason is that they do not know what to say. The second reason is they do not know who to tell the gospel too.

We give a simple but thorough training to help each believer share their testimony. The term story is used rather than testimony to emphasize the simplicity and to incorporate the telling of the gospel to any situation. Now the new Hindu background believer knows what to say in sharing the gospel, tell your story.

We use an exercise asking each new Hindu background believer to list and write down one hundred family and friends they know who are not believers in Christ. For the Hindu background new believer this is an easy exercise. I have seen generational Christians struggle to list even a few unbelievers in their circle of family and friends. After they make this list we ask them to prioritize the list and to identify the top five and challenge them to share Christ with those five people in one week and follow up to find out how it went. Now we have answered the second questions that keeps new believers from sharing faith, who do I say the gospel too. Now they have thier list of family and friends to tell.

Using T4T with Hindus captures the power of transformation in the new believers. Those who come to Christ are taught to share their faith right away. Those closest around them have seen a change in the one who shares with them and this adds impact to the words they speak.

In one case I was training a group of 10 Hindu background believers in T4T. They came back after the training and reported 30 Hindus high caste Hindus had come to Christ. This was exciting in itself, but what happened next was incredible. I told them that when we meet next time we would not discuss who they had led to Christ. We would only discuss who they led to Christ and had trained to share their story and helped them in telling others of Christ. When they came back they reported that those 30 new believers had led 270 people to Christ, including those who the new believers taught also to share their faith who in-turn led others to Christ. This is where evangelism turns from addition to multiplication.

Why did the number of new believers grow so much? There was a major shift in how evangelism was done. Even though the 10 people I was training were new believers from Hindu background their T4T was part of a more comprehensive two year training that made them “experts”.

When Eshwar shared the gospel with Ramesh there would be a change in Ramesh when he came to Christ. Ramesh’s cousin Shivakumar would see the change in his cousin Ramesh. After this Ramesh would ask Eshwar to come and share the gospel with his cousin Shivakumar. Probably Shivakumar would have come to Christ, but Eshwar would be so stretched he could hardly find the time to get to all the places to share the gospel.

In T4T Eshwar trains Ramesh to share the gospel through simply telling his story of how he came to Christ. When Shivakumar becomes a believer in Christ the gospel has come through Ramesh. If Ramesh can share the gospel then Shivakumar realizes so can he. He is challenged to share with five family members right away. There is a powerful dynamic at work when the new believer begins to share his faith and evangelism becomes normative and contagious.

2. Community Issues
Another important question that T4T addresses is, “What do I do if they say yes?” New believers are taught to expect others to come to Christ and they are taught what to do when they come to Christ. There are many occasions where a Hindu comes to Christ and is ready to stand for Christ and share with his fellow Hindus, but he was encouraged to leave his family. The emphasis has traditionally been, “Come out and be separate.”

In T4T the emphasis is not to leave family and community, but to stay in your family and community and win them to Christ. T4T teaches the Hindu that God wants to save your Hindu family members through you. Using three Old Testament examples, Noah, Lot and Rehab and four New Testament examples of Geresene Demoniac, Cornelius, Lydia and the Philippian jailer the new Hindu background believer is strongly encouraged to stay home and win their family to Christ.

The Geresene Demoniac wanted to leave his family and community (Mark 5). Jesus told him to, Go home to your people and report to them (tell your story) what great things the Lord has done.” Jesus was run out of that Decopolis area. When he came back a great multitude (4,000) would not leave his feet. What a difference on man saved by grace can make! Hindus are seeing the wisdom and have come to understand staying in their family and community and winning their Hindu family to Christ is the will of God for them. When this happens the gospel spreads rapidly among the Hindus.

Recently one of the leaders who have implemented T4T went to 30 villages where those trained in T4T where spreading the gospels. He found 200 families who came to Christ from High caste Hindu background. There was not one individual who had come to Christ but all came as entire families. Seeing whole families come to Christ has not been happening much in the past. The Hindus are coming to Christ by families and the gospel is spreading at a rapid pace because new believers remain in their community.

3. Follow up

With so many new believers coming to Christ from Hindu background at such a rapid rate the question is how solid are these new believers in their faith. I have been involved in an analysis among high caste Hindu new believers where hundreds were turning to Christ rapidly. The interviews showed that these new believers in Christ held solid evangelical and theological understanding with a strong commitment to the Bible. How can someone who has been a Hindu for forty years suddenly become solid in theological understanding? The first step in this transformation begins with good follow up after the Hindu turns to Christ.

T4T uses a six lessons format as the basic foundation blocks for the new believer. The first lesson for follow up is assurance of salvation. This lesson is thorough enough to be sure the Hindu has truly made a genuine saving faith commitment to Jesus Christ. There is enough in lesson one to cover faith in Christ, eternal life, the way of salvation, the cross, repentance, new life in Christ and assurance of salvation yet a lesson simple enough to be taught to others by a new believer.

This basic follow up further address the question a new believer has, “What do I do if they say yes?” In the example where Eshwar has led Ramesh to Christ it is very understandable that Ramesh has hesitations to share his story (testimony) with Shivakumar. What will Ramesh do if Shivakumar makes a commitment to Christ? Even if Ramesh has been a believer for two days he has already taken lesson one from Eshwar.

Now he now knows exactly what to do if Shivakumar makes a commitment to Christ. Ramesh, though a new believer in Christ teaches Shivakumar lesson one as he learned it from Eshwar. Ramesh can do this even if he still has not taken lesson two. In this case not only has Ramesh been a new believer for only two days he has shared his faith, seen a Hindu relative come to Christ and given that new believer the first basic discipleship lesson. There is immediate application and very rapid progress toward spiritual maturity.

Ramesh is doing ministry, leading others to faith and giving follow up lessons that some Christians who have been believers for years have never done. It becomes an obedience based faith. Ramesh has also modeled for Shivakumar that he can also share his faith and follow up on a new believer. The follow up enables the gospel to spread exponentially.

The six basic follow up lessons do not need to be done in six weeks. Since the gospel is moving along family lines there is more opportunity for meeting. Lessons can be done one each day. They can also be taught the same day they are learned.

Besides assurance of salvation the six basic follow up lessons cover, prayer, daily devotions, the church, God, and spreading the Gospel. The sixth lesson is a lead in to training the new believer to train others. There is a II Timothy 2:2 pattern built in. “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others.”

4. House Church and Church Planting Movements
We used to say to the new believer, “We believer in the local church, now go find a good Bible believing church and join it.” Now we tell the new Hindu believer to start a new house church. This helps overcome some of the barriers that Hindus face if they were to attend an existing church. The church members often eat non-vegetarian diets and the new Hindu believer would face problems at home.

When the new believer starts a house church he can form this church with his family members that have become believers. There are many Bible verses that indicate that New Testament churches met in the homes of the believers. (Romans 16:5,
I Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15 and Philemon 2)

When I took T4T with Fa Hein, he showed us a picture of a baptism in one of the house churches that took place using a giant pickle barrel. I tell those I train stories of new Hindu believers baptizing other new believers and forming a church. I Show a picture of a house church baptism that took place in the house church setting, on a small pool on the roof of the house church or in the houses water storage tank.

There is a faster spiritual maturing process in the house church. Every believer in the house church is called upon to use their spiritual gifts right away. Because there is an emphasis on participative Bible study every believer becomes active. This calls on them to be active much faster than an environment when the new Hindu believer attends a meeting, sits in a pew and listens to a preached sermon, sometimes for months before teaching others.

The house church model can accommodate large numbers of new believers with the least barriers and they are reproducible. This rapid reproduction of house churches can build into a Church Planting Movement. More about this by downloading the booklet; Church Planting Movements.**

These house churches are a group of covenanted believers who practice baptism and the Lords supper built around the five purposes of the church, Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship and Ministry. Working with Hindu background believers we call these five purposes God’s Panchayat.

The house church model is more persecution proof for the Hindu background believer. A set aside compound with a building will disturb many radicals in the pioneer areas. When believers meet in homes especially when these meetings are based on family groups they are less restricted to meet and worship.

5. Ongoing discipleship, self feeders on the Word of God.
Hearing and responding to the gospel and basic follow up is only the beginning for the Hindu to grow in Christ. There must be an ongoing method of hearing and applying of God’s Word. This can happen through participative Bible studies.

The leader of the participative Bible study asks basic questions to understand the Scripture passage and concludes with an application from the Word. Even a new believer can lead a study by asking: What does the passage say? What does the passage mean? What should I do? Meeting together brings accountability for an obedience based faith.

The participative Bible study is Word based and doe not need an institutionally trained leader. In the case of Eshwar leading Ramesh to Christ, Ramesh or others in the newly formed church lead the study, not Eshwar. Eshwar’s role is to be the “Shadow Pastor.” He meets with Ramesh in the beginning to explain the passage and help him direct the study based on the context of the passage, but he is not present when the house church meets. Only his influence, having discipled Ramesh, is present. This will be the model Ramesh and Shivakumar use when the evangelism and follow-up produce many new believers. The homes are too small for any one church to grow too large. New churches are started and multiply rapidly using this pattern.

Because the studies are saturated with prayer and a commitment to hearing and obeying scripture the new believers remain solid in theology. The combination of the initial influence of the shadow pastor and the obedience based participative Bible study build in a self correcting element based on the Word of God.

6. Leadership development
We are always looking to raise up leaders to the next level. In T4T we use two avenues to build up leaders. One avenue is the Training Center and the other is the Mastertrainer. The training center is a location where T4T is conducted.

I spoke to a group of 27 Church planters. Now the T4T concept has changed how they think. Now they do not think of themselves as a church planter who plants a church or two. They think of themselves as a Mastertrainer, raising up twenty leaders who raise up more leaders each planting multiplying house churches. The vision transformed from dozens of new churches among Hindu to thousands of new churches in the same time frame.

We bring in the best practitioners of T4T to a Mastertrainer conferences where we do best practice benchmarking and Iron on Iron. As one leader shares how he overcame one of the barriers to multiplication the others raise to that level quickly.

In T4T every believer is established as an effective trainer to obey the commandments of Christ and share the gospel. When a new Hindu background believer is sharing his faith, following up new believers he has won to Christ, training others to share their faith and growing in the word of God in participative house fellowships he becomes a solid leader even if he has been a believer for a relatively short period of time.

Recently one of the Hindu background believers was asked, Are you a church planter? His reply was No, I am a “leader planter.” He began to see the potential of a ministry of multiplication

7. Reproduction, a reproducible model.
Everything in T4T is kept deliberately simple so it can be put in practice by the new believer. The Model, assist watch and leave is at work. First model this for the new believer, assist him and leave them to do what they have been taught.

The T4T multiplication is built into the framework. It’s a great thing to plant a church; It is a greater thing to plant multiplying churches. It is the greatest thing to train leaders to plant multiplying churches. Every aspect of T4T is designed to be reproduced; evangelism, follow-up, discipleship and the starting of new churches.

Conclusion
I stood before a group of 200 High Caste Hindu background believers, most of them new believers within the past two years. I asked them, When I hold up an apple before you what do you see? Most people will see an apple. A few visionaries will see a forest of apple trees in that one apple. They plant the apple seeds, these seeds grow into apple trees that produce more fruit and still more seeds.

I told these Hindu background believers that I do not see two hundred new believers, I see a whole people touched by the gospel as you train all new believers to share Christ and they in turn also share Christ following up these new believers growing in the word in participative Bible studies and starting multiplying house churches. If you live this vision, I told them, the Gospel will cover your people (of twelve million) like the waters cover the sea. There was a general nodding in agreement. They could see what was happening among them already as a result of T4T and the principles of multiplication and even more important they saw the potential that lay ahead.

There is urgency in seeing multiple church planting movements among the Hindu. We have a great opportunity before us. I see using T4T as a time to bless the Hindu with Christ who loved them and died for them.

Please click here for your free dowloadable Gospel tract for Hindus 

The notes for T4T are available in the book Church Planting Movements.**
** http://www.churchplantingmovements.com/

Why House Church

Scripture Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.

Why am I talking about house churches? Because I think all believers should start churches that meet in homes. You may ask if I understand who are the people that I am talking to. We are nursing students and medical staff you say, we are not pastors.

I know that you are not pastors, but you know sometimes nursing students and medical staff start more churches than the pastors I speak to. I know one young man who has started so many house churches. He was not a pastor or chaplain. He was a young man who worked in the hospital canteen and served meals to the patients.

By the way he came to Christ in this chapel where we are now. He was just a single young man working in the canteen below here, but he, named Kumar, went back to his village and has started house churches. So many people have come to Christ and many new house churches have started through his ministry.

Probably you come from areas all around the state. You can go back to your town or village and start a house church. You can not imagine what God can do with you when you have a vision to start house churches that multiply.

Look at Romans 16:5 it says “greet the church that is in their house.” Now a lot of people have an inferiority complex about the house church. Some feel bad that their church is one that just meets in the home. But who was this who had this house church Paul is greeting? It was Priscilla and Aquila. It says they risked their lives for the gospel.

These were not unknown figures in the first century church these were heroes of the first century church. Why did they have a church in their house? Because that was the will of God. Theirs was not a substandard church, but a church that was everything that God intended in the New Testament church.

Sometimes I will go and visit or speak in a church that meets in the home. I am excited about that because when I look into the New Testament I see churches that met in homes. Before I can affirm them on having a house church the leaders of the church come to me to apologize.

They say, “We are sorry sir, our church here just meets in this home. Now we have a vision to buy land and build a building for our church. The owner of the lot nearby is willing to sell and we hope to buy it and construct a building with a cross on top and a scripture in the front.” They think then they will become a real church.

But when I look into the New Testament I see that they already are a real church. They already reflect what we see in the New Testament for a church. We see a group of believers, the body of Christ, who met in homes, is what we see in the New Testament as a church.

There are many of us who have been challenging believers to start house churches. So we have been telling believers who meet together as church that you do not need to buy a piece of property, you do not need to construct a building, and you do not even need a formally theologically trained pastor.

All you need is a group of believers covenanted together in a house who take responsibility for the leadership of the church and you have a church. So we began traveling around and promoting house churches. But we were convicted that we were telling people you don’t need land, or a building, or a pastor with a seminary degree. But we ourselves were attending churches with land, buildings, steeples and seminary trained pastors. Can we say that a is Ok for others when we have all those things. We were having a double standard.

So we stopped attending the churches with land, buildings, crosses on top and seminary trained pastors and began our own house church. We call our church Rajaprasad Baptist Church. Why do we call our church Rajaprasad Baptist church? Well we are Baptists and the church has Baptist doctrines. As for Rajaprasad, the house we meet is owned by Mr. Rajaprasad. That is the name on the sign on the house he has on the front of the house. We have been astounded by what God has done since we started this church. We have seen so much spiritual fruit as a result of starting this house church.

So we are changing the way we are looking at ministry. Here is what we used to say, “We believe in the local church, now find a good Bible believing church and join it.” What were we saying? We were saying you were like my friend Kumar who came to this hospital worked in the canteen and became a believer in Christ. We used to say to Kumar, when you go back to your home town find a church. Go back and visit the district capital and find the Church there with a huge compound and towering steeple and join that church or some establish church that teaches the Bible.

We are no longer telling new believers like Kumar to join an existing church. So what are we saying? Now we are saying we believe in the local church and go back to your home town and start a church there. Maybe you feel like since you are a nursing student you could not start a church. It may be you could work with one of your uncles there or another believer can help you. We are finding that any believer can start a house church and that it is part of God’s plan for spiritual multiplication and we are seeing it happen all over.

Once house churches start, they begin to multiply. If you start a church where you buy land, build building and pay a seminary trained pastor it takes a long time. How long does it take to start a new house church? It can happen right away. So once we see people go back to their home town and start a house church we are seeing it multiply. I have been studying the growth and multiplication of house churches and how the multiplication happens.

I am organizing a research project next month where more than 2,000 house churches have sprung up. We want to find out more about how new believers become house church leaders, how Bible study takes place, the doctrinal soundness when churches spring up this fast and insights that help others start house churches that multiply.

Let me show you another verse, Colossians 4:15

Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Now Priscilla and Aquila were, leaders, heroes of the faith, known to us from the New Testament, but here is a church that met in Nympha’s house. She is unknown to us. Just a woman who had a church meeting in her house. So what has happened when we started meeting together in our house church? What can God do with a house church?

I mentioned that several of us meet at Rajaprasad Baptist church just almost walking distance from here. Now Mr. Rajaprasad, the owner of the house, had put a watchman there to guard and protect the house. This watchman is named Ganesh. He is a land owner but there are droughts in his area so he leased his land and came to the city to earn money as a watchman.

As we began to meet for house church and worship Jesus in our house church Ganesh noticed this. Ganesh’s idea of church was believers who met together on a compound in a cathedral like structure He was surprised that believers met together in their homes and worshipped Jesus. This concept of church was very attractive to Ganesh. He would have had difficulty going to the compound church in his home town. But to worship Jesus and have church in a home was attractive to him.

Ganesh received a Bible and read in his mother tongue. He became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What did he do after that? He began to tell his friends that Jesus could be worshipped in the home. So he led Swami to Christ. Then he led Shrini to Christ, Muni to Christ. So these new believers where baptized in a makeshift baptistery on the roof of our house church.

Now if we can have a church in our home then these new believers new they could start a house church in the watchman’s quarters below the Rajaprasad house and that is what they did. They started their own house church and started to look at the scriptures and obey the scriptures. Then what happened? This became known and attractive to people in the area. One of the men, Muni who made a profession of faith took the gospel back to his family. So many of his family members accepted Christ that they started a house church at Muni’s house. Through this watchman there were thirteen house churches started in one year.

How can this happen? Because the house church concept in contagious. Now they know that house church is for them. It would have been difficult for these new believers go to the compound church and sit and listen to what the priest in charge said. But when they could meet in their own home and study and apply the Scriptures for themselves they began to grow in faith.

The gospel began to spread. It produced and atmosphere of spiritual growth because house churches are not second best. House churches are found as the pattern of the New Testament. House churches actually provide an excellent environment for people to grow in Christ and for believers to exercise their spiritual gifts. What do you see in the New Testament? You find house churches. Try to find one of the big cathedrals in the New Testament. You find the house church.

What else do you find in the New Testament? You find the gospel spreading like wildfire. You find churches starting all over the province of Asia in the New Testament. We are also finding churches starting and spreading rapidly when we get back to the New Testament pattern of the house church.

When we started our house church we wanted a church with no land or building, but met in a home. We also wanted our church led by someone who was not holding a seminary degree. That disqualifies me. I studied Greek and Hebrew and for three years I studied in the seminary and earned a Masters degree in theology. So I was not the pastor. It was one of the members of our church that did not hold a seminary degree and who was not ordained by an ecclesiastical body.

A lay believer to lead our church. Now that is a model that is easy to reproduce. It is difficult if these house churches were starting rapidly to find men trained in seminaries and they would expect salaries that house churches would not be able to afford. When we put lay believers leading the house church there is a power. Why? Is it difficult to understand the Bible?

Do you need advanced degrees to study and apply the Bible? No. The Bible is for the simple person. Even the person that does not read can understand the Bible when they here is read. The need is not for more advanced degrees, but the need is for more obedience. The problem has always been applying what we hear. So when we start house churches that simply obey what they hear we create a spiritual dynamic like we had in the New Testament where the churches grow spiritually and multiply.

Let’s look at another passage of scripture I Corinthians 16:19

The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord and so does the church that meets in their house.

Here again you find the church described as a body of believers that met in the homes of believers. Why is it that churches multiply when they meet in homes? One reason is that stay in their communities. I mentioned that man who worked in the canteen went back and started churches. What community of people did he start them with? His own community.

Now the watchman’s house church is with a diverse group from many different communities who have a variety of different languages as their mother tongue. But each one goes back and starts a church in their own community of people in their own languages and the house churches spread along those lines rapidly. What do we see in the New Testament? Cornelius the Roman centurion became a believer who else was their and came to faith. Others from the same community of Romans. The same held true when Lydia became a believer or the Philippians jailer. Right away the gospel begins to spread.

We see people exercise their spiritual gifts in the house churches. We know that God has given every believer a spiritual gift. Why has God given each believer a spiritual gift? To exercise in the body of Christ. Now what happens when the watchman Ganesh goes to his district headquarters and joins a cathedral style church? He is told to sit down and listen to what is preached.

Maybe in a year or two of listening to sermons he might get some responsibility and use his spiritual gifts. But what happens in a house church? Right away the new believer is involved in leadership and accountability and the exercising of the believers spiritual gift. So we see a dynamic in the house church that facilitates the spread of the gospel. This creates an environment of spiritual growth.

Let’s look at another passage. Philemon vs. 2

and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home.

We see church as a body of believers that met in the home of a believer. One thing about house church is that it is less likely to have persecution that a church on a compound with a building and a cross on top. In my own neighborhood there was a mosque was planned next to my house. It bothered me because of all the people who gather there on Fridays.

The Hindus and Christians did not want the mosque and petitioned to stop the mosque. They did not want a mosque in their back yard. But I noticed that on Fridays people gather in homes and no one is complaining like they did about a mosque. I have noticed this with churches too. When there is a property bought a building built a cross on top and a sign with the church name it disturbs the area and the people feel threatened and sometimes that is when the church is persecuted. But when people meet in homes they are not threatened in the same way as when the church building is constructed. The house church becomes more persecution proof.

We find that house churches are reproducible because the homes are already there. It gives the church a power to do ministry. What do we see the offerings in the New Testament go for? Do we see them to pay for land, buildings and the salary of seminary trained leaders? No, we see them meet needs of others. In the house church the offerings can be used to meet the needs of believers or minister to unbelievers because they do not have to make payments on land, building or pay the pastor’s salary because he already has a job in the marketplace.

It is easy for the house church to sustain itself. It is easy for the house church to multiply. So I am not talking to church planters. I am talking to ordinary men and women. But think you could be like Nympha. An ordinary believer who had a church in her house. A church in your house like Pricilla or Lydia had. What if you went back and started house church in your home town, like the young man who worked in our canteen and came to Christ? You could experience the power of God is a way similar to what we see for believers in the New Testament. Think and pray about what could happen in your home town or village if there was a model of a house church that was reproducible.