HISTORY OF INDIAN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
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Nagpur is a very large town, situated right in the center of India. It is equidistance from all the four sides - from Delhi (north), from Calcutta (east), from Madras (south) , and from Bombay (west). It is famous for oranges, which are exported to other countries.
Nagpur is also the religious belt. It has the Headquarters of R.S.S. (Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh) - the fundamentalist staunch Hindu organization which believes in Hindi (national language of India), Hindu (religion), and Hindustan (land of only Hindus). Apart from them, we have other Hindu sects, Moslem organizations,Buddhists,Parsis (Zoroastrians), Jains, Sikhs, and other religious groups.
All mainline Christian denominations are also in Nagpur, totalling about 110 at present. Most powerful ones are the Roman Catholics, the Anglicans, Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Lutherans. Charismatic and Pentecostals are also increasing fast, like World Missionary Evangelism, Charisma Family Church, etc.
In India, church of Christ has a very new foundation, which goes back to about 20 years. In the beginning, two places were opened - Madras (in south India), and Delhi (in the north). South India congregations have grown tremendously because a lot of effort and money was invested by the American missionaries.
Today, Madras has a Bible College, NATIONAL BIBLE COLLEGE; a primary and a secondary school, and other vocational training facilities. These give a strong base to the church for future development and the building up of the local congregation. The Madras congregation has about 400 members and three worship services are held on Sundays.
In the north, Delhi was opened up at the same time like Madras, but it could not develop much. It remained mainly a publishing house, printing tracts and other literature, and distributing it to other people and organizations. Even the number of the congregation is about 40 to 50, it is believed.
The main reason was that the north India has not been receptive to the Christians, more specially from Europe or America. They are looked down upon as CIA agents, and the colonialists, who are trying to spread neo-colonialism, in the garb of being Christian missionaries, through the means of colonizing the minds of the Indians. They have learnt lessons from the British history that flag followed the trade and religion. The north is very staunch Hindu, as well as staunch Moslem, and Sikh. That is where you hear of many riots and loss of life. South has been relatively peaceful, because all foreign intrusions into India has been only through the north. So, the north Indians are very much skeptical about the foreigners of any origin . Given this background, there is a great need of preaching the gospel in the north. India has 14 different officially recognized languages. South has only 4 major ones - Tamil, Telegu, Malyalam, and Kannada. Tamil speakers are in majority, found in Madras and surrounding areas. The Bible College in Madras is also conducted either in Tamil or in English. Majority of people of South India understand English. HINDI is the national language, but the south has always been reluctant to learn and speak it, being the language of the North. Thus, linguistically also there is a great division between the north and the south.
NAGPUR is a centrally-placed town in India. It is the third green town of India, with a moderate climate, situated in the State of Maharashtra, the most developed State of India. The population is about 5 million. Marathi is the language of this State, but people also know and speak HINDI as it is similar to Marathi.
As stated earlier, there were several attempts by the church of Christ missionaries to establish the Lord's congregation in this town, but they could not succeed due to staunch Hinduism, and rival mainline denominational Churches. It was in 1992, that a group of Christian missionaries visited Nagpur. At that time, Dr. Raja J. Singh was the President of an Anglican College, Hislop College, 150 years old, established by the Church of Scotland missionaries. The College has today 4000 students and 300 staff with three main faculties of Arts, Sciences and Commerce.
In 1991, Dr. Singh had separated himself from the Anglican Church and had established his own indigenous Indian church, by the name of "House of Prayer" (being the name found in the New Testament, and spoken of by Lord Jesus Himself). This happened without the financial support of any foreign missionary organization. Being a research scholar himself, in his own Bible readings, he himself found that there were many contradictions in the teachings and preachings of the mainline Churches. Therefore, he separated himself from the mainline churches to impart the TRUE Biblical teachings to the people. For doing this, his family and himself had to pay a very big price. The Anglican Bishop of Nagpur and the Nagpur Diocesan Council removed him from the post of the President of the College. He was left alone without any means of livelihood, only with the Gospel and the Lord. But the Lord has kept him going ever since.
As stated earlier, in 1992, a group of Christian missionaries visited Nagpur and they heard the above story from the local Christians, that the President of Hislop College, Dr. Raja J. Singh, became a belligerent against the Anglican Church in India and established his own congregation. These missionaries got excited to meet him. Thay came to his residence, at 41, Red Cross Road, Civil Lines, Nagpur. They listened to his theological arguments as to how he found flaws in the Anglican teachings and practices, alongwith other mainline churches. They found that his own re-searches from the Bible were similar to what the churches of Christ preached, except for a few issues, like the non-use of instrumental music in worship, offerings to be taken only on Sundays, Lord's Supper to be taken ever Sunday, and a few others, about which he had not gone in much depth.
However, with a three-day session of in-depth Bible Study with these missionaries, he got convinced on the abovementioned Biblical Doctrines and corrected himself. He and his family obeyed the Gospel and became Christians in the "true" sense of the word. Since then, Dr. Singh started the preaching of the Gospel according to the Biblical teachings only, renamed the congregation as the NAGPUR CHURCH OF CHRIST, started having Worship Services on the Biblical pattern. Gradually, in a period of about two years,120 people obeyed the Gospel who are currently on the roll of the Lord's church.
The church conducts Bible Study classes on Thursdays and Ladies' Bible Class on Fridays. In India "House Prayer Meetings" are very popular. So, every week, house meetings are held in one of the member's house.
In 1993, International Preachers' Seminar was held at Nagpur, organized by the Nagpur church of Christ. Preachers of the churches of Christ from all over India,and abroad, attended this seminar. There were over 200 preachers who attended this 3-day long seminar. Dr. Singh also read a paper on Romans chapter 1. In his comments, he talked about the teachings of Apostle Paul. At one juncture, he explained about the Catholic church which sparked off a great controversy and created high tensions in Nagpur. All the Roman Catholics became against Dr. Singh. The media also gave it a wide publicity with the remarks that "Dr. Singh says Catholics were not true Christians". There were big demonstrations by the Catholics and other denominations in front of his residence. The Government started Central Intellgence investigations against him and accused him that he was trying to spark off the Third World War ! All that went on for a couple of months but, being a true Christian, the Lord was always with him and his family. Nothing adverse happened either to them or the church .
Later, in 1993, the Preacher of Belgrade church of Christ, Montana, Mike Shrader, came to India, alongwith Mark Morgan (now Dr. Singh's son-in-law). In Madras, they heard about the Nagpur church and wanted to meet Dr. Singh and the family. At that time,their eldest daughter, Kim Lolita Singh, was studying in Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India, in her last year. When they visited Nagpur, Mark liked Dr.Singh's daughter, and after returning to the U.S. sent a proposal to marry Kim. Since all the children were born out of India, they did not find it strange to marry a foreigner. Kim also agreed to marry Mark. After completing her studies, Kim was invited to the U.S.in July 1993 by Mark and, later, she married him in September 1993. Mark and Kim, later, invited my wife, Indira, to visit the U.S. in Sept 1994, when their first child and our granddaughter, Lolita Renea Morgan was born. In June 1995, the second daughter, Rajni Nadya Singh, a Biochemistry graduate from Nagpur University, and I visited the U.S. Rajni, later, married the cousin of Mark, named Travis W. Keil, on April 06, 1996. in September 1995, Rajesh Adrian Joyce Singh, the only son of Dr. & Mrs. Singh, came to the U.S.for studies. Currently, he is doing Business Management Studies at York College, Nebraska.
The Church of Christ in Nagpur is growing slowly, because it faces many hardships, which are stated below :
1. LACK OF TEACHING AND PREACHING MATERIALS IN HINDI AND OTHER LANGUAGES OF INDIA : 2. ACCREDITED HINDI LANGUAGE BIBLE COLLEGE : This is the greatest need not only of the Nagpur church, but also for the whole of North India. As stated above, there are two church of Christ Bible Colleges in Chennai (Madras), in Tamil and English languages. The people from the North do not go there, as they speak Hindi, and do not know Tamil or even English. Since 1995, the efforts are being made by the Nagpur church to raise funds for establshing a duly accredited Hindi-language Bible College for the whole of North India, but no success has been achieved since no one seems to understand this cause of the people of North India, that there is a desperate need for a Bible College, where instruction can be given in Hindi, and properly-trained preachers could be produced for whole of North India. We need someone to take up this project, financially. 3. CHURCH TRANSPORTATION: This is another requirement of the church. All our members are middle class, lower middle class, and poor people. They are financially weak but spiritually strong. They cannot afford even the bus fare for two sides for the entire family. In India, an average family has about 5 or 6 members. The per capita income is very low. Some people earn as low as US$ 20.00 per month, which is barely enough for the maintenance of their family. They cannot have even two meals a day. Therefore, most of the familes do not attend the church regularly, because they cannot afford the bus or cab fares for the entire family. The Nagpur church has been looking for some donors, who may be willing to donate a mini-bus to the church, which can be used to pick up people on Sundays for worship and drop them back. Hope, the Lord will hear this prayer one day. 4. CHRISTIAN SCHOOL : There is only one church of Christ school in Madras. It is a perpetual source of income for their congregation. But, in whole of North India, there is no Christian School. The church needs a donor for making an initial investment to start the school, where Christian teachings could be imparted. This may also bring in some income to make the church to stand on her own feet, financially. The entire project to start a Christian school for whole of North India needs an investment of about US$30,000. 5. PRINTING PRESS : Since the translation and printing work is perpetual, alongwith a Bible College, it will be cheaper to establish a printing press affiliated with the church. Apart from doing the church work, work can be taken up from outside too, which may give some income to the church for other projects. 6. CHURCH BUILDING : At present, the church does not its own building. Currently, services are held in the residence of Dr. Singh's living room. Due to the lack of a building , the church finds it difficult to increase the congregation. Many peope do not feel that it is a proper church, since they are used to denominational lofty structures. Secondly, the residence of Dr. Singh belongs to the Anglicans, since the time he was the President of the College. There will be a time in the near future soon, wen he will have to return this residence to the Anglicans, and then the present congregation will face a tremendous difficulty of conducting worship and other services. Therefore, a church building is desperately needed. If a Bible College is built, with an auditorium, the church could meet there on Sundays. 7. OUTREACH WORK : Nagpur church is fully involved with the outreach work within Nagpur District, and the surrounding suburbs and rural areas..During his travels within India, Dr. Singh always make a point to preach the Gospel in unreached places. He has been able to teach people in 3 towns of North India, in the State of U.P. (Uttar Pradesh): Bareilly, Pilibhit, and Farrukhabad. However, there is acute shortage of finances to pay salaries to the preachers in these new congregations. There are some dedicated persons for the Lord's work, but how to pay them, is our greatest problem? In order to survive, they at least need $100 a month, each. The above-written details give a brief history of the beginning of the Lord's church in Nagpur and throws light about the progress of the church in North India. The harvest is ready but we have no labourers, and no finances, to reap this harvest. The church has been trying very hard to raise some support, since 1995, but always failed. In 1996, a generous American Brother raised about US$30,000 for the Nagpur Bible College, but, unfortunately, te amount was hijacked by another organization for Andhra Flood Relief. It is hoped that you have got the picture of the church in North India. Please pray "without ceasing" for Nagpur Church of Christ, and its needs, which the Lord should provide. If you wish to know more about the church, or about any aspect of our activities, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be glad to hear from you and share our spiritual experiences with you. YOU ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE LORD AND TO US !