Author:
Publication: www.ad2000.org
Date:
URL: http://www.ad2000.org/uters3.htm
Signs are Pointing to North India SIGN #:
There is a growing sense of vision and cooperation in the task.
Today there are some 40 million Christians
in 200,000 local churches in India. In the last few years, local churches
and para church organizations have joined in the vision of reaching India
by generating more than 200 plans for evangelizing. For example:
* The Evangelical Church of India has a denominational
plan to establish 1000 local churches by then. With almost 900 churches already,
they expect to reach their goal in 1998 -- two years ahead of schedule.
*The Friends Missionary Prayer Band has developed
"Hindi Heartland Penetration Strategies" to mobilize 1000 new missionaries
and to research and evangelize 300 unreached people groups within the next
few years.
*An agency has a church-planting movement
among 100 of the Joshua Project 2000 unreached peoples of southern Asia.
*India Reach has taken on the goal of reaching
500 million people with the gospel through direct mail efforts followed up
by personal visits within six weeks to the individuals who respond. They are
believing God for over 65 million decisions for Christ
*An agency has launched an initiative to present
the gospel through literature to 100 million people in India .
*An agency has a goal for training 100,000
missionaries for outreach to India.
*The Association of Pentecostals is working
effectively towards a church for every one of the 75,000 pin codes by the
end of the year 2000.
*The Charismatic New Life Churches have a
church-planting movement for every one of the 512 districts .
Historically, much of the mission work in
this part of India has been done by individual missionaries, ministries and
denominations. We rejoice in their faithful efforts and enthusiastically support
all that they are doing. But God is doing something very special in India
at this time with His Church. As never before, networks are emerging throughout
all of North India involving not only historical mainline church leaders,
but new church pastors, missionaries from both international and indigenous
missions and qualified professional people, many of who are leaving their
careers to devote themselves to reaching the unreached in North India.
Many of these people and organizations have
come together as the North India Harvest Network, a loosely-organized forum
established for mutual encouragement and strength in evangelism and church
planting efforts. Totally managed by volunteers, it has sponsored seminars
in 60 of the 200 districts of North India to build networks and mobilize workers
for the harvest they truly believe is coming. Their goal is reaching "every
people group in every city in every language in every geographic district."
Their mission is expressed in the phrase "*PLUG*, *PREM* and be *NICE*,"
a series of acronyms that describe their focus and methodology for reaching
their goals.
*PLUG* refers to the different targets their
networks are trying to reach: every *P*EOPLE - in every *L*ANGUAGE - in every
*U*RBAN center - in every *G *EOGRAPHIC division (district, block and PIN
code).
At the heart of the strategy are 500 target
groups or units in North India based on this PLUG approach.
- 200 PEOPLE groups
- 50 LANGUAGES
- 50 URBAN areas
- 200 GEOGRAPHICAL districts
Much like a net, each target group serves
as a thread drawn from a different direction to ensure that every person has
a chance to hear, regardless of the language they speak, their cultural grouping,
of the city of geographical district in which they reside. These target groups
have become the focus of the network's prayer and mobilization efforts. Through
their seminars, the NIHN seeks to identify, prepare and train local leaders
who will coordinate the resources and personnel to reach each of these target
groups in their area.
*PREM* and be *NICE* describe how that work
will be done: *P*RAYER must be offered - *R*ESEARCH into the harvest field
must be performed and then utilized - *E*QUIPPING and training those who go
out to labor must occur - * M*OBILIZATION must be ongoing.
It is recognized and understood by all concerned
that this can only occur: by *N*ETWORKING, especially in pioneer situations
- by taking *I*NITIATIVE when nothing is happening or a gap is realized -
by being a *C*ATALYST (and agent that provokes or speeds significant change
or action) - by *E*NCOURAGING all the existing ministries and efforts that
advance the cause of Jesus Christ.
In so many ways, India is learning to work
together to reach its own unreached peoples. The networks of concerned individuals
and churches are stretching across the entire country. Perhaps more than any
other factor, these networks reveal the growing unity of the Church, without
which global evangelizing cannot occur.
