Author: Amrita Singh
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 7, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/The_business_of_faith/articleshow/3453877.cms
Introduction: How Christian Evangelists Strategize
Their Conversion Mission
There was a time the Christian missionary
spread the word of god in a simple and direct way. He would step off a boat,
make friends with locals and after years of effort, count a sizable flock.
Cut to 2008 and it's a different scenario
altogether. Church planting agencies, as they are called, have taken over
the evangelical role. They ensure that growth targets are set and new churches
built. There is quantifiable growth. In the four years from 2003, 22 new International
Churches of Christ were built. The Adventists has concrete plans to build
500 new churches too. The Presbyterian Church of south India, which is funded
by the UK-based Mission to the World, also has a goal of 500 new churches
in the next decade.
The growth means the existing flock has to
dig ever deeper into its pockets because the new churches are funded partly
by members and partly by foreign donations. Senthil Joseph (not his real name),
who goes to church occasionally, says: "Even though I am not a regular,
I have to make donations for the new churches. In the last 10 years, since
I moved to Delhi, 10 new churches of my (Syrian Christian) sect have come
up and every time I have to pay a heavy donation."
Most Christian denominations use the name-and-shame
method to force their flock to donate generously. Joseph says: "The amount
given is published in the annual telephone directory of the community for
every one to see."
The commercial thrust has made the last decade
one of the most successful for the growth of Christianity in India. According
to a forecast by the World Religious Council, India's 25 million-strong Christian
population could balloon five-fold by 2050.
Church planting agencies have never been busier.
These agencies are described by the Indian Evangelical Mission as "specialists
in taking Christianity to places where it has no presence and training people
to establish new churches there."
One of the most effective church planting
agencies working in India is the US-based AD 2000 and Beyond Movement. It
is impressively organized, having mapped the whole of India by caste and identifying
those most likely to be receptive to their message. AD 2000 lists nine Indian
tribes as Priority-I, possibly because they are so poor they're deemed most
likely to convert.
The nine tribes identified by AD 2000 are:
Bhilala, Binjhwari, Chero, Kawar/Kamari, Lhoba, Majhwar, Panika, Shin or Sina,
and Sikkimese Bhotia. AD 2000 identifies thickly-populated, politically important
and moderately poor northern India as "the core of the core of the core".
In a sign of some of these church planting
agencies' sense of purpose, AD 2000 has drawn up detailed plans to target
all of India's 75,000 postal pin codes with the ultimate goal of a church
in each.
So, how do church planters work in the 21st
century when the days of the itinerant missionary are long gone? Helen, a
missionary who has worked among Bhils in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh says the
first step is to send a reconnaissance team to the target area to find out
if a church is already under construction. The team would also need to study
the area and understand its problems.
Armed with this basic information, modern
missionaries are expected to work out a sound socio-economic plan for the
area. This could include simple things to make the lives of locals better,
such as starting a school, a health centre, new self-help groups. It is only
after a minimum of five years of such groundwork that a Christian denomination
actually starts to talk to local leaders about building a church.
The proposed church would initially be paid
for by bigger ones in the cities but it is expected to become self-supporting
and entirely locally-managed within 15 years. After that, it is time for the
missionary to move on and adopt a new place.