Church on the move in North India
Growing hostility towards Christians leads to a new way of meeting
When it’s not safe to go to church – even a house church – what do you do?
Eddie and George (names changed) live in the foothills of the Himalayas about 200 to 250 km from the China–Tibet border. Eddie is a pastor and George works closely with him. Eddie belongs to a high-caste, but generally poor and rural, ethnic group who are scattered over small villages that dot the mountains of this region. Most of these villages are only reachable via four-wheel drive and hiking through the mountains.
Coming to faith at the age of 15, Eddie is instrumental in a grassroots movement that is reaching his people – a previously unreached people group. He helped train 50 to 60 house church leaders who now care for some 4,000 to 5,000 of his people who have come to faith in Jesus.
Eddie’s ethnic group is classified as an unreached people group. In the past, a few of this people group have come to faith. But they usually joined existing churches in the towns that are largely attended by migrants from other parts of India. Eddie’s own people remained unreached for many years.
However, in the last 15 years, disciples of Christ trained by Eddie, George and others have taken the gospel to the villages, planting numerous house-churches. In different villages, groups of believers would meet together in worship and study of God’s word. But in more recent years after the covid-19 pandemic, the hostility from religious fundamentalists has worsened. Christian believers in the villages can no longer freely invite their neighbours to pray together without opposition, which at times has turned violent. Eddie and George could no longer freely visit the leaders and believers in different villages like they used to.
Against the odds: what they did next
Eddie has introduced a new strategy. He calls it “moving house churches.”
No longer able to freely meet, Eddie and George go hiking into the mountains where they are joined by leaders whom they can contact. On these mountain hikes, that last from a few days to perhaps a week, they spend time together in fellowship, prayer, and studying the Bible. In the mountains is where Eddie and George teach, share life together and teach these leaders.
Most of the leaders range in age from their late teens to early thirties. Many of them have gone through high school and college. Each leader is responsible for leading five to 10 house churches; with each ‘church’ numbering five to 15 believers. In total, they number 4,000 to 5,000 believers scattered over a radius of 50 to 70km from where Eddie and George live.
Sacrificing self to serve others
Eddie and George’s passion to serve in difficult circumstances is inspiring. Eddie holds three masters’ degrees and was invited to pursue a PhD in the USA. His wife and children are already in the USA, but he has chosen to stay – for the sake of his people. In 2017, George left his job as a hospital technician to assist Eddie in the work of discipling indigenous leaders.
Over the last few years, Eddie and George have faced many challenges – in ministry and in their personal and family lives – shaped by the sacrifices their work demands. Both of them are in their late 40s and early 50s, yet they don’t plan on stopping their regular treks into the mountains. Eddie says he’ll continue his trips into the hills, “as long as my body allows me.”
Eddie and George are like a modern-day Paul and Barnabas. They take God’s word to the very edges. They share the gospel, pastor, lead and disciple followers of Christ in situations where traditional church approaches cannot work.
Shared with kind permission of AsiaCMS.
