South Asia
South Asia: 1 Billion, 330 Million People
By Rick Zachary
South Asia is a bastion of Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism and has resisted the best efforts of missions activity. In spite of hundreds of years of missionary and evangelistic efforts, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Maldives remain largely unreached. Though there are places in southern India and northeastern India where Christians exceed 5 percent of the population, the vast majority of India (well over 75 percent of its land mass) remains less than 1 percent Christian.
Similar grim statistics apply to the rest of south Asia. Maldives is 100 percent Muslim, and in 1998 all known Christians were arrested. Pakistan and Bangladesh are dominated by Islam and are hotbeds of Islamic radicalism. Christians are not allowed in Bhutan.
India is the world’s oldest living civilization, and many south Asian cultures are founded on 3,000-year-old traditions and customs. Shallow methods will not change these ancient civilizations. Only strong, vibrant churches led by well-trained, faith-filled pastors can truly change such cultures.
549 New Congregations in Five Years
In the past five years, with the help of Bethany World Prayer Center and Surge, we have been able to launch 549 churches in south Asia. Of that number, 390 are in India, 81 in Nepal, 35 in Sri Lanka, 24 in Pakistan, and 19 in Bangladesh.
We are planting one model church each year in South Asia. These model congregations are beginning to serve as sending centers and representatives of the rapid growth possible through the principles of multiplying leaders. Victor Nazareth in Delhi, India, now has 21 churches under his supervision and over 900 people. Dishan DeSilva in Colombo, Sri Lanka, oversees 18 churches with over 2,000 people. K. B. Basel in Nepal oversees 70 churches with over 5,000 people. Though it is not yet three years old, our church in Islamabad, Pakistan, continues to excel with over 800 in Sunday service. We expect to start multiple services there within the next three months. New Life Church in Bombay, India, now has 4,443 churches under its direct supervision.
The Multiplication of Leaders
In 2000, I began working with New Life Church and Pastor Joseph, helping them expand their ministry. Frequent ministry to their congregations and leaders helped to establish a strong relationship with this already vibrant church movement, but our most significant contribution was the introduction of the principle of twelve to their leadership team. I clearly remember the first time I spoke to Pastor Joseph’s men and described the powerful strategy of reaching multitudes through discipleship. They already had a successful work, and they were skeptical about reorganizing their ministry. Two years later, Pastor Colin Dye from Kensington Temple in London sponsored a very effective conference for Pastor Joseph’s church in Bombay, where he presented the framework for the principle of twelve. We helped New Life build a six-story training center in Bombay, and the growth of their work has been dramatic.
One Principle-of-Twelve Church in India Equals 12.5 New Congregations
Since we began working with New Life Church, we have helped them plant 249 churches. During that same time, New Life planted 3,135 churches with indigenous funds for a total of 3,384 new congregations in seven years. Over 38,747 new members were added to their congregations during that period!
In India, we are targeting Maharashtra and Gujarat states, an area that is less than 1 percent Christian and contains over 150 million people. We have translated the Journey and Discovery leadership material into Hindi and Sinhala; Nepali and Urdu are in progress. We will add Marathi and Gujarati this year, and working in partnership with the New Life team, we are hoping to train 100,000 leaders in India by the year 2020.
Though south Asia represents one of Christianity’s greatest challenges, hopeful signs of change are emerging. Thanks for standing with us in faith as we establish footholds of change on the front lines of an epic conflict.
Typical Church Plant
Dilip Gupta works in the city of Bombay in an area known as Khadi Basti. There are approximately 200,000 people in this cramped poverty-stricken area of the city. Dilip is married and has three children. He came to the Lord in August 2004 and enrolled in the discipleship training course. He began his ministry in August 2006 as a Surge worker with a small house church. Though he had known the Lord for only two years, in a few weeks time, his church grew to 23 adults; and within six months, he was pastoring a congregation of 250 adults.
