Faith Beyond the Church

Christian Faith beyond the Church

Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, once reportedly challenged an Indian church leader:   “How is it that after centuries of mission work in India and huge investments of money and missionaries from the West that you have converted less than three per cent of the population?”   It’s a fair and important question.

The vast majority of converts to Christianity have come from the “dalit” communities of India .   These are the “untouchables” (outcastes) and tribal peoples.   They never felt a part of the Indian society and were, in fact, severely oppressed by Hinduism (see the June 2003 issue of “The National Geographic”).   They were told that they deserved the filthiest tasks of the society and social exclusion because of their birth.   They were told by Hinduism that they deserved this birth because of the bad karma from their previous lives.   As an act of rejecting this oppression, about ten percent of the dalits have converted to Christianity.   Most of the converts still today come from the dalits.  

We rejoice that these oppressed people have found the love of God and the new dignity that the Gospel gives.   These dalit Christians have self-respect and hope.   They are leaders in many professional fields in India because of the encouragement and education that they have received in the church.

However, because the Indian church is largely dalit, the rest of the population of India does not fit in.   There are 120 million Muslims and 700 million caste Hindus who are alienated socially from the church.   Yet, even among these segments of the Indian population, people are responding to the Gospel.   Hundreds of thousands of Indians, mostly caste Hindus, are worshippers of Jesus Christ, though they will not join the church.  

In a survey done in Chennai twenty years ago, fully 38% of non-Christians said they had prayed to Jesus, 71% affirmed that Jesus was alive and able to help those who worship Him, and 5% identified themselves as worshippers of Jesus alone.   (See details in “Churchless Christianity,” reprinted by William Carey Library, 2001.)   In a more recent survey, 3% of the Chennai population identified themselves as Christian but 10% said that they worshipped Jesus alone (“Hinduism and Human Rights,” by Arvind Sharma, New Delhi, Oxford Press, 2004).

Worshippers of Jesus who are not dalit do not feel comfortable with the Western form of church life, besides the ethnic differences.   In past missionary practice, they were told that they must change cultural forms before they would be allowed to receive baptism, for example, Hindus eating beef and Muslims eating pork.   The vast majority of India sees the Indian church as alien from the traditional culture of the land.  

Even those who worship only Jesus stay away from identification with the church.   Interestingly, when the government does the official census of the population, only 2.6 percent identify themselves as Christian.   However, when social agencies have done a similar survey, they have come up with 5-7 percent.   Presumably, these are believers in Jesus who are not part of the church life.

As LCMS Area Director for India and Sri Lanka , I spend January and February each year there.   As I traveled around on one of my trips, I did a simple research asking two questions.   The first question was:   “Do you think the vast majority of India will ever join the church?”   Everyone replied in the negative.   The second question was the more important one:   “If you can imagine an India won for Christ, what would its religious life look like?”   It would not look like the Western forms of the church.   It would look much more like the traditional religious life of India .

What is important, then, is that we begin developing methods of outreach and of church life that reflect our vision for the vast majority of India .   The dalit church has plenty to do to reach out to their fellow dalits with the Gospel, and they will feel comfortable in joining the church.   What has been needed is to partner with Indian Christians and foreign missionaries on culturally-rooted forms of Indian Christianity.   We have needed approaches to evangelism and nurture that move beyond church walls.

Here is what is developing:

• Groups of high caste Hindu believers in Christ are meeting in homes.   They call themselves “Jesu Bhaktas,” devotees of Jesus.
• Christian mass media centers are broadcasting radio programs into homes across the country, including our own Lutheran Hour Ministries center in Chennai, and they receive hundreds of responses from high caste inquirers and provide correspondence courses to build up their faith.
• A couple of high caste converts have adopted the traditional lifestyle of a Hindu “holy man” (called “sanyassi”), and they travel around the country teaching their disciples and all whom they meet about the faith.
• Some Christian places of Hindu/Muslim pilgrimage have spontaneously sprouted up around the land, including at the former missionary home church in Kodaikanal which is now served by our partner church, the India Evangelical Lutheran Church .
• An informal group of high caste converts and Western missionaries has organized into the “Rethinking Forum” in order to discuss and orient mission work in culturally rooted ways.
• Christians, both Indian and Western, have gained skill in traditional Indian music (“Carnatic/Hindustani music”) and developed Christian “bhajans” (antiphonal songs between leader and congregation) for high caste groups to use in their worship.
• A form of baptism has been initiated that takes place in the home, approved by the whole family, so that converts are not considered culturally alienated and removed from their home and community.
• Dalit pastors have become increasingly welcome to conduct prayers and teaching in the homes of high caste people, though they will not come to church worship.
• Muslim and caste Hindu inquirers will attend mass evangelistic conventions where they can remain anonymous.   They prefer Roman Catholic worship services where they also can remain anonymous.
• Muslim and caste Hindu converts will drop by Roman Catholic churches, which are typically open all day long like their temples and mosques are, for private prayer and meditation.
• Some congregations put a small shrine, similar to Hindu ones, along the roadside in front of their churches, so people can anonymously pray as they pass by.
• Christian thinkers are increasingly agreeing that only 5% of traditional Indian cultural forms are contrary to biblical norms, so there should be much freedom in areas of dress, food, church organization, worship forms, etc.

Obviously, all of these developments are only the beginning of a form of Christianity that is rooted in the culture of the vast majority of India .   However, it is clear that there is a great deal of interest in Jesus Christ across the land of India .   People are responding to the Gospel proclamation in many different ways and forms.   The Spirit of God is reaching out to call people to the Savior, and often He is doing it far beyond the confines of the church.   Our challenge is to try to keep up with our missionary God.

Herb Hoefer

  May 24, 2004