By Morgan Miles –
According to Christian tradition, Saint Thomas preached the Gospel in India, where he was martyred. Now, India is poised to send the Gospel to everywhere else. As the U.S. sheds its leadership role in Christianity, India is ready to take up the call.
“God’s hand is upon India,” says Pastor Satish Kumar, who heads a 300K member Calvary Temple church in Hyderabad. “It’s time for India to reach the lost, not only within the country, but also across the globe.”
Kumar is pursuing the vision to plant 40 satellite churches to add to the 11 already across India. In Hyderabad, his campus has the original sanctuary, which holds 18,000, and two overflow buildings to double the number of attendees. If you don’t manage to grab a seat in one of the five Sunday services, you can watch livecast on screens outside.
“Preaching the pure Word of God is what attracts people,” Kumar says. “Practicing the Word of God is what keeps people in the church.”
Calvary Temple produces 650+ programs a month in 17 languages of India and surrounding regions (translated from Hyderabad’s Telugu) to be broadcast on the subcontinent and in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gulf countries. Millions follow them on social media.
Started in 2005, the church grew astronomically from its start with just a couple thousands attendees. Calvary Temple implement an electronic ID system that tracks attendance of church members. If you don’t scan one Sunday, you get a call from leaders asking if you are ok and need prayer.
“If we don’t show up to church, we get a call. They’ll ask me why I didn’t show up to church and after they find out, they will pray for me,” says member Chandraiah, per translation. “I’m happy when I receive that call. The fact that they care for us is really special. Because of that, we will surely come to the next service.”
The church serves congregants by feeding them, sending birthday cakes to every member, and offering free medical care on Sunday (and meds at a reduced price). The feeding of 50,000 people breakfast, lunch and dinner on Sunday rivals Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000 (albeit without the miraculous multiplication).
A crew of 100+ volunteers works from before dawn to chop vegetables and stir vats of shimmering, savory soup over rice. They’re headed up by Narayana Podhili, during the week a civil engineer. They start at 3:30 a.m. and keep working until 8:00 p.m.
“We are committed to come here every Sunday,” Podhili says.
Nagavalli Mendem has helped slicing and peeling vegetable for hungry congregants for seven years after God healed her of cancer.
Calvary Temple also takes care of funeral and burial expenses for congregants that die. Membership grows by 3,000 monthly. The church regularly holds prayer and fasting vigils.
“Service to mankind is service to God,” Kumar says.
So while the numbers of Christians in India are still low (2.3% = 28M people by the 2011 census), they are doing the things that the American church would be hard-pressed to replicate. If America has been the leader in missions for a couple hundred years, it’s poised to lose that leadership role to China and India.
Sources: CBN, others.
