Released: April 30, 2004

Graduates of India's Church Mobilization Pastors Training Plan to Take the Gospel to Unreached Tribes within their Country

CHENNAI (INDIA): In 2003, 729 national pastors, missionaries and ministry leaders decided to make a difference in India. They enrolled the Church Mobilization Pastors Training, a new program at Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI) in Chennai, India to learn how to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the 4,695 distinct cultural groups in India, 90% of which have no church presence. Last February, 213 pastors were the first to graduate from the new training program and now plan to plant churches among these unreached tribes.

Several years ago, God gave Dr. Paul R. Gupta, president and director of HBI Ministries in Chennai, a vision to plant one million churches throughout the nation of India. The task seemed impossible, but Gupta decided to trust God. HBI partnered with Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS) in Virginia to develop the Church Mobilization Pastors Training (CMPT). Through the CMPT, pastors would meet in cohorts of fifty for five one-week modules in evangelism, discipleship, and church-planting strategies. Five out of the fourteen cohorts that began training in 2003 completed the final module in February and formed partnerships to reach 24 unreached people groups.

"We ought to be anticipating that within six months, these pastors will have people in their churches who want to go to the mission field," said Gupta, who plans to develop another training curriculum for these emerging missionaries.

During the next fifteen years, HBI and AIMS plan to train 200,000 pastors. These pastors agree to plant at least five churches each among unreached tribes in India. The potential outcome is staggering: one million new churches reaching every tribe, language, and village in India within the next twenty years.

"Jesus is raising up an army of church planters in India with a passion for God's kingdom and an unwavering belief that the Great Commission can be completed in our generation," said Jeff Short, India Strategy Coordinator at AIMS.

Pastors participating in the training are excited about the impact they will have in India. One Indian missionary who had been working among the Kolam, an unreached people group with a population of 300,000 in central India, left the training with a renewed vision and excitement about the task ahead. "We are planning to take these ideas and all we have learned back to our churches and partner with other organizations...Without these partnerships, we will not be to succeed in reaching all the unreached people groups in India."

Another pastor had begun a fellowship among the Marwaris in Chennai who had been active in a Hindu militant group and actively persecuted Christians. As more Marwaris people began to migrate into southern India, he prayed about how to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, he feels that he has the knowledge to make a greater difference among them.

"I'm going to use all these methods, and I'm going to win more souls for Jesus Christ!"

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* Note: Some names have been omitted or changed to protect the identity of people working in areas that are hostile to the Gospel. Photos of region are available upon request.

For reprint information, please call the AIMS publication office at (757) 495-5850 or email the editor at aims@aims.org.

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