This testimony of mine was published in the first issue of Bible Truths (the magazine of the Local Church) in November 1984 and mentions how the first meeting of the Local Church in Kerala began on the first Sunday of January 1980.
Sixteen years of my life were lived on the wrong side of the cross, and about eight I have lived on this side with Christ. I can honestly say that the joy and pleasure I have experienced in any month of these eight years outweigh all the joy and pleasure that I could squeeze out of those first sixteen.
I was born and brought up in a Mar Thoma Church background. After my conversion I continued to be an active member in the church’s youth organ. Very soon, however, I was made a student official in the interdenominational organisation – Union of Evangelical Students of India (commonly referred to as EU). It was here that I began to use my God – given abilities. These abilities were soon recognised by the senior members and thus I was pushed higher up into the officialdom of the EU. This gave me the opportunity of organising several student retreats and conferences. Before long I stopped going to the Mar Thoma Church because I did not get the spiritual food and fellowship that I had begun to receive from the EU.
God was using the conferences of the EU to bring many non-believers to receive Christ. However we were unable to provide effective follow-up. This concerned me very much. There was in me an unsatisfied barrenness that haunts one who brought new souls to birth and left them there. The inner voice kept saying “don’t bring spiritual babes to birth and leave them to die for lack of nourishment”. I knew that, if necessary, the Holy Spirit could see to the follow up once a man was converted. However, i sometimes used to think whether a man should lead another to a decision for Christ if he was not adequately prepared to follow him up.
It was in these circumstances that I began searching the Word of god to see if there was in it the secret of effective follow up. I found that in the New Testament days, when a person received Jesus Christ, he was first baptised and then he devoted himself to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2: 41,42). I also found that the apostles were careful to teach ALL that Jesus had commanded; not keeping from the young believers anything that would be profitable for their spiritual life. (Acts 20: 20, 27 Cp with Mathew 28:20 a). It dawned to me that these practices were the key to effective follow up. But I realised that these practices would not be possible within the framework of an interdenominational organisation which is bound to keep silent on several vital issues so as to retain it’s inter denominational stand. Where then could they be put to practice?
When Jesus Christ returned to heaven leaving a few disciples to begin the huge task of evangelising their world, what organisation did He leave for them? This was a crucial question. For if I followed something other than what Christ has set up, would I not be saying that my way was superior to His, that in this age I was wiser than Christ, more foresighted?
Once again I turned to the Word of God which I had come to hold as the final authority on matters such as this. My search revealed that the only form of organisation that the early believers used was the local church. The fact that there were no organisations other than the local churches was sobering. I understood that the various practices that were key to effective spiritual growth and follow up could be practised in the framework of a local church. Baptism, breaking of Bread, discipline for erring believers, scriptural leadership, the place and role of women in the church and a number of other important things could be taught and practised only in a church situation. In other words, the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) could be practised only in the “household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1Timothy 3: 15b)
But alas! When I looked around at the various churches I could not see a scene similar to that which I found in the churches of the New Testament. What I saw was lukewarm ‘evangelical’ churches without vision and passion. Most of the churches had set aside the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of man. The churches have failed and that is why Para-church organisations have come up. But is it not possible to have churches similar to those that existed in the New Testament days? If it was possible the, it should be possible now. When one has crept along for many years with conventional Christianity, the normal New Testament Christianity seems to be so abnormal because we are so sub-normal. We have seen the principles on church life in the Word for years, but somehow concluded that they were too extreme and impracticable for the complicated age in which we live. And so we surrendered to the lukewarm condition of today’s churches. Is it necessary to do so? I didn’t feel it was. Nor did a few like minded believers.
On the first Sunday of January 1980 we gathered as a local church. We were only four in number. We were set to demonstrate that the biblical principles of church and discipleship were not only highly practicable but that they were the only terms that would result in the accomplishment of the Great Commission – Mathew 28: 19-20.
A few years have gone by. It has been a great joy to see more and more believers begin practising the scriptural pattern of local church and thereby mature in their spiritual lives. It has been so thrilling to live a life by convictions instead of being controlled by circumstances and to watch God honouring those who honour His Word.
A ‘perfect’ local church is not what I anticipate. What I desire to see is local churches that seek to obey to the best of their ability the pattern set in the New Testament.
Another denomination is not what I want. I want that each local church be independent and directly accountable to God and His Word.
A local church that would last for all the generations to come is not my purpose. If the next generation finds that we have failed in some areas, it should seek to establish a local church that is more Scriptural.
On the night before we first started meeting as a church, these were the words I wrote in my diary: “I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I perceive but I leave my prayers with Him alone whose will is wiser than my own. Yet my prayer is that I may walk by faith and not by sight that I may not fear when I should aspire and falter when I should climb higher. I am aware of the hundred and one obstacles but they do not keep me from proceeding – proceeding not on my strength but on the Lords. Anything new will first be totally rejected before it is fully accepted.”
Sixteen years of my life were lived on the wrong side of the cross, and about eight I have lived on this side with Christ. I can honestly say that the joy and pleasure I have experienced in any month of these eight years outweigh all the joy and pleasure that I could squeeze out of those first sixteen.
I was born and brought up in a Mar Thoma Church background. After my conversion I continued to be an active member in the church’s youth organ. Very soon, however, I was made a student official in the interdenominational organisation – Union of Evangelical Students of India (commonly referred to as EU). It was here that I began to use my God – given abilities. These abilities were soon recognised by the senior members and thus I was pushed higher up into the officialdom of the EU. This gave me the opportunity of organising several student retreats and conferences. Before long I stopped going to the Mar Thoma Church because I did not get the spiritual food and fellowship that I had begun to receive from the EU.
God was using the conferences of the EU to bring many non-believers to receive Christ. However we were unable to provide effective follow-up. This concerned me very much. There was in me an unsatisfied barrenness that haunts one who brought new souls to birth and left them there. The inner voice kept saying “don’t bring spiritual babes to birth and leave them to die for lack of nourishment”. I knew that, if necessary, the Holy Spirit could see to the follow up once a man was converted. However, i sometimes used to think whether a man should lead another to a decision for Christ if he was not adequately prepared to follow him up.
It was in these circumstances that I began searching the Word of god to see if there was in it the secret of effective follow up. I found that in the New Testament days, when a person received Jesus Christ, he was first baptised and then he devoted himself to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2: 41,42). I also found that the apostles were careful to teach ALL that Jesus had commanded; not keeping from the young believers anything that would be profitable for their spiritual life. (Acts 20: 20, 27 Cp with Mathew 28:20 a). It dawned to me that these practices were the key to effective follow up. But I realised that these practices would not be possible within the framework of an interdenominational organisation which is bound to keep silent on several vital issues so as to retain it’s inter denominational stand. Where then could they be put to practice?
When Jesus Christ returned to heaven leaving a few disciples to begin the huge task of evangelising their world, what organisation did He leave for them? This was a crucial question. For if I followed something other than what Christ has set up, would I not be saying that my way was superior to His, that in this age I was wiser than Christ, more foresighted?
Once again I turned to the Word of God which I had come to hold as the final authority on matters such as this. My search revealed that the only form of organisation that the early believers used was the local church. The fact that there were no organisations other than the local churches was sobering. I understood that the various practices that were key to effective spiritual growth and follow up could be practised in the framework of a local church. Baptism, breaking of Bread, discipline for erring believers, scriptural leadership, the place and role of women in the church and a number of other important things could be taught and practised only in a church situation. In other words, the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) could be practised only in the “household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1Timothy 3: 15b)
But alas! When I looked around at the various churches I could not see a scene similar to that which I found in the churches of the New Testament. What I saw was lukewarm ‘evangelical’ churches without vision and passion. Most of the churches had set aside the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of man. The churches have failed and that is why Para-church organisations have come up. But is it not possible to have churches similar to those that existed in the New Testament days? If it was possible the, it should be possible now. When one has crept along for many years with conventional Christianity, the normal New Testament Christianity seems to be so abnormal because we are so sub-normal. We have seen the principles on church life in the Word for years, but somehow concluded that they were too extreme and impracticable for the complicated age in which we live. And so we surrendered to the lukewarm condition of today’s churches. Is it necessary to do so? I didn’t feel it was. Nor did a few like minded believers.
On the first Sunday of January 1980 we gathered as a local church. We were only four in number. We were set to demonstrate that the biblical principles of church and discipleship were not only highly practicable but that they were the only terms that would result in the accomplishment of the Great Commission – Mathew 28: 19-20.
A few years have gone by. It has been a great joy to see more and more believers begin practising the scriptural pattern of local church and thereby mature in their spiritual lives. It has been so thrilling to live a life by convictions instead of being controlled by circumstances and to watch God honouring those who honour His Word.
A ‘perfect’ local church is not what I anticipate. What I desire to see is local churches that seek to obey to the best of their ability the pattern set in the New Testament.
Another denomination is not what I want. I want that each local church be independent and directly accountable to God and His Word.
A local church that would last for all the generations to come is not my purpose. If the next generation finds that we have failed in some areas, it should seek to establish a local church that is more Scriptural.
On the night before we first started meeting as a church, these were the words I wrote in my diary: “I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I perceive but I leave my prayers with Him alone whose will is wiser than my own. Yet my prayer is that I may walk by faith and not by sight that I may not fear when I should aspire and falter when I should climb higher. I am aware of the hundred and one obstacles but they do not keep me from proceeding – proceeding not on my strength but on the Lords. Anything new will first be totally rejected before it is fully accepted.”
