The above vision statement is taken from our most recent FAQ pamphlet on H.I. India.

What it means is that H.I. plays a vital link in the process:

Empowered, transformed Christian Leaders -> a revitalized Church -> a transformed nation

The Church is God’s unique creation. Yes! God is doing mighty things through the lives of individual believers and He wants to multiply this through the Church, collectively.

Let me quote from an authoritative source - the Manila Manifesto from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism:

“Every Christian congregation is a local expression of the Body of Christ and has the same responsibilities. It is both "a holy priesthood" to offer God the spiritual sacrifices of worship and "a holy nation" to spread abroad his excellences in witness. The church is thus both a worshipping and a witnessing community gathered and scattered, called and sent. Worship and witness are inseparable.

We believe that the local church bears a primary responsibility for the spread of the gospel. Scripture suggests this in the progression that "our gospel came to you" and then "rang out from you" ( 1 Thess 1: 5 & 8 ). In this way, the gospel creates the church which spreads the gospel which creates more churches in a continuous chain-reaction. Moreover, what Scripture teaches, strategy confirms.

The church is intended by God to be a sign of his kingdom, that is, an indication of what human community looks like when it comes under his rule of righteousness and peace. As with individuals, so with churches, the gospel has to be embodied if it is to be communicated effectively. It is through our love for one another that the invisible God reveals himself today ( 1 John 4: 12 ), especially when our fellowship is expressed in small groups, and when it transcends the barriers of race, rank, sex and age which divide other communities.

Some tend to look at the Church in purely universal terms. Therefore all of us who are believers, regardless of our denominational backgrounds, consider ourselves members of the Church Universal, which is certainly true. However, it is the vibrant local church that is the visible expression of the Body of Christ. It is the local church or “ecclesia” that is called to fulfill the “Great Commission” through making disciples ( evangelizing and discipling ), baptizing, teaching and carrying out acts of compassion, all the while enjoying His presence. It is through the local church that members express their individual spiritual gifts.

We must train the individual leader. But we must do more than that. We must urge every trained leader to go back and multiply what he or she has learnt, in his or her local church! Consider the happening after Pentecost - it was the whole Body which received and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit (rather than a few gifted individuals). It was the Newborn Church that was actually commissioned to accomplish the mission of ‘go ye into all the world’. Consider the church at Antioch in Acts 11 and 13. It was the first true example of a “Great Commission Church”. As we read the accounts of the great missionary activities recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and the New Testament letters, we must be convinced that it was the local church rather than individual leaders that impacted whole communities, societies, indeed, countries and won them to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is sometimes a challenge to work with certain local congregations, especially given their structures, hierarchies and mindsets, but as John Stott says:

“Now it is understandable, even inevitable, that we are critical of many of the church’s inherited structures and traditions. Every church in every place at every time is in need of reform and renewal. But we need to beware lest we despise the Church of God, and are blind to His work in history. We may safely say that God has not abandoned His church, however displeased with it He may be. He is still building and refining it. And if God has not abandoned it, how can we?” The Message of Ephesians ( The Bible Speaks Today ) by J.R.W. Stott.

The place to begin is with the end. I ask the question: Can India be won for the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer must be a resounding YES! But how will it be achieved? Through a transformed and vibrant Church in general, and many transformed and vibrant local congregations in particular. The key to this transformation in the churches must be a transformed leadership among both clergy and laity and a true realization of the “Ministry of All Believers“. Here is where I believe that H.I. in India is being called to play a catalytical role.

Do we believe that the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ (and I mean the local confessing congregation) is the route to a transformed nation? If yes, then our training must be driven to that end.

I propose that we intentionally encourage participants to go back to their local churches and play a transforming role in that setting! How many of our Church seminars are conducted in the hope that that particular church is going to impact the environment in which it is placed? Can we ask our faculty to intentionally weave the role of the local church into their presentations? These questions need serious discussion. Our entire mindset ought to be, ‘ we are nothing but instruments in the hand of God to assist His Church to equip her members in areas of evangelism and discipling.’ We will achieve this by focusing on the leadership – which is an amalgam of clergy and laity.

The Apostle Paul sketches the anatomy of a healthy church in his letter to the Ephesian Church, where he describes the 5-fold ministry of the church with the sole intent of growing into full Spiritual maturity and equipping members for ministry. Charles Colson in his 1996 classic The Body describes a few representative examples of how the church can equip its members:

• The church must equip its members to know and defend their faith and apply it in the world
• The church must equip its members to lead exemplary lives in the marketplace
• The church must equip its members to build strong marriages and homes
• The church must equip its members to “train up their children in the way they should go”
• The church should equip its members to be effective bearers of the Good News
• The church should equip its members to fulfill their vocation
• The church should equip its members to be good stewards of financial and other resources
• The church should equip its members with specialized training so that they can reach out to hurting people with specific physical and spiritual needs

Looking at the above list, it seems to me that there are many areas H.I. could assist the church to equip her members (especially those in leadership – clergy and laity).

Just think about it, perhaps God has ordained this vital ministry of H.I. in India to be just that – His instrument to assist the Church in India, so that her witness is revitalized and our nation transformed.

Executive Director
Paul N. Balasundaram