Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Overcoming Communication Barriers and Boundaries in Sharing the Gospel

By Andrew Sundar
June 2007 The key bridge to overcome the Nepalese worldview was to teach the Bible chronologically, setting the foundation of God as the creator and using that to explain the origin of sin, the condition of humans as sinners and the consequences of sin. From there, the series progressed to teaching salvation through one man, Jesus Christ, and the destiny of humanity, leading to eternity. The producer considered non-believers to be his primary target audience; therefore, he shaped the programs’ content by addressing the Nepalese worldview in every lesson that he produced. He does acknowledge that a radio program by itself should not be seen as the only bridge to reaching the Nepali people for Christ. In addition to broadcasting, he shared how they took a holistic approach in order to overcome the trials his team was facing. His Nepal media team has six field staff, whose primary responsibility is to establish relationships in the community, with the goal of leading to church plants.

Despite significant restrictions, their field staff visit as many homes as possible, promoting the radio programming and requesting people to listen. They feel that the radio programs become an effective bridge to Nepali households as the field workers express their desire to return and seek the listeners’ opinions on what they have heard. The friendships established in this way eventually allow the field worker to invite listeners to a common place for a seekers’ meeting, where they share the gospel. Based on the outcome, they look for listeners who are willing to open their homes for Bible study. The goal of these studies is to start more in-depth teaching of basic biblical truths, leading people to conversion and baptism.

Once that takes place, they gather new believers together for worship. The use of this process has led to the planting of six churches in Nepal that have more than four hundred members. While the six field workers engage in relationship development for spiritual purposes, their wives engage in community development by teaching Nepali women various life skills (literacy, cottage industry, etc.), which also serves as another bridge to sharing the gospel.

As well-thought through as such an operation model is, it is hard to anticipate the real cost of such relational ministry and when the barriers may move from theoretical or philosophical to highly personal. According to one Nepal media team member:

“I used to go to [a certain location] to meet listeners in that area… Most of the people who live there are Buddhists. I went there for three weeks and managed to establish contact with a few people and they started to listen to radio programs. Some listeners could not understand what they heard in the programs, so they wanted me to come and share with them from the Bible.

One evening I went to their place to conduct a meeting, where twelve people came together and we were discussing about the Bible and Jesus. At that time, two strong young men came into the house and caught my hair, and asked me why I was preaching foreign religion in the place of Buddha, and that other religions were not allowed. They left the place, but after few minutes another two people came in and without saying anything, I was badly beaten and warned to leave the village or I would be killed. I came back home very discouraged.

My wife reminded me of our purpose there; she encouraged me to consider the Christ who sacrificed his life for me, and asked if we could not endure some pain for the Lord. She reminded me of how even Jesus’ disciples suffered persecution and endured for the glory of the Lord. We prayed for a week, asking the Lord to open doors at the same place.

Then I went to that same place to meet the village chief and told him that I have not come to preach a foreign religion, but about the creator God. He is everyone’s God, and that is why they should follow the Lord. Eventually, two families came to know the Lord; we then started a Bible study group and eventually a small church was formed. Many are coming and God is working.”

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Andrew Sundar is a communications specialist. He currently serves as director of the Media Resources Group—Asia for Trans World Radio and is based in Singapore.