Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD EVANGELISM & MISSIONS REPORTS – Re-thinking Training of Pastoral Leaders?

By J. N. Manokaran

Historical Context
Christianity in India is nearly two thousand years old with the claim that Thomas, one of the twelve disciples, reached the shores of India in the first century. The Protestant mission history begins in 1706 when Bartholomew Zigenbalg reached Tranquebar in India and translated the Bible into Tamil, one of the languages in India. The real missions thrust came with the arrival of William Carey, considered the father of modern mission, coming in 1793 under the banner of the Baptist Missionary Society. When India received independence from the British, the new governmental policy was not in favour of issuing missionary visas and thus the number of Western missionaries coming gradually dwindled and then almost stopped. Indian Christian leadership emerged to fill the vacuum left suddenly by Western missionaries. The theological training institutions focused on developing leaders to continue the ministries of the church, so they produced pastors and leaders for the existing churches and institutions.

Dedicated Christians in locations such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and North East India, had a thirst for reaching the unreached. Out of this emerged several lay mission movements, with the vision to reach North India where Christianity was less prevalent. This missionary zeal (which was indigenous in nature and passionate to reach fellow Indians) attracted youngsters to go boldly as missionaries.

Three Eras of Post-independence Missions
This post-independence mission era began in the early 1970s and has evolved into a formidable movement. This evolution has gone through three major phases.

1. First era: Cross-cultural missions. In the early 1970s and until the late 1980s, the focus of mission was to send cross-cultural missionaries from South and North East India to North India. Many young people reached North India; however, most were not trained for this kind of missionary endeavour and struggled to learn the language and culture. In spite of human weaknesses, churches were planted in several pockets of the North, West and East parts of India.

2. Second era: Mono-cultural missions. Some of the cross-cultural missionaries understood the dynamics of mono-cultural evangelism. Cross-cultural missionaries need to take time to learn the language and culture, adapt to the new climate and do ministry. After a period of time, due to family circumstances, sickness or for the education of their children, the cross-cultural missionaries preferred to go back to their native places. These visionary leaders took local leaders (mono-cultural missionaries) from their respective regional or cultural zones, trained them as church planters and sent them out. This strategy proved very successful in several areas. In some places where previous missionaries failed, these leaders were able to penetrate and plant churches.

3. Third era: Local church missions. Beginning in the late 1990s, a new trend began to emerge. Many of the mono-cultural missionaries discovered their own gift of pastoral leadership, apostolic leadership and missional leadership. They started planting and pastoring mature congregations that became self-supporting and in turn began sending out missionaries from their local congregations. This is now happening as a sporadic “mushroom movement.”

Evolution of Training in Three Eras
These three missions eras have in turn also redefined the training of Christian leaders into three dynamic educational waves.

1. First wave: Structured theological education. India has two major accrediting agencies for theological education, the first being the Serampore Senate. The origin of the Serampore Senate goes back to the time of William Carey. Today, most of the theological associations affiliated with the Senate are from the historical mainline churches like Church of South India, Church of North India, Lutheran Church or Mar Thoma Church. Some evangelical colleges are also affiliated with this system.

Rev. Dr. J. N. Manokaran is managing director of Trainers of Pastors International Coalition (TOPIC) India. He is trained as a civil engineer in South India and served as a cross-cultural missionary in North India for eleven years.