What I’ve learned from a missionary to India

Arun Massey is a missionary to India who I have heard speak on his experiences since I was a child. Recently, I had the privilege to hear him speak again at a conference I was attending. Once again, his stories of the mission field and his prophetic voice for the American Church inspire my own work.

A little background on his mission field. Arun was a business-minded person in India who was a Christian, though not interested in starting a church. He was heartbroken for the widespread prostitution that was happening around him, and so he started a business that gave prostitutes economical means to escape prostitution. As he and his wife walked alongside these individuals, they spread the Good News of Jesus. He referred these converted Christians to local churches, but no church would accept the prostitutes. So he started planting churches, though the Indian culture is often hostile to Christians.

Here are some of the most memorable quotes and ideas from his speech this past Friday:

My prayer is that God will not plant me into a comfortable life…

He spoke about his time farming. Some of the ladies helping plant the garden would drop a lot of seeds in one area. When he first saw this happen, and he saw all the different corn stalks popping up, he wondered at how much corn he would reap from such a small area.

But the stalk never bore fruit.

The good seeds, because they were so close to one another, choked each other out.

It is good to gather together, but much of the fruit of our life comes when we step out alone, into the harshness of the real world. We cannot stay gathered together forever but must face the world.

They are holding gatherings in the mosques…

Arun spoke of another unnamed missionary in a hostile Muslim country. If the people are found with a Bible, they will be killed. If they gather in someone’s home for Christian worship, they will be placed in jail.

The Christians have found that the safest place to meet is in between prayer times in the mosques. And they have become so popular, meeting in secret, that they are “planting” in mosques across the country!

The seed of the Gospel is unstoppable.

What do you “need” to plant a church successfully?

What makes a successful church service? If we were going to plant a church, we would want:

• A building

• Lights

• Comfy chairs

• Mics and a great sound system

• Live-streaming equipment

• Something for the kids to do

• Etc.

It takes capital campaigns, prayer campaigns, and months to years of work to plant a church. And some of that is not necessarily bad.

But in Arun’s experience in India, a successful church can be planted in a moment, a single day, with an agreement between some people to meet in some place at some time for the sake of the Gospel.

Forget the long winded messages, the fancy music, the beautiful buildings.

It is about hunger for God. It is hunger that makes a successful church.

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