On Friday we met with the mission/evangelism director of one district, in a denomination with 22 districts around India.

The Church of India can be divided into 3 parts:
1) Orthodox
2) Historic
3) Emergent
When we say India has 500,000 churches, and there were 140,000 in 1987, most of the new churches are Emergent not part of the orthodox/historic denominations.

Process of Evangelism/CP -
Have identified 120 grass rootsworkers for missions. When they are selected they are given two months of biblical training and then placed under the care of senior missionary.

On Wednesday morning we set off for a four hour drive from Nagpur to a small village where we met with a man considered by many to be the father of the house church movement in India.

For 4 hours we listened to how God had moved in this man's life to give birth to a vision outside the box of traditional missions.

In the early 1980's in his village 30% of children were dying in their first year, another 30% before they were 5 years old. The reason was because of a lack of education for basic hygeine. To help meet the need he sarted putting hand pumps around their region, 3,000.

As I sit here in India contemplating what God has done over the last decades, I am mindful and thankful for those who went before me. In my case, there are many who come rapidly to mind. But, three of them have special meaning. One, my father, Truman Smith. Two, my mother-in-law, Nancy Parkinson. And third, a special friend, Al Telford.

What was it about the legacy of Truman, Nancy and Al?

On Monday we spent several hours meeting with 2 leaders in Delhi who are responsible for thousands of churches around the nation.
Both of these men are very familiar with much of the missions history in India as well as very networked into the SCP strategy currently among many movements today.

Little Background:
Missionary Communities (missions sending agenciesin India)
1904 - 3
1975 - 40
1990 - 110
Today - 300+

We spent Saturday in Bangalore, where we met with leaders of two networks in the state of Karnataka.

Bangalore
Pop. 9 Million
Growing 10,000 people per day
More than 1,000 churches
Over 300 organizations

Karnataka
Pop. 52.7 Million
2 percent Christian
Only .6% are indigineous Katnatakan Christian (they have their own dialect)

The first meeting was with John and his wife Grace.

Network facts:
61 churches: 40 are self reliant and can plant another church.
Orissa
Tamil Nadu
Kartnataka
140 fulltime workers - 100 of those have come through evagelism.
4,000 members in churches

Saturday Morning -
After two very long days all of us have finally been able to get one full nights rest.
We arrived in Delhi, Thursday night at 11.30pm. Went straight to the hotel, got to bed by 2am and woke up at 5am to catch an early flight to Hyderabad.
We spent Friday in Hyderabad meeting with two seperate networks.

Mark begins the section with a curious observation: The crowd was afraid.

What was the crowd afraid of? At least two things come immediately to mind. First is the
message and person of Jesus Himself. His message is full of conviction, inspiration, and compelling application of Old Testament truth. But, given the antagonism of the Jewish rulers, it is a message filled with risk, from the people's point of view. At any time, he and his followers could be expelled from the community. And, that would spell economic doom as well.

What principles did I see?

1. Accessibility vs relevance

The power of the church is it’s people WHEN they are growing in intimacy with God the Father and Gospel relating to the world in which they live their daily lives.

The power of leadership is measured by it’s ability to influence the people to the empowerment of discipleship and thus transformation.

The change of transformation comes when we have a regular encounter with the Word of God, in the hands of the Spirit of God, in the midst of the people of God

It doesn't matter what we grow if we don't grow a people of divine distinction!
1. Jesus says it quite simply.
You are the salt of the earth
Matthew 5:13
2. Not because we believe something unique, or do something unique on Sundays. BUT because that is how God has recreated (regenerated) us to be
Be perfect as your heavenly father is
perfect!
Matthew 5:48

When we grow a people of divine distinction, we will fulfill our mandate!
1. Simply put by both Jesus and Paul
Your are the light of the world!
Matthew 5:14
Your are God's eternal enigma

ListenIng recently to Genesis 1-4.
Made in the image of God!? What should we expect? Cognition, verbal communication, relational ability, invention, appreciative ability, deductive ability, concern ability, rational expression. Etc, etc

What is the impact of sin on these creation likenesses? How far or deeply, or to what extent can they be affected by the affect of sin and the impact of sinful choices?

The original compass has been displaced, thus: corrupted cognition , verbage, relationships, inventions, appreciations, deductions, concerns, emotions, rationalizing, etc.