Moving Forward In India

An update from Todd Peterson, Pastor at Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, Texas, and Emerging Nations Representative to India…

Even though Erik Rangel (Lead Pastor in Yuma, Arizona) and I have been working separately in India for about 20 years combined, we only started working together for Sovereign Grace in the last 3 years. Because of Covid this was our first opportunity to travel to India together to see ministries that we had been working with separately and to meet new pastors that we have gotten to know since we started working together.

Our first stop in this trip was Prayagraj, which is in northern India in the state of Utter Pradesh. Churches in the northern states have much more opposition from the government, so I’m not going to use any names for their benefit and safety. Erik has been working with one particular pastor separate from Sovereign Grace for the last 12 years as a partner in their Bible College. The Lord has used this Bible College to plant nearly 100 churches in the region around Prayagraj over the last 10 years.

Over the last year, this pastor has expressed an interest in getting to know Sovereign Grace more formally. Our doctrine is very closely aligned and he is in agreement with our 7 Shared Values. There are several very exciting possibilities about how we might be able to partner with and serve this group of churches that I’m not at liberty to enunciate here. Our goal on this trip was to make a “formal” introduction to someone from Sovereign Grace, and to start building the relationship from that standpoint. Since Erik has known him for years, it made sense for me to go and begin to understand the dynamics there and help start the conversation about what the Lord may have us do together.

We happened to arrive on the last night of a conference that gathers the pastors (former students) from the various church plants together. It was such a joy to see their love for Erik and their excitement and appreciation for us making the long trip to see them. I was able to get a sense for the area, the church and denominational dynamics as well as getting to know the pastor and his family personally in their home, which is a huge value in India. We are very excited about the possibilities that God may have for the new phase of this relationship. Stay tuned!

We have been relating over the last year via email and zoom to two brothers, Caleb and Sidhanta Suna that have a church in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. During this time we were able to assess our doctrinal compatibility as well as understand how we can partner with them. The time had come where we needed to visit them to move the relationship forward so we spent part of three days with them. During this time we were able to see their city and the surrounding region (neither Erik or I had been to this part of India), see their church, meet their families and spend many hours trying to understand the challenges that they face.

Caleb and Sidhanta have a church of about 200 in the heart of one of the biggest slums in India. They already align almost exactly with us doctrinally, but feel extremely isolated as they haven’t been able to find any like-minded churches to relate to in the 15 year life of the church. Sidhanta said that when he finally found the Sovereign Grace website and read the Statement Of Faith, that he cried because he had finally found all of the doctrines of the Bible that they believed but had never seen written down in one place. Even though they are surrounded by hundreds of “Christian” churches, they had never met another church that held these doctrines, much less a large group of churches.

Besides desiring to be part of a group of doctrinally aligned churches, they also have a desire to train many of the village pastors in the area that are hungry for better theological training. The logistics of accomplishing this is quite daunting given the many obstacles that face churches in India.

We left there with a deeper relationship with them personally, a much clearer understanding of their environment, their challenges, and their need for partnership. We look forward to continuing to move this relationship forward!

Our last stop was the southern village of Gundugolanu, Andhra Pradesh, the home village of pastor Jaya Prakash (JP) Ravuri. This was Erik’s first visit to “southern” India. We have been working with JP since 2018 and this year he became a fully ordained pastor in SGC. One of the purposes of this stop was to be there on Sunday at his church to formally ordain JP as a Sovereign Grace elder. The ordination service was a tremendous blessing! 

It was such an exciting time for the church and for us to be able to do the ordination service in person. The church was packed, with people who couldn’t fit inside sitting outside looking in the doors. Even the children who were sitting on the floor in front of the stage didn’t want to leave when dismissed for Sunday School, but instead stayed to be a part of the service.

JP said that re-affirming his vows as a Sovereign Grace pastor gave him a fresh passion from the Holy Spirit for the work ahead. About a year ago, the Lord put it on JP and I’s hearts at separate times to start a Pastors College near his village. We have been putting together a plan for the last year, but this was the first time we’ve been able to sit down in person and plan. We had an extremely productive time working through the details and I believe the Lord really helped us to understand some of the significant challenges that we will face that led us to revamp much of the plan. We were also able to meet with two other possible instructors for the college which lent more insight into the process.

Please be praying for this work. There are many more obstacles than I can talk about here, but we know that if God wants this to happen that He will make a way.

Those were the major stops. We also made two other stops for an initial meeting with a new pastor as well as to another ministry that I’ve been helping for years, but that JP is now also assisting with.

Keep praying for us and for all of these pastors, that the Lord would show us the way forward in each of these complex situations, to know how he wants us to partner together in the days ahead.