Church Growth Indian Style
In 2009, when attending the world house church conference, I met a leader of a house church movement who graciously sent me his annual report a few months after. I cannot give names as the Indian government is growing increasingly alarmed at the growth they are seeing under their nose!
Although this report is for 2009, it is instructive for us as it gives us an insight into the amazing work that is currently going on in India. The movement from 10 million to 110 million believers that occurred in China last century is now being repeated in India. The following charts summarise the growth for that year in the heartland of Hinduism, North India. I would not be surprised to see many more than 110 million Indian believers by 2050 as this movement is firmly embedded inside the Hindu culture. For the last few centuries church planting has been done using a western model and has been unable to penetrate the Hindu culture to any large extent. This is now changing as you can see below.
Model | New House churches 2009 | Total House Churches | Baptisms in 2009 | Total Believers at end of 2009 |
Urban Outreach | 736 | 2,148 | 7,382 | 26,451 |
Rural Outreach | 2,644 | 8,832 | 25,598 | 94,622 |
Muslim Outreach | 116 | 584 | 694 | 2,711 |
Totals | 3,499 | 11,564 | 33,674 | 123,784 |
State | Believers at end of 2009 | House churches at end of 2009 |
Utta Pradesh | 61,209 | 6,175 |
Rajisthan | 23,148 | 2,034 |
Panjab | 10,675 | 1,065 |
Haryana | 1,1517 | 1,020 |
Delhi | 17,235 | 1,270 |