A New Era of SCP in India

A little over 10 years ago SCP began working to train and equip a new generation of young pastors and church planters in India. In those 10 years we have been able to envision thousands of pastors with the SCP vision, to see every man, woman, and child have a repeated opportunity to see, hear, and respond to the gospel, and develop meaningful partnerships with networks of churches in 12 of the 29 states in India. These partnerships are built on the foundation of mission and relationship, allowing us to provide training and coaching for the pastors and leaders in these networks, that they might be equipped to fulfill the great commission and see their nation saturated with churches. The last week of March we assembled for days in Hyderabad, India for the SCP India National Conference. This assembly was made up of members and leaders from almost all the networks we are currently working with; over 100 people attended. The purpose of this conference was to encourage these leaders, set goals for the future, and introduce a new era for SCP's work in India.

One of the goals we set which most encouraged me was to be engaged in all 29 states of India in the next 6 years. It is such an aggressive goal; requiring every pastor and every church, not just a select few, to engage in developing partnerships and planting more churches all over the country. The most meaningful part of the conference was the introduction of the SCP India National Team. This is a team that has been in development for some time now. It is a team of 5 Indian leaders, many of whom have been working in SCP for 10 years now, from 4 distance areas of India. These are the men God has ordained to not only be pastors in their local churches, but to serve as apostolic leaders who bear responsibility for the whole nation and will now give significant portions of their time towards envisioning and training leaders all over the country and in contiguous nations like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Although these men have already been serving in this capacity for some time now, this is a new era because all of the church networks present at the conference covenanted together and with this team, part of which was a financial commitment to support the travel expenses of the team. I'm confident that this covenant will propel these churches forward into the task before them with a new ferocity. What had previously been loose friendships are now covenantal bonds. This is only something the Holy Spirit can do. Churches in India don't do this. They don't share leaders and they certainly don't share finances. But God is doing something special, and I have been privileged to be a part of it these past 3 years and especially this past week.

Please continue to pray for the church in India. Satan will not be pleased with what was done here. He will certainly try to thwart these plans and create division amongst these newly formed relationships. Pray against these things. Pray that God would only unify the church in India further and further. Pray for churches to be planted in every state, city, and village in this great nation. And pray for the 100 million Christians in India, many of whom face persecution from Hindu extremists and even their own families. India is not an easy place to live, especially for Christians, but God is doing magnificent and marvelous things here. He sustains His people, and He is drawing thousands of people to himself on a daily basis.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Happy belated Easter from the Belcher's!