The Emergence of Assembly of Believer's Church (ABC) and its Missiological Implications

About The Book

The present work focuses on the issue of the falling membership in the so called mainline churches and increase in the performance of the Pentecostal churches. The research focussed on the Assembly of Believer's Church which had a phenomenal growth since the time of its inception. The research aimed to study the mission strategies of ABC and whether they can be adopted in other mainline churches specially the churches in the city of Gonda, where the research is focussed.

In the first part of the present work, a brief history of the Pentecostal movement in India is given with a brief survey on the churches in the city of Gonda. In the latter part, the research brings out the history of the ABC, presents and analyses the data and proposes implications for the churches in Gonda.

About the Author

Ashish hails from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. He is an ordained minister in the Diocese of Lucknow, Church of North India. He is currently pursuing his Doctoral Research from United Theological College, Bangalore in the Department of Mission and Ecumenics.

Preface

I am delighted that Christian World Imprints in New Delhi has agreed to publish Rev. Asish Archer's Master Thesis, which he submitted at the United Theological College in Bangalore very successfully. Right from the beginning he was different from my other students. Whereas most of the students are only interested to study some aspect of their own church, he had the openness to engage with a topic where since the ground braking study of Michael Bergunder from Heidelberg University/Germany on Pentecostal churches in South India very little research had been done. The young Assembly of Believer's Church (founded in 1973) is growing very fast in North India also in places where Church of North the Catholic Church and other main line churches have a long history. Instead of looking at the newcomer, the charismatic church with suspicion and anger as "they are stealing the sheep" of the established churches, Asish Archer is open minded and crosses over to see the challenges, which the Assembly of Believer's Church poses. In a place called Gonda, where he had been working previously, he has the courage to do research with 100 questionnaires in the local Assembly of Believer's Church. First he crosses the boundaries by attending some of their services and programmes by participatory observation. And he is not regarded as an enemy, but is welcomed, can conduct interviews and distribute his questionnaires. He is "walking a mile in the moccasins of the other" successfully, a talent rarely found among Indian theological students. His book is therefore a model, I hope for many more scholars to take up the research of Indian non traditional churches, which so far is hardly happening.

But that is not all. He finds out why people are coming to this young church and leave other churches. People tell about their attraction of the different style of worship with personal extempore testimonies, no fixed liturgy, choruses, new songs and praise, healing and glossolalia, special programmes like conventions, open air meetings, a large engagement of volunteers and laity, hospitality, cating together as a group with pot luck meals, common breakfasts and tea fellowship. He writes that he could experience the welcoming atmosphere for newcomers who were migrating from other places, the small house groups etc. He researched that specially these small house groups/fellowships which meet once a week give fellowship in sickness, loneliness, a close relationship to the pastor and elders, so that the longing for belongingness is satisfied.

Introduction

Statement of the Problem

The Pentecostal churches are on the rise in the world and in India as well. Growth in these Pentecostal churches is huge and enormous in terms of numbers, buildings, resources and pastors. The ABC, which started with no infrastructure, has grown from almost zero congregations to more than 700 congregations in nearly 40 years. Gonda is a city where Christianity is present for more than 150 years but the numbers have not grown in the mainline churches of the city compared to these Pentecostal churches in general and the ABC in particular.

Elaboration of the Problem

Today, the Pentecostal churches are a great challenge to the mainline churches. In every city we can find at least one or two Pentecostal churches with large congregations. The ABC in India was born with thirty-three founding members in a small verandah at 36, Cantonment Road, Lucknow on 21" October 1973. The Church began with Rev. R. B. Clifford as the founder Pastor and Bro. Tony as an evangelist. Rev. Augustus Anthony, popularly known as Bro. Tony took over as the Pastor of the Church (when Rev. R. B. lifford was called for his heavenly abode on 12th July 1982) and is now the Bishop of the church. The Church grew very strong and now worship is conducted in more than 700 different locations in various parts of India. ABC has established churches in Nepal, U.S.A. and Netherlands too. The ABC in India has even ventured to launch a nationwide TV broadcast "Glory To God" in Hindi and Urdu, which are two of the main spoken languages in North India. The ABC is a comparatively new church and it has emerged as an alternative to the mainline churches. The number of the members is still on the rise and the church is growing in all countable aspects like buildings, pastors, evangelists and congregation members.

Gonda is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh and at the same time, the district headquarters, and also the administrative centre for the Devipatan division. The old city has three main churches. The first church in the city was built by the Anglicans in the year 1859 and named St. Thomas Church. Now this church is under the Diocese of Lucknow, CNI and worship services are conducted regularly. The other prominent church is the J. W. Denning Memorial Methodist Church which is under MCI. This was built in the year 1920 and is the largest church in terms of congregation members. Roman Catholics are also present here. The Roman Catholic Church was built in the year 1969 and has its strong presence in the city. There are also other denominational churches like BCI and AG but they are comparatively new. The number of the faithful has not dramatically increased at a place where Christianity is more than 150 years old. The only addition to the churches are people coming from outside and settling in the city. My guess is that many members of the ABC were members of already existing churches and some of them might have dual memberships. If this hypothesis is true, the research will show.

**Contents and Sample Pages**