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The Rediff Special/ Venu Menon

'Our church is now a small wayside stall. We must make it grow into a big supermarket'

We are a very small church. We need to grow. More people must join our church. Our church must become bigger, only then can it fulfill its purpose. Let me tell you by vision: in Kerala, there are so many small wayside shops selling bananas and tea. In America, there are big supermarkets where you can buy anything you want. Our church is now a small wayside stall. We must make it grow into a big American supermarket."

"Thousands of Hindus and Muslims go to pray at Pota (a Christian prayer centre in Kochi). Nobody is aware of their identity. When we Pentecostals get together, it causes a big uproar. If anyone attends our meetings, it becomes big news. Therefore I say that let us build our Church into one of the big supermarkets of America."

The words thundered from the podium at the Pentecostal convention held at Ranni in central Kerala on February 7. They summed up the mood and tenor of the occasion and serve as a clarion call for the faithful, who turned up in large numbers from all over the state to mark the 75th convention of the Indian Pentecostal Church.

This fringe Christian group has become the focal point of public and media attention in recent months, ever since it emerged as a target of the Sangh Parivar. The breakaway church, which attracts hostility within the Christian fold as much as it dogs without, has been ploughing a lonely furrow, earning notoriety among fellow Christian missions for "stealing" their flock. Its aggressive proselytisation work has turned this marginal entity into a dynamic alternative for Christians who are losing faith in the traditional church.

The swelling ranks of the Pentecostal Church testify to the burgeoning belief among lay Christians that the Church establishment has lost its religious zeal and reneged on its commitment to biblical values.

This has given the Pentecostal Church a radical mystique. If Reverend T S Abraham, general secretary of the Indian Pentecostal Church, is right, average Christians are turning away from the mainstream churches in droves and reposing their faith in the evangelistic fervour of the Pentecostal mission. This has resulted in friction within the Christian community with the Church hierarchy arrayed against what it sees as the subversive antics of a peripheral group that threatens to divide the community.

This tension has now spread into the wider social milieu. The anti-conversion campaign spearheaded by the Sangh Parivar in North India has found echoes in Kerala and the largely unnoticed trickle of Hindu converts into the Pentecostal fold is now magnified in the public gaze.

Reverend Abraham admits that Hindus have been joining the Pentecostal fold, but not under compulsion or duress. Neither are they induced by cash or promises of social emancipation. "We teach them the Bible and they experience a change of heart." In any case, the bulk of the converts are members of other Christian denominations, he contends.

For a church with a modest following, the IPC has made its presence felt in no uncertain terms. Its activities have generated concern in the traditional church, fostered radical Hindu sentiment and unleashed a full-scale national discourse on the question of conversions. Clearly, the Pentecostal church has come a long way since its incipience in 1924, when its founder K E Abraham broke from the Jacobite church over theological differences. After his demise in 1974, the mantle fell on his son Abraham, the current general secretary.

Over the past seven decades, the Pentecostal church has grown to around 1,500 units spread across the state. With a following of over 300,000 people there are 3,500 Pentecostal units nationwide. The IPC does not have the hierarchy characteristic of the traditional churches. It has no popes or bishops, just pastors who run the churches in the districts.

Abraham says the Pentecostal Church is not a recipient of organised funding from abroad. "The Indian Pentecostal Church is an independent indigenous church. It is not foreign-controlled. We do accept private contributions, but anyone who helps us has no control over us."

The church depends largely on the system, with followers donating one-tenth of their incomes to the church. What makes the Pentecostal church different from other churches in the eyes of the average Christian? "We follow the doctrines of the Bible more closely than the others. For instance, the Pentecostals believe in baptism by water while the Catholic, Marthomite and Jacobite churches simply sprinkle water on a child and call it baptism," Abraham points out.

Ritualistic purity, absence of hierarchy and a zest for proselytisation appear to be the main selling points of the Pentecostal movement. They also appear to be the main reasons for an apparent backlash in the larger social environment.

'There is nothing wrong in conversions'
The Christian Fringe

The Rediff Specials

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