Teaching The Arrested

The best moment of today’s teaching at the Orissa Follow-Up Ministry didn’t come while I was teaching.

It came in a conversation with six different pastors who all shared one thing in common.

They’d all been arrested.

For preaching the Gospel.

Some were incarcerated for a few hours; others for several days; and another for six months.  Another was beaten for four straight hours by a village mob before authorities saved his life.

We preachers in the USA complain about ornery church members, obstinate church committees, and unwieldy church denominations.

In other words, from the perspective of Indian Christianity, we complain about things that aren’t really worth complaining about.

If church history tells us anything, it tells us that the church burns with the brightest passion when it suffers the heaviest persecution.

So keep your eye on our brothers and sisters in India.

They’ll be teaching us.  Soon.