Reflecting on Advance One Day in Dallas

Having this hosted in Dallas was significant and special for me personally.  Ten years ago, our family made a very hard decision to leave an Indian church and to eventually plant a church that was multi-ethnic and intentionally reaching our community.  Until that point, my identity was wrapped up in the Indian Church. I thought the extent that God could use me was to be a youth pastor and build up other Indians in local churches.  Never did I dream that God could use me to plant a multi-ethnic church that would see people from various ethnicities gather together and worship Jesus together.

In the process, I always had questions about my identity.  I didn’t really fit well in the Indian community and I didn’t fit well in the American community.  However, I never knew how to process through this struggle until I started to meet some friends around the country that were planting multi-ethnic churches.  And in the context of those friendships, I heard from these brothers, that God has a unique calling on my life as an Indian American to reach nations.

The One Day event helped put words to thoughts and feelings that a lot of Indian American Christians are feeling when it comes to figuring out our identity.  Pri started off the morning with a wonderful teaching to help us understand our identity in Christ. That framework and understanding helped lay the foundation on which the entire rest of the day was built.   The labs provided opportunities for us to hear from each other. It was encouraging to see how participants had much gratitude for their time in the Indian church and a desire to see God continue to move in these churches.

My favorite portion was leading up to the second plenary.  The worship team led us in worship in English and Malayalam and there was something uniquely special about that time.  Immediately following that was a wonderful session where the entire group dialogued on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of being an Indian American.  During this time, many put words to thoughts they have been feeling for so long. As one friend stated, “I feel like it just helped me realize that I might always live in this tension of my identity as an Indian-American, but it was by God’s design.”   

Sujith closed off our time by reminding us that a vision for the Gospel frees us to lay down our rights, draws us to the mission of God and finally helps us live with hope.   He reminded us that we are caught up in a story that is much larger than our own story. A story that started in the willingness of Jesus who humbled himself and gives up his rights to become a servant. Who suffered for the sake of us on a  Roman cross in our place for our sins.

I’m grateful for the time that was spent together and the new friendships that were created that morning.  As someone that has been pastoring a church for over seven years now, I am so encouraged to see God raising up a generation of people that are wanting to see God plant more churches that will be on a mission and preach the Gospel.  I’m grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit in the Indian American community and that He is continuing to write the story of how Indian Americans have been influential in the spread of the Gospel in our cities and to the ends of the earth.