Most people don’t know that something absolutely incredible happened last Sunday. Yes, Sunday not Sabbath.
Pastor Doug Batchelor was invited to share his testimony and preach in the largest Christian Church in India. With 300,000 plus members, Calvary Temple is the second largest Christian church in the world — a miracle itself, considering it's in the middle of a principally Hindu country. (The largest Congregation is in South Korea.)
Calvary temple is a conservative church that places a high value on expository Bible teaching. This is very unusual in a country where most Evangelical Indian churches place a big emphasis on signs wonders, miracles, prosperity preaching and speaking in tongues.
This happened in part because the founding pastor, Dr. Satish Kumar, occasionally watches the Amazing Facts broadcasts in India and met Pastor Batchelor at the National Religious Broadcasters convention a few years ago. While they acknowledge that they have some different theological positions, Satish and Doug struck up an immediate friendship. In the intervening years, both visited one another's homes and stayed in touch, texting and praying for one another.
When Dr. Kumar heard that pastor Doug would be in India the first week of May, he invited him to take the pulpit in their main sanctuary on Sunday evening. Because the temperatures in Hyderabad are often triple digits during this time of year the evening service typically has the largest crowds. The building was packed with over 18,000 people and at least another 2000 were watching in the overflow section.
Services are normally in Telugu so this required a translator. Pastor Batchelor briefly shared his testimony and then preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The message was enthusiastically received.
Please earnestly pray for India and that this remarkable relationship will swell the harvest in God's Kingdom.
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“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).