When we started meeting together in my home in August 1975, we had absolutely no intention of starting a new church. Only apostles planted churches - and I certainly did not feel that I qualified! But as time went on, we found more and more people coming to meet with us and we had no option but to continue meeting together. We never invited anyone to join us. And we did not want anyone to join us merely because he was fed up with his own church - because we knew that such a person would soon get fed up with us too! Jesus invited only the "weary and heavy laden" to come to Him (Matthew 11:28) - in other words, those who were fed up with their own defeated lives and who were desperately seeking for victory. We wanted only such folks to join us.

There were already hundreds of denominations in India and we were certain that God did not want to start another denomination through us. Ever since the Protestant reformation, every new movement that the Lord started was started by Him to emphasize some features of the new-covenant life that the existing churches around them were not emphasizing. Otherwise there would be no need for God to start something new.

Now the Lord was starting a new church in our midst. We wondered what the distinctives were that He wanted to emphasize through us. We were certainly not more spiritual than others. We were all sinners saved by grace and we were aware of our own imperfections in many areas. But we could not agree with many other churches in a number of areas, where we felt they had departed from New Testament teaching and practice. As we continued to meet, some of the areas where we disagreed began to crystallize in our minds:

1. Water-baptism: We practiced water baptism by immersion for believers in the Name of the Trinity. So we were different from all the mainline denominations that practised infant baptism.
2. Baptism in the Holy Spirit: We believed in the baptism in the Holy Spirit and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So we differed from the Brethren and the Baptists!! But then we did NOT believe that speaking in tongues was the evidence of the baptism of the Spirit, but rather the receiving of God's power (See Acts 1:8 & 10:38). So we differed from the Pentecostals and the charismatics!!
3. Discipleship: We saw that our Lord had commanded us to make disciples (Matthew 28:19), who fulfilled the conditions of discipleship He had laid down in Luke 14:26, 27 & 33. So we disagreed with most other churches - that emphasized only evangelism and not discipleship.
4. Pastors: We saw that a "pastor" was a gift (Ephesians 4:11) and not an office in the church. The New Testament clearly taught that churches were to be led by "elders" and not by a pastor (Titus 1:5). And there had to be at least two elders in every church - to avoid the dangers of one-man rule and to bring a balance in the leadership. This conviction set us apart from almost all churches.
5. Money: Money has such great power, that Jesus referred to it as an alternative master to God (Luke 16:13)! We saw that we needed a clear testimony in this area, because much of Christian work in India had a bad reputation, due to ungodly financial practices. Preachers and pastors begged for money through their reports and their prayer-letters. Jesus and His apostles had never given reports of their work to anyone (except their fellow-workers); and they never asked anyone for financial support for themselves or for their ministry. Instead, they trusted their heavenly Father to move men to give them the money necessary for their work. We could trust our Father in the same way too. So we decided never to give reports of our work to anyone (except our own church family) and never to ask anyone for money. We also decided that we would never take an offering in any of our church services but only keep a box for voluntary offerings - since the Lord had said that all offerings must be given secretly (Matthew 6:1-4). So our financial policy differed fundamentally from that of almost every other church in India.
6. Self-support: Most Christian workers in India saw Christian work as a means of earning a living and not as a calling from God. Many of them joined Western Christian organizations for a salary. Christian work was a business for them, through which they made large profits! The apostle Paul however worked with his own hands and supported himself in order to make himself distinct from such preachers in his day (2 Corinthians 11:12). There is certainly nothing wrong in full-time elders being supported by the believers in their church. But because of the situation in India, we felt that we elders should be self-supporting - in order to be distinct from these other workers, just as Paul was in his day. In this area too, we found that our views differed from that of almost all the other churches in India.
7. Dependence on the West: Many churches in India were heavily dependent on Western Christians - both for ministry and for money. We saw this as a hindrance to our testimony to the non-Christians in India. We saw that many Indian preachers blindly imitated American methods and unquestioningly accepted American theology. So we decided not to be connected with any foreign organization and not to be dependent on any foreign source, either for money or for ministry. We wanted our ministry to be truly Indian, with Indian leadership - while at the same time being open to receive believers of all lands. In this area also we differed from most churches in India.

These were the reasons why God was starting a new church in India. We could see that God needed such a testimony in our land. So we submitted to God and allowed Him to do as He willed with us.

Every church has wonderful principles when they start. But time tests all those principles. How are things a few decades later? As we look back now after 49 years, although we still see our lack in many other areas, we thank God that He has preserved us without any compromise in the above seven areas.

All glory be to his Name alone!