One of the wonderful churches that God has raised up in India in recent years is the Family of Lord Jesus Church (FOLJ). This is a vibrant, dynamic and rapidly growing church in New Delhi, and we have had the opportunity to learn from them and build a good and very fruitful friendship with the church. The founder and lead pastor, Pastor Ankit, was born into a Hindu family and was saved through a radical encounter with God at the age of 19, when the Lord Jesus healed him and raised him from his sickbed. In 2013, the Lord called him to full-time ministry, which led to the formation of FOLJ Church. This church has influenced church leaders and believers around the world with its teaching on faith. Miraculous healings are common with them and scores of people have their lives transformed by listening to and applying the Word preached in their church.
We had the opportunity to bring 20 of our top leaders from our church network in Kolkata to Delhi to study and learn from FOLJ. We spent two full days with Ankit and some of the other key leaders. During his five teaching sessions, Ankit shared how to build strong churches in India and how to create a church culture that impacts the whole city. His message was that we need a culture of faith, generosity, rest, worship and community in our churches. Last December, they saw their own faith project come to fruition with the completion of their new 3000-seat church building.
“God is the same in Delhi as He is in Kolkata and has the power to do the same things wherever He is!” That was Ankit’s main message to our leaders. They were all so encouraged! “This is the beginning of a new season in our church”, “Now we have faith for our churches again”, “God can move mountains in Kolkata” and “Let’s build new churches”, were some of the comments we heard. And this is exactly what we believe in.
God is raising up a new generation of leaders in India, who will pave the way for what God wants to do next in that nation, but not only that, but also from India to the rest of the world!
