KINGDOM COME

This reflection comes out of the excitement I had in allowing my mind to get rattled and in allowing it to think out of the mundane. I just stepped out of the Seminar UBS had arranged with The Faraday Institute of Science and Religion . I told myself and also sort of helped my associates to be open-minded on the whole approach on “Creation or Evolution---Do we have to Choose?” Earlier the question was to choose either one i.e. to take stand for one. But now well meaning Christian Scientist ( for that matter some who are the best in the world) are enabling us to peep into this whole world of scientific developments and then try to make us understand / realise that "the need is for many types of explanations to do justice to the complex phenomenon". In other words the guidance is to look at the Scientific model along with the Ethical, Aesthetic and Theological models; complementary models to give explanations to issues regarding ‘Life.’ (I am not quoting but reflecting on the t...

Introduction On the 22nd May 1936, eighty representatives of the depressed class also referred as untouchables met in Lucknow. An important decision they arrived at wholeheartedly was that they would sever their connection with Hinduism and join another religion which gave them worth and dignity. Though there was no decision as to which religion they would embrace, among the many choices Christianity was not very much favoured. The reason is reflected in the question raised by Dr B.R. Ambedkar to Dr. Stanley Jones “If you Christians had succeeded in wholly wiping out caste distinction we should turn towards you, but you have not done it particularly in South India” [1] This episode reveals a lot of issues yet to be answered both by our country India and the Indian Church with regards to Caste and its derogative distinctions. The political acceptance of their equality with the rest of the Indian population by the Indian Constitution has not even to this day removed the stigma infl...

I just walked into one of that old Nationalised bank after a long time, perhaps with lot of apprehensions. Will I get the transactions get done in time. I prepared myself for the worst and pulled in enough air to my lungs so that i wouldn’t suffocate inside that old dilapidated building.                            But lo and behold the inside corridor’s of this 200+  year old bank even in a little city of mine worked wonders. I realised very soon that there was lot of smiles and ample room to skid this beautifully floored miracle.Updated in work and modernised to suit the need! Change We can. By the way some older banks have not just updated their inside but also have changed even from the outside. Changes to be relevant even to a post modern gen to bank with a “nationalised” bank. Some have changed their logo as well-a radical step indeed- and yet moved ahead successfully. So how’s that with us-UESI. Especially when we work with the post-modern Gen- shouldnt that be an Auto-updating? ...

We’d soon be leaving from Haryana after 8+ years of ministry with UESI. So, it’s reminiscence time! My mind recollects a lot of events. Soon we’d be missing this place and its people. But wait a minute did I ever tell you I’ll miss out the Parathas [1] here. Now if parathas taste better here than anywhere else, it’s because of the taste of the Wheat!   Punjab & Haryana for that matter produces the best wheat grain. This golden brown grain shines best only in this part of the country. So 8 years ago I collected a few stalks of this grain right from the field, dried it and these rather proud and tall stalks shares a rather prominent place in our showcase! These few stalks would serve me a memory of those mouth watering Parathas I savored. Except for some cobwebs (our ineptitude) those stalks are as healthy since I got it from the field … and I believe it would remain so for years to come. I would always show my friends these stalks and would also pride in this collection! Yet la...

Leadership By Consensus Gone are the days be it in a secular field or even in the liberal autocratic set up, leadership is on A person based. These are the days when we move together and where the leader knows which direction his team has to take. Yet he does not make a deliberate step to direct but by consensus and keeping the vision each and every person is shared into this vision and automatically the direction follows. Such a leadership is indeed a skill but also where the Leader does not any more fit into the irrelevant term called BOSS. Speaking to a friend recently this thought clicked like a spark into me.He shared how being entrusted to take the responsibility as a Principal he took the school team (Parent, Teacher & Students) into confidence and led them by consensus. The board of the school became anxious- cause the ways the other schools were run were by the rod! My Friend a Committed Christian was living the Christian Principle of Leadership...............................

KINGDOM PEOPLE IN KINGDOM BUISNESS Over the last two decades as a Christian and a ‘Missionary’, I realise we have had a tendency to narrow down Mission to some very specific categories. Mission in my first decade, as an Evangelical, was thrust to someone who is sent out; probably as a missionary to an “Unreached” destination. But over the last decade as ‘Evangelicals’ we have looked at Mission with a more Wholistic framework. Probably in the present context we seem to be getting over some past histories, from which we evolved, to a much Biblical (mature) perspective. Mission for God is His Kingdom Come. So our study here would be centered around His Kingdom. ‘Kingdom of God’ (and for that matter any New Testament subject) needs to be always understood in the light of the Old Testament. The Kingdom of God is Kingship, His rule, His authority...the Kingdom is not a realm or a people but God’s Reign” [1] The Kingdom Mission (concern) is the reconciliation of mankind back to God and to ...