a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

Valu Singh was interviewed, I interviewed Pastor Daniel. Coincidently, there was
a baptism service on the same day in Daniel’s church. It was interesting to observe
that he gave baptism to a woman without insisting that she remove any ornaments.
In the interview he admitted that having a classical Pentecostal background from
Kerala he could not distinguish between doctrine and culture in the beginning of
his ministry in Rajasthan. 29
Intercultural issues still need to be addressed in Pentecostal churches in Rajasthan
as many organizations continue to struggle with them. Local leaders of many
organizations complain about the leadership as most organizations have a
predominantly south Indian leadership. In many cases even the second line
leadership is south Indian. Although it may not be serious at present, the south
India- north India tension has been in existence in various aspects of the
Pentecostal community. It is true that local members are not experiencing tension
over the issue now. However, they have the feeling that they have not been given
fair representation in top levels of leadership. A north Indian worker from a
Pentecostal organization, who has recently joined a non-religious NGO, said that
local people are not well represented in the senior leadership of his church. 30 Two
other local leaders stated that they left their respective parent organizations to
establish their own organizations with a leadership comprising of local people.
Many churches have started to take up the initiative to train local young people, as
most front-line leaders have failed to raise an able second-line leadership that has
29 Daniel, interview by author, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 22 May 2006.
30 Dan (pseudonym), interview by author, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 24 May 2006.
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