Topic – India Newsletter- January 2010
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Chennai Insights Writers’ Vision Workshop: On behalf of Chennai Insights News magazine, Writers’ Vision Workshop was conducted on 5 December at ICSA, Egmore, Chennai. It was surprising to see one delegate travelling from Trichy and one delegate from Sivakasi travelling many hours to be present in the workshop. “I considered writing just as a hobby. Now I understand Christian writing as mission of God. I got a new vision to write, ” confessed one delegate. One Pastor said, “This workshop was an eye-opener. I realized the lack of quality Christian writings is the reason for Indian intellectuals not responding to the gospel positively.” Many felt that this workshop was just appetizer and there is need for longer duration workshop to learn skills of writing. “Writers’ Workshop helped me to understand how to think; what to think; why to think and put them in my writings,” shared one professional who wanted to influence people of her own profession. “Looking in different perspective is very important for writers, struck me and will do so,” shared one delegate. “Manokaran’s bible study on David and Goliath gave me amazing new perspective. I understood the urgency to write and writing to impact the soul/inner person – mind, emotions and will,” responded one delegate. “Both Ramanathan and Manokaran presented the vision well,” shared many delegates. Delegates have gone with a new desire and decision to write and bring transformation.
Rajkumar welcomed the gathering and introduced Chennai Insights.
School of Leadership, Nasik: Three days School of Leadership would be conducted for the Pastors and Leaders in the city of Nasik and the region from 3-5 February 2010. J.N. Manokaran, Ramanathan and Dilip Sardar would be resource person.
Writers’ Vision Workshop: Writers’ vision workshop would be conducted in Nasik on 5 February.
Community Bible Study International (CBSI): Introduction to CBSI would be done on 9 January 2010 by Rev. Devendra Rai at Chennai. CBSI is a good bible study curriculum that could be followed for small group contexts.
Christ & New Generation Youth: Pastor C. Victor, Senior Pastor, Christian Assembly dedicated, prayed and released my fourth book: CHRIST & NEW GENERATION YOUTH during the watch night service. Praise God. Pray that this book may be a blessing to many people. The retail price of the book is Rs. 150/-.
Leadership model of John the Baptist
J.N. Manokaran
John the Baptist was one of the fearless prophets in the Bible. He prepared the Way for Lord Jesus Christ. He was the ‘Voice calling in the wilderness”. He was known as ‘burning and shining light’. John gave baptism to Lord Jesus Christ in the river Jordan. He declared Lord Jesus Christ as ‘Lamb of God’. His speeches were fiery, straightforward and unadulterated truth. He taught or expressed his opinion in at least three major areas of life. He was not afraid to confront religious leaders, political leaders and leaders in the society.
John the Baptist ministered in difficult times. Politically, there was no freedom; the Jews were living under the domination of Romans. There was social unrest, frustration over Roman rule. They were debating whether to pay taxes. Religious life was commercialized and there was more hypocrisy than authenticity. In this adverse circumstance, he preached without fear or favour. He was not afraid to pull up phony religious leaders, rebuke leaders in the society and immoral political leaders.
Common People
John called people to repent and choose Kingdom of God as their priority (Mattthew 3:1). His dress code was different, that he wore camel’s hair, leather belt; food code had honey and locusts as ingredients (Matthew 3:4). He communicated even with his lifestyle, that he was simple, straight forward and sensitive to the Spirit of God. It was contrast to the religious leaders of that time.
The call for repentance was a radical statement. He did not use diplomatic conversations as I do some times. Truth was spoken with conviction. His focus was truth and not the sensitivity of his hearers who might be offended. John understood he needed the approval of God and not people. Approval of people could not provide eternal dividends.
Religious
Pharisees and Sadducees came to hear John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7). Instead of being excited and inviting them with sweet words, he bluntly addresses them as ‘brood of vipers’ (Matt 3:8). He was willing to call ‘a spade as spade’. The Pharisees were legalistic while Sadducees were liberal; both were one and the same for John. Vipers like all snakes symbolize evil and these religious leaders were termed as ‘evil’ by John. In the society where people do not like to be termed as ‘sinners’, John is our model and inspiration. And they deserve the wrath and punishment of God. There was only one possibility of hope for them- repentance.
The inner transformation of repentance should be manifested by outward fruit- attitude, words, deeds, behavior and lifestyle. Just by claiming to be descendants of Abraham was not good enough to escape the wrath of God. For God could bring or raise children of Abraham from stones. Your family background, connections and influence cannot save you from the wrath of God. He gives a metaphor of axe being laid besides the tree, ready to be used to cut it off. The gardener pleads for one more year to the master and so there is period of grace, opportunity and time to repent. (Matthew 3:7-10)
His message had clear warning of God’s wrath. The only option John gives is ‘repentance’. The word ‘repent’ is not popular in today’s preachers’ vocabulary. Modern world denies God who is the Righteous Judge. Judgment is logical impact when repentance is ignored or neglected.
Social
Society consists of people of several professions. John the Baptist not only attracted the religious leaders, attracted people from different professions. In Luke 3: 10-14) two sets of people come to John the Baptist and wanted to know how they should change. The tax collectors were looked down with contempt by religious leaders. They were seen as stooges of Roman Emperor, representing oppression of Gentile rulers. Most of the tax collectors were corrupt; they collected in excess of the legitimate amount. John was concerned about this corruption. The fruit of repentance for tax collectors is to collect just the legitimate tax.
Then he addressed the uniformed personnel – the soldiers. He gave three important instructions (Luke 3: 10-14). First, do not extort money. i.e. do not collect bribes or try to earn by doing extra-judicial things. Avoid being materialistic. They should value people rather than money or power. Second, They are not supposed to accuse people falsely. False witnesses, false accusation, false charges, false cases that are common among the police force today are anathema for Christians. These kinds of things could be done in power politics, take revenge, or silence dissent or extort money. But, Christians are expected to bring fruit of repentance. Third, soldiers have to be content with their wages. Godliness with contentment is great gain (I Timothy 6:6).
Job description would be given by the employers but code of conduct was given by Prophet John. It is the same today. Moral values, ethics, righteousness and code of conduct are to be determined by the Christian leadership for the society. But, sadly Christians today are following the ‘patterns of the world’ rather than being transformation agents in the world (Romans 12:1-2)
Political
Modern society considers politics and governance is in the secular realm and religious leaders should not interfere in it. And many Christians also think they have no role in politics or government. But, John the Baptist did not think so. He was able to confront Herod regarding Herodias, Herod’s brother Philip’s wife. It was immoral practice, which is also illegal. And when the national political leader does a brazen sin, it affects the whole country. While legalistic Pharisees are silent about this; John the Baptist raises his voice (Matthew 14:4). By doing so, he risked his life and was beheaded.
Challenge
The society around us need bold leaders like John the Baptist. He was so immersed in God’s word, lived under the Lordship of the Spirit and was spokesperson for God. In today’s world, where everything is seen as grey, or relative, there is a need for authentic voice of God ought to be heard in the society. And only Christians could be that voice. Let us fulfill God’s purpose in our own generation.
