Dr Kethoser Aniu Kevichusa speaking at the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Congress 2025 at Brisbane, Australia on July 12.
Kethoser Aniu Kevichusa speaks at the BWA Congress 2025 in Brisbane, Australia
Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | July 12
While the Christian population in India is only about 2.3%, Nagaland state was declared as “the most Baptist state in the world” by Christian Today Magazine in 2006 while in 2021, the Christian Century Magazine described it as ‘proportionally the most Baptist territory in the world.’
This was highlighted by Dr Kethoser Aniu Kevichusa, Director, Intercultural Learning and Collaboration (ILC), BMS World Mission in his message delivered at the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Congress 2025 at Brisbane, Australia on July 12.
Despite the mess that the world is in, he reminded that, “it is into this same world that God came in person some 2,000 years ago.” The coming of Jesus, he remarked, “has not brought about world peace – that is obvious” or that Jesus has certainly not eradicated poverty while pointing out that as many has 800 million go to bed hungry every night.
He said that, “injustice has not disappeared with his appearing. We continue to live with disease, destitution, disaster, and death.” However, at its simplest, he underlined that the good news means, “God is with us in the midst of our sad, bad, and mad world – and, whatever our circumstances, we can now personally relate with him and call upon him as Father.” “This good news outweighs all the bad news of the world”, he affirmed.
He further brought the Nagas into the context, who used to practice headhunting and lived in utter darkness. Highlighting that the gospel first came to the Nagas through the American Baptist missionaries in the latter half of the 19th century, he told the world Baptist audience that, today, more than 150 years later, over 90% of Nagas self-identify as Christians, the vast majority of whom are Baptists.
When compared with the rest of the world, he said, “we have nothing: We have no political power, no military might, no technological prowess, no economic weight, no social influence.”
“But we have the gospel of Jesus Christ – and that outweighs all the bad news that we continue to live and struggle with”, he underscored. In the meantime, he noted that the good news is “not just a personal and parochial piece of religious news that is just meant to comfort and console us in the midst of life’s challenges.”
Stating that it is also God’s great challenge and counterclaim against all other claims upon all reality, he said that, “in the good news, God makes and stakes his great claim upon the whole of creation.”
He further elucidated on the four fundamental realities that are accepted in the universe namely, Time, Energy, Space, and Matter while adding that in recent times, another fundamental reality, “Mind” or Logos” is being proposed. Taking these fundamental realities as a framework, he pointed out that there are three pivotal ‘moments’ in Scripture where these realities come together while citing references from the Bible.
For the church and the Christian, to be involved in proclaiming this good news, he emphasized that, “it is to be caught up with all that we are and all that we have – our energy, time, space, and matter – in the extension of the redeeming, restoring, renewing, and reclaiming mission of God over all of time, energy, space, and matter – everything that make up the reality of the universe.”
He further asserted that the proclamation of the gospel is, however, not just about verbalising the good news but embodying it while explaining that, “If the good news is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, then the proclamation of the gospel must follow this logic of the Incarnation”
“Just as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus, the Word of the gospel must become flesh in the Body of Christ, and the life of the Christian”, he put across and added that, that is why their theme is not ‘preaching the good news’, but ‘living the good news.’
