Rev Dr Elijah Brown, General Secretary of Baptist World Alliance. (Morung Photo)
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Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | November 27
With a global network of 51 million Baptists in 128 countries and territories, Rev Dr Elijah Brown, General Secretary of Baptist World Alliance said that the story of Naga Baptists is well known even as he travels all around the world.
Brown, who was one of the worship speakers for the recently concluded Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) Sesquicentennial told The Morung Express in an exclusive interview that, “it is with joy on my first visit to Nagaland to experience the warm welcome, the on-going friendship that I have known and now I see it here in person, to hear the beautiful sounds, to see the beautiful hills, and to be present with the people who love well and welcome well.”
Terming the Sesquicentennial as the “historic 150th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Nagaland,” he stated appreciation for the way Naga Baptists “worship the Lord, the way that you serve your community, the way that you faithfully share the gospel all over the world.” He reiterated that people know the great story of what God has done in Nagaland and what God is continuing to do.
As they continue to faithfully serve the Lord, he stated belief that “God will continue to use you, to bless your community, that all people of all the different religions, all the different ethnicities and backgrounds will know the love of Jesus Christ and the blessing from God.” In this regard, he thanked the Naga Baptists for what they have done and are doing while expressing that “it is an honour for the Baptist World Alliance to partner together with you.”
He also highlighted that over the last ten years, the Baptist family in the Asia pacific region has grown 20% and remarked that the Naga Baptists are also part of a growing Baptist movement. “As God continues to use you, just as he has done in the past, let this history and let this legacy continue to light our steps into the future as we seek to follow God with all of our lives and bless everyone and our community,” he added.
“God has placed you here in this strategic moment and location to live out of your blessings, to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth,” he further articulated.
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A team from Arunachal Pradesh. (Morung Photo)
Greatest impact of Christianity in Nagaland is bringing Nagas together
While the coming of the Gospel has impacted the Nagas in so many ways—in education, in social life, in economic life and other spheres as well, General Secretary of Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho said, “one of the greatest impacts that I can list out is bringing the Nagas together as a family.”
“Bringing the Gospel is about bringing salvation, but I think along with that, our coming together as one—the body of Christ, is the greatest achievement”, he said while elucidating that “had it not been for the gospel, we don’t know where we will be today.”
As we celebrate 150 years of Christianity in Nagaland, he also emphasized that, “we cannot just be celebrating the past, but we have to forecast ourselves to the future and one thing that I can think of now is we need to take the ministry of reconciliation beyond what we are.”
The ministry of reconciliation, he further explained, “is about forgiving each other, coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ.” He stated that the second thing is the impact of mission, “that the church cannot just be sitting upon our history and just be confined within ourselves but we have to go out with the gospel because we have freely received and therefore, we have to freely give to other people.”
The third thing he can forecast for the church “is to live our Christian faith and leave a legacy of faith for our children to come because Christianity is not just about believing in life after death.” “It is about living our faith right here on earth, establishing the kingdom of God as it is in heaven. We have to live out our faith in our work places and then, we need to spread out our witness in the world in which we are placed”, he emphasized.
‘We also need inner transformation’
Terming the sesquicentennial as a ‘big milestone’, Rev Dr Rachülie Vihienuo, Co-Chair, Planning Committee, Sesquicentennial Celebration feels that “our generation is very fortunate to be part of this great celebration and remembering our church fathers and missionaries who came and brought the gospel to us, that has transformed us.”
While we have a lot of reasons to be grateful to God for, he also pointed out that, “this is a time for us to look back to the past, retrospect, introspect, and march ahead.” The future, he said, “is challenging in some ways but is also exciting” while stating that “we have victories to celebrate but we also have failures to think about and to reflect on very seriously as a people.”
150 years of Christianity in Nagaland, he added, “is a time for us to rejoice of the victories that we have as we look back” but in the meantime, asserted that “we also need inner transformation, every individual…so that we will be a nation that is blessed, a people that is blessed as by God and that is what we look forward to.”
“May God bless every Naga, every Christian, every Baptist as we celebrate this 150 years of the coming of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he further expressed.
‘We owe so much to Ao people for founding Apatani Baptist Church’
“I am the first to take baptism in my own tribe called Apatani Baptist Association, which has now grown to 29 years,” Rev Tage Donyi, Vice President of Arunachal Baptist Church Council (ABCC) related to The Morung Express. He was part of the 11-member delegate from Arunachal Pradesh including Nyshi Baptist Church Council, who attended the NBCC Sesquicentennial.
“We owe so much to Ao people,” he went on to say while explaining that “because they were the founders of our church called Apatani Baptist Church,” that has already celebrated 25 years. Sharing his dream of holding 125 years celebration of Christianity in the future, he also said, “I am learning…Congratulations to Naga people.”
“I would like to learn and also have mission together in the days to come,” he added.
Pema Tshetan, President of ABCC expressed, “we are very much pleased and overjoyed for God’s blessing to be able to attend this celebration of God’s faithfulness and the celebration of Christianity in Nagaland” while stating that they were overwhelmed “by God’s blessing upon Naga people, that they have received a great blessing of redemption and liberty in the name of Almighty God.”
Through them, he further highlighted that even Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of North East have received support of missionary workers from Nagaland and added that “it was a big privilege to attend this wonderful and magnificent celebration program.”
Meanwhile, sharing his experience at the Sesquicentennial, Imna Toshi of Nagaland Baptist Pastors Union said, he was enlightened, encouraged, motivated of how the missionaries came to our land. We are also motivated and challenged to do mission and do greater things for his glory.”
“Can we go away from India and can be a missionary and share this great news to the whole world? Yes, I think it is possible, and with God, we should rise up and do greater things for his glory,” he put across.
