Ray's update

I’ve been thinking about the church over here in India. Yesterday I went to church at the local congregation for a while. In many ways it is the same as congregation of the Disciples of Christ in Georgia. The service was scheduled for 9:30 but didn’t get started until 10:00. The pastor spent the time telling me about the problems with his congregation, commitment was low, stewardship and giving was poor and they weren’t dependable enough for his liking. All this come through despite the language difficulty. Amazing how similar it is to the ways I spend the time before church.
There are some differences here however. They have no concept of Regional Ministers in the Church of North India. The best way to explain my position and ministry has been to refer to me as a bishop. That produc es interesting results in terms of the deference that is given me here. It is one of the difficulties of translating our church and its polity between cultures.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) became part of the Church of North India in the 1970’s. As is typical there were Disciples who did not go along with the decision so in both Bilaspur and here in Mungeli we have remaining Disciples congregations. Here in Mungeli the Church of North India congregation meets at 9:30 a.m. and the Disciples of Christ who became an independent congregation meets in the afternoon. In Bilaspur the remnant Disciples have their own building as well as being a separate congregation. Both hospital facilities (Mungeli Christian Hospital and Jackman Memorial Hospital) as well as the school and the church building here in Mungeli belong to the Church of North India even though they are supported by Global Ministries. Hospital, school and local congregation here in Mungeli are all expressions of the Christian Church in this place.
It is fascinating thing discovering the similarities and differences between the church around the world. In spite of all the differences we are indeed one family of Christ.