MADHYA PRADESH

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, Therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ”(Matthew 9:37’38)

Demographics:

Madhya Pradesh is a centrally located state of India and is often called “the Heart of India”. It borders with five others states: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Occupying an area of 119,016 sq mi (308,252 sq km), Madhya Pradesh is India’s second largest state and has 51 districts. The capital is Bhopal.

The State, Madhya Pradesh, is a medley of ethnic groups and tribes, castes and communities. The population of Madhya Pradesh includes indigenous people and migrants from other states. 91.1% of the population follows Hindu religion, while others are Muslim (6.40%), Jain (0.9%), Christians (0.30%), Buddhists (0.30%), and Sikhs (0.20%). The scheduled castes (13.14%) and scheduled tribes (20.63) constitute a significant portion of the population. Tribals in Madhya Pradesh include Baiga, Bhariya, Bhils, Gondi, Halba, Kaul, Korku, Malto, Mariya, and Sahariya.

Indian Pentecostal Church of God is the largest and fast growing indigenous Pentecostal Church in the nation. The early spread of Pentecostal doctrines took place under the pioneer workers from IPC. Eventually when IPC Northern Region was formed, MP became a District under IPC NR. As the ministry continued to grow, the Northern Region was again divided into many regions.

Rev. Dr. Sunny Philip Pr. K.J. Poulose Pr.Varghese Mathew Evg. M. A. Oonnittan M. Bhaskaran are the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasure, Joint Secretary respectively.

In 1994, IPC Madhya Pradesh Region came into existence. Pr. E.M.Zachariah served as the president of this Region until 2006. When he became the Vice president of IPC in 2006, as per the bylaws of IPC, another person had to assume the President post of this Region. Pr. C.E. Geevarghese was elected as the new president of the Region.lt was the initiative of Pr. C. E. Geevarghese to invite the current president, Rev. Dr. Sunny Philip to assume the leadership of the State Council.

God has blessed the ministry of Indian Pentecostal Church in Madhya Pradesh significantly in the recent years. Our Lord builds His church as He promised through the tireless work of our pastors and the able leadership He has given to IPC. Let’s thank God for raising 147 congregations and 61 outstations under IPC MP State Council. It’s a matter of joy that we have135 native (Hindi speaking local) missionaries, doing mission work mostly among the tribal population in the deep untouched and unreached villages of MP. Nevertheless there are many more districts to be reached with the love of Jesus as it’s a huge state with 51 districts. Our aim is to reach all districts of MP and to establish 500 churches by the year 2020.

Our Mission:

To proclaim that there is a God who loves His creation enough to send His only begotten son Jesus Christ into this world to die for our sins and that salvation for our souls and bodies is possible by believing in Him. We have to accomplish this mission of our Lord to the most unreached parts of the world. We are at war with the demonic powers and principalities that hold dominion over the nations for centuries. We are challenging those powers of darkness. God will help us to bring forth strategies and plans to go into these areas of this state and topple principalities and powers, to release the aptives of these localities.

Our Ministry focuses

Church Planting:

IPC MP State is committed to plant churches throughout the state. We understand that developing a worshipping community is the most significant part of doing the Kingdom service. Having a worshipping community is the visible sign of God’s work in a particular locality. So we engage in developing worshipping communities in the villages of the state. We strive towards this goal with the existing missionaries and through training new missionaries. However our task is so enormous that we need the encouragement and cooperation of those who love the work of God. In Church planting we understand that, in order to have an enduring presence and Christian witness in a particular village, we must have buildings constructed for each of the worshipping communities. We are seriously pursuing this task with our limited resources. We invite all God’s children to join us in helping our village congregations to have at least a small worshipping place of their own constructed. Please join us in this great work of God with whatever the Lord puts in your mind.

Evangelism:

We engage in evangelism with it’s various avenues and methods with our existing missionary force in this state where evangelism and Christian witness has become so difficult these days. We involve through personal evangelism, hospital evangelism, friendship evangelism, relatives evangelism, film evangelism, etc. We hope to have special training programs organized for strengthening our missionaries in new ways of doing evangelism. We plan to reach every village of the state with the love of Jesus Christ. We encourage the people of God to join us either through your personal presence or by sending someone on your behalf to these unreached villages of Madhya Pradesh.

Missionary Training:

Without training next generation of missionaries our task is incomplete. Understanding this dire need, hope to have many missionary training centers where the Word of God would be taught. We emphasize preaching the Word of God faithfully, since only the unadulterated ministry of the Word of God can transform the lives of people.

On field Training to Equip the Ministers:

It is a fact that many of the servants of God serving in the field received only limited training. Though they are winning souls for the kingdom, this inadequacy of training is reflected in their ministry. This understanding has led us to look into ways to equip them while they are serving in the field. We organize workers conferences and training seminars time to time in different regions of the state. Along with training we also provide Bicycles and other things to equip the ministers in doing God’s work.