[From The Church Next Door: Local Christians Face America’s New Religious Diversity, draft manuscript by Dr. Paul D. Numrich. Please do not quote or cite without author’s permission.]

Chapter 2: Evangelizing Fellow Immigrants: South Asian Christians

[figure approx. here: map of South Asian religious sites in metro Chicago]

The Asian-American population of metropolitan Chicago has increased dramatically since the revision of federal immigration laws in the 1960s. The 2000 census counted nearly 400,000 Asians in the six-county region, a 52 percent increase over the previous census. South Asians, mostly from India and Pakistan, make up a significant proportion of Chicago’s overall Asian population and represent a remarkable religious diversity. The accompanying map shows the locations of Hindu temples, Muslim mosques, Christian churches, and miscellaneous other religious centers with large or exclusively South Asian constituencies. The Christian churches represent a variety of denominational and theological identities, including Baptists, Catholics, Evangelicals, Methodists, Lutherans, Mar Thoma, Orthodox, and Pentecostals.

This chapter highlights initiatives of South Asian Christians to evangelize fellow South Asian immigrants in metropolitan Chicago, often in cooperation with non-immigrant evangelical groups and volunteers. We will examine three cases: 1) semi-itinerant Indian evangelists, 2) Telugu Lutheran congregations, and 3) a South Asian Christian community center.

Indian Evangelists

Note: Suburban Chicago Mennonite Church is pseudonymous, at the request of Rev. John Bushi, who once served on staff there.

One day a few years ago, evangelist John Bushi stopped in to a small gift shop run out of Suburban Chicago Mennonite Church to see if it carried any items from his native India. The church eventually appointed Rev. Bushi as its minister of evangelism, with a special focus on low-profile outreach to immigrant Indians throughout metropolitan Chicago.

Although Suburban Chicago Mennonite Church is predominantly white, it is beginning to reflect the growing ethnic and racial diversity of its locale. The church has made overtures to nearby Hindu and Muslim congregations, though no institutional relationships have yet materialized. The pastor saw Rev. Bushi’s evangelistic approach as compatible with the congregation’s views on outreach: “What he is trying to do is build relationships so that there are comfortable, natural ways to share Christian faith with the others who are in his fellowship. . . . Our whole church is based on the concept that we don’t exist for ourselves, we exist to reach out to others who need Christ, who need a church home where they feel loved and accepted, or who are seeking, seekers looking for something.”

An ordained minister of the Indian Baptist Mission, a union of missionary Baptist denominations in India, Rev. Bushi found the Mennonite tradition amenable to his evangelical concern for his fellow Indian immigrants. “Mennonites believe in helping people, at the same time being with God, which I like very much. When you don’t care for the human being who is suffering next door and just talk about religion, that makes no sense. Mennonites are very helping and kind and supporting.” Rev. Bushi is now also a licensed Mennonite minister.

His approach is simple, direct, but not overtly religious initially. He invites Indian families to attend informal social get-togethers where they share food, songs, games, and other activities that will begin to form a close relationship within the group. He seeks out potential attendees at libraries, gas stations, airports, and other public places, as well as by posting fliers in Indian businesses and scanning newspaper ads for Indian names. He even attends local Hindu temples, being careful not to give offense in any way.

After a couple of get-togethers, Rev. Bushi begins to probe into deeper topics, especially spirituality and family life. One group that meets in the western suburbs comprises newlyweds experiencing marital problems. “We want to bring them together and show how they can make their lives better with the help of God,” Rev. Bushi told us. Many Indian immigrants have lost their jobs since September 11, 2001. “Every family has gone through some problems. So my presence is meant to encourage them constantly, and pray with them, and see how God can help them with their lives.”

Rev. Bushi trains others to carry on this work, running workshops for what he calls his “core group.” They study the Bible together and discuss practical aspects of evangelism, focusing “on how God has helped us in our lives.” Rev. Bushi freely shares what God did for him when he found himself languishing in an Indian prison in 1980. His mother wrote him a letter, saying, “You have tried all your possible ways, why don’t you try God? Why don’t you pray?” “So that night I prayed,” he told us, “and I had a peace. And a miracle happened, that I was released without any charges.” He went on to earn an engineering degree, work in a scientific research institute, and complete a master’s degree in theology from United Theological College in Bangalore, India. He draws from his scientific background in conversations with young Indian immigrants who work in engineering, computers, and other technical fields, calling his approach “creative evangelism for the 21^st century.”

Rev. Bushi senses a significant attitude shift within the immigrant Hindu community in recent years. He feels that the early immigrants tried to assimilate to America’s dominant Christian culture, downplaying their Hindu identity and practices in order to fit in. But he thinks that a societal rise in secularism and tolerance for religious diversity has emboldened Hindus. “[Society] says you can believe in any god, so we have religious freedom. They say that there is no need of prayer in the schools, at Christmastime don’t use Christ’s name in any public places, and even the Supreme Court takes out the 10 Commandments. So these guys [Hindus] get some kind of encouragement, ‘OK, we can have our own idols, we can have our practice.’ So they become stronger and stronger. And Hindus never stop at one place. If they are allowed to go in a evangelistic way, they will try to change and convert people because they also believe in the same kind of conversion that we talk about.” Rev. Bushi identified several strategies used by Hindu temples to attract new members, such as free medical care, classical Indian dance classes, and yoga instruction.

For Rev. Bushi, this Hindu assertiveness is a harbinger of ill for America. “I take it seriously that this country is blessed because of prayers and [Christian] values. But slowly these values are going away because people are not paying attention. So once these idol worshipers come and bring evil things into the society, then probably we will face a lot of problems.”

Rev. Bushi’s Indian fellowship participated in some joint activities with the larger congregation when he was on staff at Suburban Chicago Mennonite Church. One lay leader of the larger congregation wanted to see more such interaction. He once “crashed” a gathering of Indian youth and was impressed by the testimonies he heard. “I was just drawn in—so intriguing—and I was so amazed at some of the stories that I was hearing,” he explained to us. “I was an outsider crashing their party, but I felt like I was welcome there. And I encouraged them to tell the same stories that they told each other to the rest of the congregation, so that we could be more intimately involved as a big family. As much as I was blessed by hearing these stories, I figured the bigger congregation could be too.”

Rev. Bushi works closely with other semi-itinerant Indian evangelists in the Chicago area. Rev. Jai Prakash Masih started an Indian fellowship at another Mennonite church in the suburbs following Rev. Bushi’s social evangelism approach. “Religious diversity is the reality of the world,” he told us. “One cannot deny it. The most appropriate response is Jesus’ mandate: Go out and preach.” But Indian evangelists must adopt the right attitude in interacting with fellow immigrants. “Personally, I draw on the concept of respect. [Jesus and the apostles] called us to share our faith. To share is not to belittle or condemn, it is to love, not judge. . . . You need to begin with where people are, you cannot bring them to your turf, but [begin] on their own turf. Missions in the traditional way have been misused and have colonial implications. Missions should be based on the mandate of love, to reach out, not bringing people where you are.”

Another local Indian evangelist, who goes by the name of Pastor G. John, heads up the Chicago Bible Fellowship, which meets in various rented facilities. He feels called to correct the false “human assumptions” of other religions, like the concepts of reincarnation in Hinduism and nirvana in Buddhism. By contrast, “[Christian] doctrines are not made on human assumptions,” he explains. “We have proof, and that proof is the Lord Jesus. See, like a seed he was buried, and he disappeared like water, and when he rose again, he did not come as a monkey or some other disciples [via reincarnation]. Jesus died, Jesus was buried, Jesus rose again. So that is what the Bible says. It is a blessed hope, a living hope, a good hope. So, if I die, I will rise again. This kind of message is preached to non-Christians.”

Although such preaching might be perceived as confrontational, Pastor G. John knows that it must be carried out with respect. He likes Rev. Bushi’s approach because of its patience and hospitality—when the time is right, you can give your testimony to people without hurting them, while still telling them the truth of the Gospel. He also knows that in the end, only God can convict human hearts. “Yeah, we preach Christ, but we know by experience that we cannot change anybody. If I have power to change people, maybe within a week I change the whole city of Chicago. We depend on God, God does, we trust 100 percent. See, Lord Jesus said in John 15:5, ‘You can do nothing without me.’ So we know by experience that we cannot change any people, but we preach, that is our responsibility. The rest, He has to change people.”

Telugu Lutheran Congregations

Rev. John Bushi contrasts his semi-itinerant ministry to the established Indian pastors of the Chicago area. One such is Rev. Shadrach Katari who pastors two Telugu (south Indian) Missouri Synod Lutheran congregations, Bethesda Asian Indian Mission Society on Chicago’s north side and Wesley Church Chicago in a near west suburb. Despite differences of venue, pastors like Rev. Katari share much in common with the Indian evangelists we have considered thus far.

Rev. Katari often accepts invitations to speak about Christianity to religious and secular groups within the Indian immigrant community. He will not participate in non-Christian worship services due to the Missouri Synod prohibition against religious “syncretism” (see Chapter 5). He believes that, although other religions contain ethical teachings similar to Christianity, “we have only Christ to save us from sin.” He finds Hindus more receptive to the Gospel than Muslims since Islam does not accept the divinity of Christ. Hindus are more likely to believe in Christ as a divine savior, a familiar notion in their religion.

Rev. Katari has written a series of evangelistic tracts that he and members of his congregations distribute to Hindus, especially along Devon Avenue in the heart of the South Asian community on Chicago’s north side. One calls Jesus “the Great Guru” and assures Hindus that his death frees them from the effects of karma. Another tract discusses the Hindu concept of moksha, ultimate liberation from the human condition. According to Rev. Katari, “their moksha is to go into God and become God, oneness in God. But our moksha is like the Kingdom of God, and it is different. We have our individuality from God, and we can recognize ourselves. I can explain to them what is moksha and how we enjoy moksha, how we got peace in moksha, like that. So, I translated the Kingdom of God into moksha.”

Rev. Katari adopts a personal approach in evangelizing the Indians he meets on Devon Avenue, a strategy he learned while in seminary in India. “When I go, it’s a busy street, they are buying groceries. I find people who are sitting on benches and at tables . . . and I make friendship with them. . . . I ask them what they are doing, like that. Then I talk about Jesus Christ, and they talk about their religion. I explain how Jesus came to this world and how he saved our souls from sin and condemnation.” Such street evangelism can be difficult in India. “God gave us a chance to talk to them in America,” says Rev. Katari. “In India, sometimes we don’t have a chance to talk like that. Now we do. So, in our case, in this free country, we are able to talk.”

He also explains that caste distinctions must be considered when evangelizing fellow Indian immigrants. Many Indian Christians come from the lower castes due to the history of Christian missions in India. When Rev. Katari witnesses to upper caste Hindus, he takes what he calls a more “theoretical” approach, discussing Hindu scriptures and doctrines. With lower caste Hindus, he discusses “practical” aspects of Hinduism, like its rituals.

Vijay Eanuganti is a member of Rev. Katari’s congregation on Chicago’s north side. He interacts with Indian Hindus and Muslims on a daily basis, sometimes in the taxi he drives for a living, often in Indian restaurants. Like his pastor, Vijay uses the word “friendship” to describe his approach to fellow Indian immigrants. “If I go to lunch, I sit like one hour,” he told us. “Every day, new people are coming, and with them I am doing friendship. I am trying to invite them to church.”

In one case, Vijay developed a friendship with a Hindu man who had failed the city cab driver examination twice already. Although the man had driven a taxi in India, he found the exam here very difficult and began to despair of ever passing. Someone told the man to call Vijay for help. Vijay recalls the man saying over the phone, “Oh, I am very scared about my examination.” Vijay replied, “OK, come to my church on Sunday.” “He came. The pastor prayed for him, and I prayed for him. The third time, by the grace of God, he has passed [the exam]. So he was very faithful to God [after that]. Every Sunday he comes [to church].”

Vijay shares such testimonies with the people he encounters. “Now I call all people to the church to just, what do you call, to praise the Lord. I give a statement here. When I came [to America] I had nothing. When I came here the Lord blessed me. . . . I tell them, if you also believe in this Lord Jesus Christ, He is going to bless your people also.”

Devon Avenue Christian Community Center

Note: The names of Devon Avenue Christian Community Center and individuals associated with it are pseudonymous, at the Center’s request.

Located in the heart of the South Asian community on Chicago’s north side, among the myriad Indian restaurants, sari shops, Indo-Pakistani grocery stores, and other ethnic businesses, stands Devon Avenue Christian Community Center (DACCC), an evangelistic outreach ministry that provides Christian literature, children’s activities, tutoring, small group fellowship opportunities (especially for women), English-as-a-Second-Language instruction, immigrant social services, and Christian worship services for the neighborhood. DACCC is supported by evangelical churches and colleges throughout the Chicago area that contribute financial assistance and volunteer staff. Even so, this is primarily an outreach by South Asian Christians to their fellow immigrants.

Excerpt from Devon Avenue Christian Community Center newsletter, Summer 2003:

In 1998, the Swaminarayan Temple in Bartlett, Illinois, began a new venture for the South Asian community in Chicagoland. . . . It is said that when the construction is finished it will be the largest Hindu temple outside of India. . . .

We are concerned about reaching the lost for Christ, and what a wonderful blessing from God to bring our work home to us. In the next few years, 6 more Hindu temples are expected to be built in Chicagoland.

How are we going to reach them in our own communities?

Assistant director Paul Kelvin, who is not a South Asian, explained DACCC’s basic approach, including its implications for non-immigrant volunteers. “There is a method of evangelism called ‘friendship evangelism.’ Through our natural contacts as friends, we share our faith just as one friend might share with another. That is how we cross over as well as be a friend to the community by giving, by sharing Christ’s love through activities for kids and ESL and all those things through the Center, those activities of outreach.”

Paul likes a phrase he read somewhere, “building bridges of friendship that bear the weight of truth.” “I think that sums up what we do. . . . [Such] friendship is understanding culture, you know, take off your shoes, all of those things, learning the basics of what [another] culture respects, things that might offend. The idea is not to build walls between that person and yourself by not understanding anything about them. If there are fewer walls, then they are more willing to listen to what you have to say about your faith.” Paul monitors his non-immigrant volunteers closely to make sure they don’t step on any “cultural toes.” “Our underlying message is that we respect each other and we are not forcing anything on anybody. We are just sharing with people what we believe. If the person responds, that is up to them.”

One interesting gesture of respect came in response to criticism from Muslims in the neighborhood. Each year at the Indian Independence Day parade along Devon Avenue, Christian groups distribute hundreds of evangelistic tracts, most of which are discarded by parade goers. Some Muslims expressed dismay that Christians would allow passages from the Bible to be trampled in the street. Now DACCC mobilizes volunteers to pick up the tracts so as not to offend Muslim sensitivities about scripture. (Muslims respect the Bible as originating from the prophets Moses and Jesus, thus making Jews and Christians fellow People of the Book.)

For the same reason, the Bible is displayed in a prominent place in DACCC’s bookshop, as Radha Sanghat, an Indian woman, explained to us. “When you come into the bookstore, you will see that the Bible is on the highest shelf. The reason is that Hindu people revere their religious books. So we don’t have a casual attitude towards the Word of God. You will never see us sitting on our Bible, you will never see a Bible put on the floor.”

“We try to do things in an ethnic way,” Radha continued. “We dress like the community does, we dress very modestly. We are all things to all people for the sake of the Gospel, like [the Apostle] Paul said, without compromising the Gospel. So we bring about outer changes which makes them feel welcome and accepted, and once they are in, the love of Christ wins them over.” This culture-sensitive approach includes respecting many traditional South Asian views on gender. Men and women sit separately at the Center’s worship services, “because that is how God is worshiped in Hinduism and in Islam. Women and men are separated. They are very reverent in worship, so we cover our heads, too. We make it as easy as possible for them, so that the outer [behavior] does not disgust them. Offenses are kept to a minimum.”

Radha directs the women’s programs at DACCC. The center has created a haven for many South Asian women, some of whom experience spousal abuse and other family problems. “When they came to us and they found us loving them and treating them with kindness, respect, and dignity, they started opening up to us and sharing. We became a safe place for us [South Asian women]. As they started sharing their problems, that is when we started expanding and helping them wherever we could. And through word of mouth we have grown. . . . When women come in here they are isolated, they don’t have community. We helped by doing ladies’ luncheons and inviting the other women from the community. So within community, they built community, got to know each other and develop friendships.”

Radha spoke of one woman who was about to undergo an abortion. Through the prayers and friendship of women at DACCC, the woman decided to have the baby, “this precious little one,” as Radha says. “The woman is a friend and she brings her baby and all of us love her. She has found community in us.”

“What we do is friendship evangelism,” Radha echoes Paul Kelvin, DACCC’s assistant director. “Here is our policy: we live the Gospel, and once others live it, then they will believe it. That is why this is a friendship center. . . . We want to be the aroma, the love, and the hands and feet of Jesus in the community. We live the Gospel first and then we give it vocally.”

Sanjay Pandya, an Indian man, volunteers his time at DACCC. He agrees with this quiet, friendly approach to his non-Christian fellow immigrants. When we asked him how American Christians should respond to the growing number of non-Christian immigrants generally, he replied, “The response is not to condemn, the response is to love and accept them. We need to be different, to show them that there is a difference in us. . . . We shouldn’t be condemning and saying that you are wrong. No, we should love them.”

Sanjay told us of a person that he regularly accompanies on walks around the neighborhood, during which time he shares what Jesus has done for him and prays for the person when asked. “That’s all I do now. I don’t speak anything more. I leave it to the Lord. He will do what He has to.” Fewer words, more Christian love—that’s his approach nowadays. “Love, that’s it. Love, and meet the needs. Don’t speak too much, just meet the needs. A lot of people are hurting.”

Sanjay says he came to know the Lord in 1978. “Then I realized what was the truth.” He also realized something that other new immigrant Christians share: “Usually, it’s your own people you feel for first.”

Excerpt from Devon Avenue Christian Community Center newsletter, Summer 2003:

Cricket Update—In our Spring Newsletter we shared about the recent breakthrough in reaching out to Muslim and Hindu men in the Devon Ave. area through telecasting the Cricket World Cup at [the Center]. The final tallies are in—The men continued to flood in to [the Center], especially when India and/or Pakistan played. . . . Nearly 500 different men attended the telecasts, with the highest count for one night at 100. About 250 “JESUS” videos were given out in various languages. Some refused the videos, but many accepted them with thanks. The location barrier was broken and the men are no longer afraid to come to [the Center].

For More Information

The book, Namaste America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis, by Padma Rangaswamy (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000), paints a comprehensive portrait of the Indian immigrant experience in Chicago. For an in-depth look at the religious diversity of the South Asian population in the United States, see two books by Raymond Brady Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan: New Threads in the American Tapestry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988) and Christian Pluralism in the United States: The Indian Immigrant Experience (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America is a watchdog organization for Christian rights in India. Contact them at FIACONA, 110 Maryland Avenue, NE, Suite #510, Washington, DC, 20002, phone 202-547-4700, email dcoffice@fiacona.org, Web site www.fiacona.org.

Information about Rev. Shadrach Katari’s ministry to Telugu Lutherans can be found at the Web site of one of his churches, www.geocities.com/wesleychurch_chicago.

For Discussion

1. In this chapter, we see immigrants and non-immigrants cooperatively evangelizing South Asians. What advantages and disadvantages might each group have in this work? Do you think non-Christian South Asians would be more open to evangelization by fellow immigrants or by non-immigrants? How important is it not to step on “cultural toes” when dealing with immigrant religious groups?
2. Discuss the “social evangelism” or “friendship evangelism” approach. Are you comfortable with it? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Do you think it would be difficult for an evangelical Christian to maintain a friendship with a person who does not respond to invitations to become a Christian? What is the proper balance between “doing” and “preaching” the Gospel?
3. Recall this statement by Rev. John Bushi: “Hindus never stop at one place. If they are allowed to go in a evangelistic way, they will try to change and convert people because they also believe in the same kind of conversion that we talk about.” Discuss the implications of multiple new religious groups with conversionary agendas encountering each other in the United States. Can they all get along? Does this situation strengthen or weaken American society?
4. Are adherents of some religions inherently more receptive to the Gospel than others due to the nature of certain beliefs? Recall Rev. Shadrach Katari’s view that Hindus are more receptive than Muslims. Are there other avenues of receptivity besides similarities of beliefs? Discuss obstacles to receptivity as well, such as Islam’s rejection of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

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