Meet Strong Ministers for Christ with Non-Christian Pasts

Praise God for men and women who come out of non-Christian background and become fearless spokespeople for Jesus Christ.

In past days, we have emphasized how those who grew up in non-Christian families and communities often become the best proclaimers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Such people experience the dramatic contrast between what they were and how Jesus transformed them. They see firsthand the living power of Christ. It is not academic theory to them but real life experience, seeing their old world collapse and Jesus making a way where there was no way.

Pastor Samit Kumar is one of those men. Born and raised in Punjab in a Hindu family, he knows that God chose him before He created the world. But before he realized that, he lived a life not knowing where to find truth.

In his youth, he visited many Hindu temples and worshipped many Hindu deities. Not finding true peace with what he saw in the temples, he started to attend meetings with the Sikhs, the largest religion in the state of Punjab. Though he found some wisdom in Sikh writings and holy men, he still found no peace.

He visited the graves of Muslim saints and prayed Muslim prayers five times a day along with the Muslims, and he still did not find peace with God.

Not until he came into contact with Christians and reached out to Jesus Christ did he discover the love, power and peace of God that eluded him in all the other religions. He joined a local church and quickly grew in his knowledge and understanding of God.

He knew that God was calling him to tell others what he was learning in his long quest for truth. This brought him into contact with Punjab Bible College in Ludhiana and Pastor K. Koshy. He graduated from PBC in 2009 and quickly planted a church for seekers of truth like himself.

In November 2018, during a time of prayer, God gave him a new assignment: to develop a deeper passion for Him than ever before. He changed the name of his church to Spiritual Passion Assembly and prayed for a new and deeper personal move of God’s Spirit among his congregation. Today, an increasing number are experiencing salvation, healing and transformation by the move of God’s Spirit.

Increasing numbers of people are coming to the services, drawn by word of mouth and by divine guidance.

Pastor Samit Kumar has planted two churches, one for Hindi speakers, the other for Punjabi speakers. More than 150 people gather every Sunday for worship and to experience the direct power of God’s personal word in their lives.

In his fifteen years of ministry, Pastor Kumar has preached the gospel to thousands of people through gospel literature, film ministry, gospel tours and door-to-door evangelism, in addition to regular Sunday services. He has a written a book in Punjabi (English title: Spiritual Passion), which quickly sold out.

Every month, 60-70 ladies from his congregations meet together to study the Bible and share personal and community prayer needs. An additional 30 women attend the gathering online. A Sunday school is effectively training 30 children who are growing in Christ.

In 2022, Pastor Kumar started an extension Bible school in Kharar, a city of about 100,000, in Mohali district. In 2023, nine students graduated from this new school. Today, 13 young men and women are enrolled, preparing to apply Christian life principles to the callings God has on their lives.

The Spiritual Passion Assembly where Pastor Kumar leads also has a YouTube channel that broadcasts its services and has several thousand viewers both in India and around the world.

Pastor Kumar and his congregation have a goal for 2024: to personally reach an additional 1,000 people for Christ and to start one more new church in a place that has no gospel influence.

Another pastor from Punjab, Charanjit Singh, also comes from non-Christian background, in this case, from a Sikh family. After he became a believer in Jesus Christ, he went to Punjab Bible College where he graduated in 1999.

In 2016, Prayer and Praise reported his ministry after a gang of thugs beat him and his wife, Elizabeth, leaving them with major injuries. The gang saw his ministry and his church as a threat to India’s culture because they view Christian faith as a product of foreign colonialism.

Pastor Singh and his wife, along with the entire congregation, come from Hindu or Sikh background. They accused him of “luring” the people by false pretenses, a word Indian law has never adequately defined. Through violence, they hoped to silence his ministry and intimidate the congregation. The police did not intervene to protect him and his wife.

The scheme failed badly. After recovering from their injuries, Pastor Singh and his wife returned to continue their ministry, faithful to Christ. Instead of shrinking, the congregation quickly outgrew their building so much they had to construct a new one.

Today, this congregation is three times larger than it was when Pastor Singh and his wife were beaten. The Word of God is being preached and demonstrated in power.

Pastor Singh has trained three other evangelists from their congregation with calls from God for ministry who have gone out to take the gospel into areas where there was no previous gospel witness. In each of these unreached villages, a new fellowship meets regularly. Every month, baptisms are taking place in the villages as the people see the miraculous power of God and experience transformation.

In India, baptism is not just a religious ritual but a dramatic public demonstration before the community of a complete change of direction in life.

In every way, both personally and in the people they are training, Pastor Charanjit Singh and his wife, Elizabeth, are demonstrating what it means to lead a dynamic congregation.

Because of his experience and true faith, Pastor Singh oversees two districts in the state of Punjab, supervising the pastors, evangelists and churches of those districts.

These are just two pastors and evangelists sponsored through India Gospel Outreach who have come out of non-Christian backgrounds and are spreading the gospel in the state of Punjab, one of India’s most receptive states. Your prayers and support are helping to make ministries such as these possible.

Pray that the ministries of Pastors Kumar and Singh and other IGO ministries in Punjab will continue to grow and expand their influence, reaching their outreach goals for 2024 and beyond.

Pray that the state of Punjab (and every other state and territory of India) will experience unprecedented revival in the churches and awakening that reaches all people groups and every facet of Indian society.

Pray that IGO will reach its goal of planting dynamic churches in all ethnic groups and zip codes of India.

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