Church Planting: India

India

Three years ago, our Executive Team did a deep dive on places we needed to have presence, projects, and key people. Our bias was to go where the highest saturation of Muslims live. One of the four countries we identified was India. Crescent Project was the most equipped for India, as our Executive Director had more than 30 years of experience there and many solid, vetted leaders on the ground. 

We knew that the churches we would plant would not have buildings and most likely would have and most likely would have bi-vocational pastors. We also understood that creating worshiping groups had to also have two other features: After school programs for elementary children, and women’s literacy and numeracy clubs, including small business training.  

In 2022, the first year of our efforts, we saw 52 churches planted. Then in 2023, another 100 churches were planted. As of the end of 2024, we are on track to see another 100 new churches planted. 

These new churches are planted mostly “near” Muslim communities. Reasons for this seem so remote from those of us in the West. Both Muslims and Christians are minorities in India, and their treatment by the much larger Hindu population is very harsh. Muslims, however, have their own boundaries that divide them from Christians, and those who venture to leave Islam face severe consequences including, in some cases, “honor killing.”

To date, we know of one of our church planters whose life was taken because of his advancement of the Kingdom. We pray for every one of our planters and their families. 

Our Goal: To plant 100 churches per year or more!

Our Progress to Date

255 New Churches planted from 2022 through 2024

20,250 Individuals attending church plants

4,050 Families reached

11,137 Children engaged in afterschool programs

5,923 Women and teen girls in literacy/numeracy clubs

3,750 Bibles and/or New Testaments distributed