Day 1 at AIPC 2023 - Part 1 - Equip Indian Churches

3 minutes to read

By Equip Indian Churches

"How good it is when brothers live together in unity..." with these words, Brother Harshit, kicked off the 6th All India Pastor's Conference (2023) in the Indian city that never sleeps: Mumbai. What an encouraging sight it was to see brothers from all over India - from Gujarat in the West to the Nagaland in the East, from Lucknow up north to Trivandrum down south travel long distances to gather for this conference. This is an annual event that brings pastors, interns, seminarians, and other men serving in various ministries from across India for 3 days of fellowship, networking, and most importantly, to be edified and equipped to continue on in their ministries..

Bro Harshit welcome the paticipants, introduced the nature of the ministry of AIPC & EIC. He briely explained the theological distinctive and commitment of AIPC as being strongly evangelical with a reformed soteriology, having an emphasis on seeing Indian churches strengthend in their ministry of serving God's people in India. In his words, this was just being "old school" in their ministry and committment to the "faith that has once for all been handed to the saints" while strongly emphasizing the unity we share on the gospel.

It is truly a unique experience to hear a packed hall of men divided by state borders, language, and denominations unite their voices in one accord as brothers and sing their hearts out unto the Lord. And that was exactly what happened when bro Arpan and the music team led the participants in singing songs that reminded us that every blessing that we possess has come from the Lord, that we believe in the one and same gopel of Jesus, and prepared our hearts to hear God speak to us through the sessions.

And the Lord indeed spoke to us through bro Anand Samuel. In his preaching on "The Calling of the Pastor," he explained the theological nature of preaching, biblically justified the priority of preaching by walking us through the second epistle to Timothy, proved the purpose of Scripture as sharing the same purpose of God's Word, and put forth four exhortations for each of the participant to take home and practice. Certainly, it convicted, challenged, and encouraged the participants in their calling to serve as pastors as evidenced by many discussing with each other the same.

If this just a snapshot of the first half of the first day, each of us are certainly excited to look forward to what the rest of the day and the subsequent sessions have in store!