The significant feature about India is that has "a wide variety of religious
traditions." The Christian missions among these traditions face a great challenge.
One of the observation in Indian missions is that the church has made a significant impact
on `Dalits' and `Tribals', but its impact on Hindu and the Muslim communities is
insignificant.
The `Union of Evangelical Students of India', popularly known as UESI, has been one of
the prominent ministries contributing to this end. This book meticulously evaluates the
modus operandi employed by this ministry for the attainment of this objective.
With a strong combination of academic as well as practical research. Author provides a
wealth of information with regard to how to do effective students' ministry in India. It
also reflects Author's wide experience, insights and passion for the work of
evangelization. The book is meant to seek answers of some unanswered questions like: Why
Christian missions in India had been stagnated among the `Dalits' and `Tribals' only? why
they are not able to succeed in witnessing the Gospel to upper caste Hindus and Muslims
also?
This factual and figurative presentation is going to be a manual for all those who
passionately follow the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ and want to share the Gospel not
only to the large student population of India but also meaningfully to the South Asian
individuals and communities with relevance and sensitivity so that they could undergo a
spiritual rebirth and pave their way towards revealing the Divine.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
1.1 Statement of the Problem
1.2 Elaboration of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Definition of Key Terms
1.5 Limitations
1.6 Delimitations
1.7 Research Questions
1.8 Previous Research
1.9 Methodology
1.10 Outline of the Thesis
2. Review of Relevant Literature
2.1 History of UESI Ministry
2.2 General Approaches to Ministry among Different Faiths
2.3 Ministry among Muslims
2.4 Ministry among Hindus
2.5 Ministry to the Students in the Campuses
3. Analysis and Interpretation of Data
3.1 Ministry methods of UESI
3.2 Response towards the Gospel from Students of different Faiths
3.3 Mission among Students of different Faiths
3.4 Hindrances, Effective methods and Strategies to reach the Students of all Faiths
4. Recommendations and Conclusions
4.1 Theological/Biblical Reflection
4.2 Recommendations from the Research Questions
4.3 Recommendation for further research
Index
Sri Potana Venkateswara Rao, who is known as Bhakta Potana, is basically from Andhra
Pradesh. He did his graduation in English literature from Acharya Nagarjuna University and
also earned Masters in Social Work from the same University. He is also MA in Religion and
Philosophy from Madurai Kamaraj University. Apart from this academic education, he is
dedicated for spiritual education. He did his Master of Divinity from GFA Seminary,
Tiruvalla, Kerala. He also did his theological research program Master of Theology from
Union Biblical Seminary, Pune. At present, he is doing his PhD Research with the
University of Mysore through South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS).
He lives in Banglore with his wife Rita and three kids: Sophia, Lydia and Ashish Vidwan.
Bhakta has been teaching God's word to the university students in India. His three
years (1993-1996) as a student leader and eleven years (2000-2011) as a full time staff,
in association with Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI) opened opportunities to
impact college and university students of both South and North India. He is not only an
academician but he is a man on the Mission field who is down to earth.
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