My friend Satya shared his experience and journey with Christ and community on the Missions Drop Podcast and at the Rethinking Forum last year.1 His testimony should be brought into conversation with Scott Walker’s article “Between the First and the Next: The Dividing Line of Faith Within Hindu Families,” which discusses the challenges of someone coming to Christ from a Hindu background.2 Another friend of mine has also written about this challenge among Buddhists, “when our church gets one weak Christian, we get two hundred strong enemies from the new convert’s social networks.”3 Another colleague quoted a Kabyle believer, “the presence of one [of my brothers]makes the other uncomfortable,” stating the challenge of balancing relationships with the global body of Christ and one’s community from another religious heritage.4 This challenge impacts most people from non-Christian religious communities, especially those with a more collectivist mindset. It is often brushed away as the suffering required to honor Christ, or the church is considered the new believer’s new family, with the addition of a passage about the division that Christ brings to families.5

It is also assumed that when a person comes to follow Christ, they must begin attending a local “church,” stop attending festivals and family celebrations, and publicly share their new identity with all their family. The family receives this news with a mix of shock, anger, frustration, and grief. Is this mere rebellion, a short spiritual sojourn, or a deep betrayal of one’s family, community, and heritage?

Oftentimes, the convert means none of these things but is stuck trying to understand their new reality, trying to communicate with their family and friends, and dealing with centuries of colonialism, miscommunication, and rash decision-making. Christians typically assume the family or other religious community simply wants nothing to do with their child, sibling, or cousin, but how do we respond when someone from our own community or family converts to something different from our heritage?

In Satya’s story, we find someone who faithfully listened and continues to listen to God, the Scriptures, and family. Satya’s journey to faith in Christ began with his agnostic Hindu father sharing his library with him and speaking wonderfully of the person of Jesus Christ.6 Satya eagerly read about this figure and came to trust him as his Lord. Thus, he began his journey into the church. Satya did not fit well there, though. The church required a change of habits and practices, as well as foreign terminology. There were even suggestions made that he should change his name due to its connection to Krishna.7 Satya refrained from this step but stayed present in the church, until his father approached him.

His father expressed appreciation for Satya’s desire to follow Jesus but also requested that Satya would make room for family members who would visit him on Sundays.8 Satya agreed and began to explore ways of following Christ in community, while maintaining connection to his family and friends. He sought to love God and neighbor while honoring his familial and cultural heritage.

Satya’s family is used to meeting in the evening or morning for something like a worship service, which was led by his father and grandfather. These are his people, and although they may not all follow Jesus, they have this sustained rhythm of coming together to celebrate and look to things higher than themselves. So, what does one do when other people may lay claim to this time? And what does one do when their view of this higher reality changes?

Interestingly, the term ekklesia, which we commonly refer to as “church,” initially was not a religious term. It reflected people gathering as a community for a collective purpose.9 For the early church, this allowed people to gather for worship, teaching, fellowship, food, and mutual support.10 It allowed people to gather for this new movement that sought to put Christ at the center of Jewish teachings and traditions. Our practices of ekklesia have evolved over the centuries, and many traditions have developed, but what does this mean for persons and groups where the ekklesia of Christ is not well known? How do they gather and bring their traditions of worship, fellowship, and support with them? What can they bring with them and what must be left behind?

Hindu communities are ripe with differences in culture, gathering styles, and traditions. Devotional gatherings are common in the morning, in the evening, and on other occasions. Thus, community and connectedness are closer to their hearts than the hearts of Western churchgoers. Traffic, work schedules, and individual preferences often prevent members of my church in Los Angeles from meeting with their brothers and sisters more than once every couple of weeks. Even the most committed gather together only twice a week in community, aside from those employed by the church. Therefore, this Hindu pattern of gathering is more frequent and communally centered than many Western church traditions. However, some may still wonder what exactly goes on in these Hindu gatherings? Can it qualify as “church”?

Satya’s attempt at Hindu ekklesia does not stand alone. Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, among others, advocated for an expression that was both authentically biblical and authentically Hindu.11 Muktipanth Sampraday gathered informally in the home and was led by senior devotees while maintaining social participation in Hindu society.12 K. Subba Rao envisioned an ekklesia modeled on New Testament principles but expressed within an Indian, Hindu cultural context.13 Others, too, have attempted this type of journey, but it has yet to be the mainstream form of following Christ in India. More popular forms often include conversion and adoption of the term “Christian,” followed by various challenges with navigating familial and communal relationships, including name change, no longer attending festivals, disassociation from the family, and even loss of vocation.

These examples helped provide Satya with fodder for how to have his community gather with him in the home. For Satya, there are distinct challenges in navigating this in north India (a less churched region), as opposed to south India, where church traditions have existed for millennia. Along with these examples, Satya sought to examine early church practices from Acts 2, which included learning, fellowship, communal meals, prayer, freedom of cultural expression, in-home and public meetings, and combining worship, fellowship, and daily life.14

Satya further compared the early ekklesia in Acts to modern representations of Hindu ekklesias. Both gathered in homes, used local vernaculars, sung according to their people’s style (psalms and bhajans), supported one another socially, were led by respected elders, and had an expectant feel for the transcendent.15 Satya also spoke about how his bhakti (devotion) gift was given by his grandfather, even though he didn’t worship the God of the Bible. The same was true of his father who helped him develop the morning meditation. Thus, Satya received forms of worship from his community and family but steadily worked out ways to follow them after coming to faith in Christ. This Hindu ekklesia has kept Satya connected to his sociocultural surroundings and heritage, respecting the heritage that God gave him and other Hindus.

Lots of people in Satya’s community come to these prabhat pheries (early morning devotional processions), which are communal, participatory, and centered on singing devotional songs. This mirrors the early Christian ekklesia’s emphasis on communal worship, public witness, and shared spiritual life. This creates a more meaningful and useful life for the community of those hosting. In addition to the sandhya sangati (evening gatherings for worship or fellowship), Satya and others also host occasional gatherings in their homes. The occasional gatherings happen when people have extra time, or there is a festival, so there is both a consistent practice of communal worship, as well as a more occasional one.

For Satya, a Hindu ekklesia is a culturally Indian devotional expression that focuses on communal and personal spiritual experiences and reflects both early Church principles and the vision of pioneering Indian devotees. This devotional expression witnesses to Christ and represents dialogue and union with the divine simultaneously. It dissolves the distinction between self and the source of self, as Christ permeates every aspect of one’s being in this shameless bhakti of surrender. These Hindu ekklesias are born out of much struggle, pain, and discernment as most of their attendees try to walk the narrow road of loving both God and neighbor through honoring their parents and broader communal heritage in Christ.

One may ask what makes this practice an innovation. Although there are prior examples in history, building a community centered on Christ in India that does not fracture relationships with community and family is abnormal. Also, as mentioned previously, Hinduism has so many diverse traditions under its umbrella that many varied types of ekklesia ought to be formed. Some will have different patterns, practices, and rhythms, and use different instruments, languages, and songs, but what matters most is the local resonance. Does the family recognize this as something that represents and reflects who they are? Obviously, to some degree, this involves hearing from those who are not yet in Christ, as well as collective discussion and discernment from those in the community who are in Christ. Not every Hindu ekklesia will look like Satya’s, but there is much in this form, practice, and reflection for others attempting to practice authentic Hindu ekklesias in their contexts.