Jesus talked about “things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), as he walked alongside two disciples towards Emmaus. One of them was Cleopas (Luke 24:18). According to some, there is a possibility that the other disciple was either Luke or maybe Cleopas’ wife, Mary.

Being an oral-aural learner, I came across the term Alongsider through conversations with H.L. Richard in the Rethinking Forum circles. Slowly, over time this concept, along with other contextual nuances, became a part of my own journey to communicate the unchanging message of the Bible.

My maternal grandfather, T.A. Kurian, was an evangelist who worked among the Hindus in North India from the 1940s to 1990s. Towards the end of his life, he wrote 17,000 lines of poetry on the life of Jesus in Hindi,¹ which uses many contextual words. Early in life, I was influenced by my dad, George David. He worked among Hindus in North India for about 60 years from the 1960s onward. He was impressed by the idea of contextualization and verbalized it often. However, the aura of denominational legalism subtly discouraged him from fully expressing contextualization in action. My dad studied under Bruce J. Nicholls, who was one of the evangelicals speaking and writing² on contextualization in the 1970s.

Growing up in North India, I actively helped my dad with the church that met in our living room. I continued to work among the Hindus along with my job in the pharma industry, in India and then later in the United States. In 2006, I resigned from my secular job to serve the Lord on a full-time basis. I work alongside Hethne³ in the diaspora.

Alongside Locally

While technology has helped us to connect with others remotely, we have found that it is important to meet with Hindus in a personal, physically proximate, tangible, and face-to-face manner. We cannot effectively walk alongside remotely. God has intentionally placed us in a particular local, geographic area, to meet up with people and live life with them. We cannot use an impersonal medium of communication and emphasize a personal God and personal salvation.

We have intentionally planted ourselves locally, to focus on a particular community. Incidentally, we may travel and meet someone in another city briefly. However, that is a small and secondary aspect of our work. We primarily make local, genuine, and lifelong friends. We do not encourage anyone to make what is secondary, the primary. We design our lives to meet Hindus in our immediate local area.

We respect the communicators who painstakingly work in their local area. It would be a pitiful practice for us to visit a town briefly and try to walk alongside someone else’s contact. We actively avoid an attitude of a commando operation. Once I visited a town and one Hindu follower of Jesus wanted me to lead a contextualized devotion at his place. I insisted that he connect first with the local person leading contextual worship. Simultaneously, I contacted the local leader, who was my friend, to follow his wisdom and instructions, and waited for his plans for any devotional activity there.

We refrain from taking up the role of a zealous traveling preacher, whose agenda is only to find exciting stories for their next newsletter. We refuse to travel to another location and connect with the handful of Hindus that are in someone else’s circle, thinking that we can do wonders during our short stay there. The local leader is the primary communicator, not we who visit there for a short while.

I have not found much value in being invited to a place, where they would advertise to gather a large crowd of Hindus, for me to address. The expectation of the local leaders there is that people will listen to me because I look contextual. I am skeptical of that approach. I do travel sometimes. However, if I am going to a place, I would rather go meet a local worker quietly. If occasion permits, I will casually meet with just a handful of his immediate contacts, within their normal frequency of meeting. If I do address a larger crowd, it should be comprised of the followers of Jesus interested in contextual work.

Alongside Long Term

We have found it to be of value when we decide to befriend for the long term, maybe even for a lifetime. If we have been in communication with someone, and that person changes locality, then we look for a contextual leader in that town and introduce them. Most of the friends that we work with locally have been influenced by many others who invested their lives in them, even before we met them. God uses a series of people to infuse his message over time.

We have performed the last rites of some of those whom we have worked with over a long period of time. We do not engage with our contacts only for a short while. We do not abandon our friends, as soon as we figure out that they are not interested in our message. We patiently wait for opportunities to engage with them in a friendly manner, contextually, and on theological merits. If the Lord chooses to give us life, we are ready to walk and talk with them until their last breath. We cannot talk about an abundant life of “eternal endless time” and have no time for our friends.

It is not enough for us to just meet people during event-based devotion time, but we willingly live and celebrate life with them. We are beside them during their joys and sorrows in life. We intentionally design our life to communicate about our Lord Jesus. And we do it in a manner that happens in the natural course of living life, not with an attitude of an urgent agenda. Lord Jesus said, “I am coming quickly” (Rev 22:7), but not in the American sense of the term. God is very patient, and so must we be.

We move at the pace of our Hindu friends. Walking side by side is not just strolling casually with ease, but an uphill journey, like climbing a mountain. We do not run ahead and yell at them to climb up soon. Nor do we irritatingly push them from behind, destabilizing them. Rather, we climb alongside them. Hopefully, they can watch us in our walk with the Lord and mimic us

Alongside Laterally

Relating with Hindus is best done as a family and community, which is a more stable structure and design. Making friends is not just an individual but a corporate task. They become our “family friends.” We do not try to isolate and insulate the individual from the family, rather we are willing to walk as a family with their family. Those of us who are single determine to walk with the community of Alongsiders, not in a solitary manner. And our family friends become friends of the community.

Contextualization is learned through those who are contextualizing. Some people who seem to have learned and formulated their contextual expression solitarily are those who have, over time, consistently inherited some learnings from their previous generations, coupled with reading scholarly works. The transmission of cultural values for them has come through inheritance and intergenerational learning. They have not suddenly created something in a vacuum. Reading 25 books on contextualization or attending a few academic programs would not expedite being contextual. That would just be the beginning. The guru-shishya⁴ aspect of Indian Hindu culture has some very important nuances to pedagogy and learning.

Those who want to learn alongsiding must walk with Alongsiders and work closely with those Alongsiders who have been contextual. There is a mutual benefit in doing so. It forms a small community of Alongsiders. Also, one does not necessarily need to belong to an Indian-Hindu heritage to be a good Alongsider. What is of importance is to learn how to walk alongside in a manner that is culturally relevant, which can be learned from someone who has practiced alongsiding contextually for a while.

Jesus walked alongside to talk about “things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). What are the possibilities that followers of Jesus walk alongside Hindus in a genuine, patient, and contextual manner to talk about “things concerning him”?