By Pallavi Bhattacharya in Mumbai
February 05, 2010 | 07:05:40

SHEKHAR Kallianpur was born into a staunch Hindu Saraswat Brahmin household as the son of a Hindu priest and astrologer and grandson of a numerologist. As a young boy, he was expected to follow the family tradition of meticulous Hindu rites, rituals and astrological predictions. But what Shekhar’s family couldn’t predict despite their expertise in astrology was that God had a very different plan for him. Jesus Christ had chosen Shekhar to be a man of God. While he was still a teenager, he accepted Jesus as his personal savior. The 50-year-old Shekhar Kallianpur now leads the New Life Fellowship Church of Juhu in Mumbai as its pastor. He has brought a change in several lives in India by proclaiming the love of Jesus to them. Excerpts from an exclusive interview with THE CHRISTIAN MESSENGER: 

 

You once said in an interview that you found the religious activities in the household of a Hindu pujari to be ‘very weary’. Can you tell us how cumbersome they were on you?

 

I was sincerely religious like my father and grandfather. I would meditate every day and was a pure vegetarian. I would do sacrifices and walk bare feet, do chant mantras and worship the sun, moon, men, women and cows. At the same time, I was seeking something that could deliver me from the power of guilt. I wasn’t doing these religious chores so that I could get a good job or promotion. However, I could not find anything good coming out of what I did. Despite that, I continued doing them with a broken heart. I was addicted to smoking and I needed deliverance from my evil thoughts. I had messed up my life and wanted my life to be mended.

 

I wanted to try out everything possible to free myself from sin. I started exploring various faiths. I went to churches, temples, mosques, gurudwaras, but nothing was coming out of it. It was like when you are sick, you change doctors till you find the cure. It was as if I was looking for the right key from a huge bunch of keys to open the lock, but just couldn’t find it. I wanted to go to heaven and not to hell. I had understood the concepts of heaven and hell from my father. But I never had a personal relationship with God as that of a friend.

 

What drew you to Christianity? And what drew you to the Evangelical New Life Fellowship church?

 

A friend gave me the Bible. I read it voraciously with an open mind and heart. While reading it, I felt that the Spirit of the living God was speaking directly to me. When I read John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have an everlasting life,” I saw God as a loving and faithful God. I realized Jesus to be the God of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and atheists. When I read the Bible my spiritual eyes opened.

 

When I came to Jesus after trying out many faiths, Jesus Christ in the Bible came into my heart. I read that Jesus loves me so much that He died for my sins. I don’t have a friend who would die for me. I have friends who will come to offer me when I have something to offer them. The Bible never said that because God loved Christians so much that He sent Jesus. Jesus is the God of the entire universe and came for the whole world.

 

Reading and understanding John 3:16 was the defining moment when I turned from hell to heaven, darkness to light, bondage to freedom, sickness to health, and an unsound mind to a sound mind. I could feel the Holy Spirit touching me and I could feel the presence of God. My body became the temple of the Living God. I realized that I didn’t have to go to various places to find God. Jesus Christ had died for my sins but He had risen again. I realized that He was the healer, the deliverer and my friend. I became a channel of God.

 

Thereafter, I would read the Bible at home, sing songs of praises to the Savior and confess my sins to the Lord. But I still needed to grow in faith. A friend of mine who was worshiping at the New Life Fellowship Church took me there. It was there that I started growing in faith. Pastor Joseph of the New Life Fellowship Church really influenced me.

 

How did your family react when accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?

 

You see my father was an astrologer and the people in my community would come to him for consultations. Naturally, if the son of a Hindu priest became a follower of Jesus it could cause a lot of pain, trauma and stigma. I didn’t give my family the idea that I had left one religion to join another. There needs to be an inward renewal for an outward change. I explained to them that I was transformed when I had encountered Christ. I told them that I didn’t regard Jesus Christ as a Christian God but as a God for all faiths including Hinduism. Even after accepting Jesus as my savior, I remained Shekhar Kallianpur; I didn’t change my name. After accepting Jesus as my savior, I became far more caring as a son. Not only my parents but my whole neighborhood and community could see the change.

 

Later did any of your family members or relatives accept Christ as their savior?

 

Both my brothers have accepted Jesus as their personal savior. One of my brothers is a pastor in Dallas in the United States.

 

When and how did you meet your wife Lavina? What made both of you bond?

 

People often think that it is because of Lavina that I came to the Lord. But I came to the Lord in 1978/79. I met Lavina in 1986. I became a pastor in 1984. One of my pastors introduced me to her. So, I was with the Lord much before I met Lavina. She is a very strong woman of God. She prays for several hours in a day. She is a woman of character like the one described in Proverbs 31. She is a loving wife and mother. Lavina is a wonderful preacher and she speaks with great authority. When I preach people laugh. When she preaches people are moved to tears.

 

You are very particular about the need to ‘forgive and release’ all those who have hurt us. Can you elaborate on that?

 

Forgiving everyone is impossible as a human. But when you welcome Jesus into your life, the character of Christ comes in you. When God’s love is given to us through the Holy Spirit, God’s ability to forgive comes in us. Forgiveness is the best revenge.

 

You always use humor while teaching…

 

The Scriptures say that laughter is a good medicine. Laughter is a spirit of joy. When you are free in your spirit, you are joyful and laughter is the natural expression. People take life so seriously that they are bound in anxiety, fear, confusion and darkness. Our church is not a laughing club where you come and laugh and then you go home and cry. This is a House of God. His presence of love is in His freedom and His joy. People are hungry for joy and laughter. The church is like an oasis in the wilderness. The church is where people are looking for a new fresh drink to quench their thirst.

 

Can you tell us about the work you have done in Orissa and Gujarat?

 

God asks us through Isaiah 58 to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Jesus fed the hungry, clothed the naked and healed the sick. If you don’t do the things that Jesus did, you are just proclaiming His words and not demonstrating God’s work. Everyone has God’s grace - Hindus, Muslims and atheists. Our God has commanded us to love them. With that in mind, we got involved in Orissa, after the cyclone that ravaged the State in 1999. I met Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and our church helped 30 villages in that State and gave them food, clothes and medicines. Similarly, in Gujarat after the 2001 earthquake we distributed 2,400 tents. We didn’t distribute tents to Christians, we distributed them to people. We are now involved with ‘Project Ashray’ which caters to widows and orphans. James 1:27 says: ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.’ So the Lord says when you take care of the widows and orphans, you do it on the behalf of the husband. God Himself says that He is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. God, the Father, is in Heaven. We are His representatives on earth. So when we take care of them, God is happy.

 

What are ‘Love Mumbai’, ‘India Reach’ and ‘Adopt Balwadi’ projects?

 

The New Life Fellowship Church takes care of the balwadis at the daycare centres. We take care of the marginalized slums in Mumbai and teach the slum dwellers hygiene, cleanliness and provide food at the daycare centre. As part of the ‘Love Mumbai’ project, men and women of the church dedicated 30 days of their holidays in May 1993 to preach the Gospel door to door. We reached more than 13,000 people of which 7,000 gave their lives to the Lord. ‘India Reach’ was a project of CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network). I was the national coordinator for them. CBN was preaching the Gospel to the people but there was nobody to do the follow-up and bring them to the Lord. So we sent 12,000 people in 12 key cities, with about 100 people to represent each city, going door to door to preach the Gospel. We reached more than 1,14,000 homes in that way in 1996/1997.

 

The Sangh Parivar alleges that Christian missionaries lure people with offers of money and employment to allegedly convert people. How do you counter that charge?

 

Persecution in India is not really a religious one but rooted in socio-economic issues. The church is demonstrating the love of God by bringing health care and education to the poor. The Dalits are really neglected and oppressed by the higher castes. Can a Shudra ever become a Brahmin? No, because caste is determined by birth. So when they can’t enter temples or draw water from the wells, they feel neglected. In villages where the (so-called) lower caste people live, there is often no electricity but where the higher castes live, the villages are far better developed. Dalits are exploited and underpaid by upper caste people. So there is a gross violation of human rights. The church which follows the mandate of Jesus brings to the Dalits love and justice. The church gives them resources, health care and education so that they are not oppressed any more. As a result of this, the higher caste people are losing control over the Dalits. Naturally, they get angry with the church which is empowering the poor and the marginalized. So they persecute the church. They cry foul and say: “Look, these people are converting.” Which Hindu is willing to die for the Shudras? What good has the rath yatra done to anybody? Has it fed the poor? Has it anyone employment and education? The Opposition groups are more interested in advancing their political careers than helping the Shudras. Religion has been misused for the love of power and money.

 

What is your vision for your church?

 

I believe that God has called me not just for a local church. My mission is for the Kingdom. I want to see India saved and washed by the blood of the Lamb. I am a patriot of India. I pray for the Government, Opposition leaders, Hindus and Muslims. I pray for them because I want to see hell empty and heaven full. I want to see India come to Lord Jesus.

 

How are your children in the Lord?

 

Our children Anushka and Anugrah love Jesus - not because their father is a pastor. They have a personal relationship with God and spend time with Him. They serve Jesus through their love for music during the Sunday worship at the church. Anushka sings while Anugrah plays the guitar. We’ve dedicated our hearts, lives, family, the present life and the future to Jesus. There’s nobody like Jesus, He is the way and He is the life.

 

Anushka is a multi-faceted and gifted girl. She is a 2^nd year BA student and wants to become a fashion designer. Several Bollywood personalities have already liked her designs. Anugrah is in 11^th standard and student of Commerce. He wants to be a billionaire businessman and have his own musical group going around the world to sing songs. He is a very witty boy with a great sense of humor. As a family, we try to balance church and the family. We worship in church together and also go out for family outings - dinners and movies. Our life, marriage and children are all on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

© Copyright: The Christian Messenger/Messenger Communications Pvt Ltd.

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