India – a visit to the Hq of one of Asia’s greatest church-planting movements

In the city of Hyderabad, I had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the Hebron Church. This church was started by a godly man called Bakht Singh.

I first heard of the godly and amazing ministry of Bakht Singh about 20 years ago but did not get the opportunity to visit him on my previous trips to India when he was then still alive (he went to glory about 10 years ago). However, about 5 years ago an Indian expatriate working in Singapore visited my church and asked me permission to use our church premises for his Sunday services. I asked this man about his church background and he told me that he was from Bakht Singh’s group. I immediately granted him permission to use our church building for his services.

That little group started with about 20 worshipers on Sunday and today they fill our little sanctuary with almost 200 Indians each Sunday night. That Indian expatriate did what he had learned from Bakht Singh! He is the one who invited me to go on this trip to India to visit the families of the Indians who are now worshiping in our church. Many of their families in India are unsaved and he wanted to bring the Gospel to them.

Bakht Singh came from a wealthy family in India and was converted while studying engineering in the West. After his conversion, he left everything to serve the Lord. His Hindu wife refused to accept him after his conversion and left him. He never saw her or his son after that.

Bakht Singh believed that God would provide for all his needs. So he was convinced that he should never told anyone of his needs, except God. So he brought all his needs to God in prayer. He believed that the most important thing for him (or any Christian) to do was to find the will of God – and when he was sure that he had found God’s will, he went right ahead to do it. It did not matter that he did not have a cent to do it. For example, if God led him to start a church in a new village, it did not matter if he never heard of that village before nor had the money to buy a train ticket to that village. He would just go right ahead and walk to the train station expecting that God would touch someone along the way to give him money.

Though he never asked for money, God used him to plant thousands of churches – some say, tens of thousands of churches. I tried to ascertain a number but nobody seemed to know exactly how many “Hebron” churches there are in India or in the rest of the world because Hebron churches reproduce themselves by planting daughter-churches continuously. Hebron churches do not receive foreign money but are totally indigenous. As I was taking pictures of the place, the Elder who was accompanying me requested not to publish the photos. They did not seek publicity!

As I walked around the Hebron headquarters, I was brought to the room where Bakht Singh spent his life. It was a simple room with a bed and not much else. He spent most of his life reading the Bible and praying in that room. Though he lived in Hyderabad, he never learned to speak the native language of Telugu but preached in English. I guess he spent more time speaking to God than to men.

When the Elder who accompanied me on the tour around the headquarters told me that he spent time with Bakht Singh when he was still alive, I asked him what was the one thing that struck him about Bakht Singh, he replied “He sought the will of God and just did it – whatever the odds or cost.”

I then asked him how Bakht Singh spent his time, he replied “Reading the Bible and praying.”

It sounded so simple! And yet it sounded so strange to my modern mind that following God was just that simple!

I left that day, determined to spend my time in prayer and the Word!