Alongside

I won’t be surprised if you are wondering what on earth Jallikattu has got to do with “student leadership and movements”. Well, the recent Jallikattu agitation in Tamil Nadu has a lot to do with it. ( Jallikattu is a traditional bull taming sport culturally intertwined with the ethos of Tamil Nadu, it is deeply and fiercely connected to agrarian culture of the people, their age old tradition of celebrating harvest festival ) This drew thousands of people from all across the state comprising of all age group but the primary group and the most dominant group that led the movement were college students . They were at the forefront of it, leading it, spreading the word, mobilizing the crowds, being the spokesperson, chanting slogans; literally making something that started out as a tiny spark into a wild fire of a massive people movement which brought the entire government machinery to its knees so that they had to take it to the highest authority and get the bill passed. A spontaneou...

Making disciples of Jesus among college students is exciting, to see young lives being transformed, to see them grow and mature, to watch them walking with Jesus and start fishing for men, there is nothing more exhilarating than that. But the sad part is that it is short lived, we get them for a short period of three to four years and they graduate and move on, sometimes staying connected but often clueless on how to plug back in. Then we start all over again with new students, the whole process of evangelism and discipleship and repeat that cycle, often wondering are we making an impact, is it really worth it? It was few years ago I met this man in an unexpected way and as he introduced himself to me he said that he was looking for a staff who had discipled him as a student. That particular staff had left the movement and moved on to another city and had gone on to become a pastor by then. But I was keen to hear more about his story so I probed further. He said that he was ...

Recently one young man with whom I am on a spiritual Journey asked me, “ bro, tell me how can I live a holy life, how can I stay pure ?” This is probably the most pertinent question that has been troubling young men who long to live a life pleasing to the lord. In the longest Psalm that King David wrote; Psalm 119 verse 9 , he raises this same profound question and then he goes on to answer it by making it look so simple, “ by keeping it according to your word ”. One starts wondering, what! Is that so easy? I have been trying my best, but somehow missing the mark, I can’t figure out where exactly I am going wrong. How on earth can I keep all of God’s words and be pure? Every young believer, whom I have come across, genuinely desires to live a life that is holy and pure, the intentions are all there and it is good but most of them fail miserably, it is a struggle for many- falling, failing and scrambling to stand up somehow and moving forward. Well that might be the summ...

Over the years of ministry I have seen many organisation  and movements with compelling vision and talented leaders, some of them have gone forward and accomplished tremendous results, some others are where it was at the beginning – right at the starting blocks, some others have initially boomed but then started stagnating after few years. I have always wondered what makes few leaders, organisations  and movements successful at accomplishing their vision. What makes them tick? If one takes time to analyse  deeply, most of the time we will end up with one word- their vision . Is it crystal clear? How fresh it is? Are they passionate about it? Do they own it? Are they doing the right things about it? Are they envisioning others? Are others catching that vision? Answer to these questions will mostly reveal the secret to their success. Take a look at any successful spiritual movement in the history of Christianity, it was birthed out of a compelling God-given visi...

Ezekiel 34: 1-10 [ The Message] God ’s Message came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherd-leaders of Israel. Yes, prophesy! Tell those shepherds, ‘ God , the Master, says: Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren’t shepherds supposed to feed sheep? You drink the milk, you make clothes from the wool, you roast the lambs, but you don’t feed the sheep. You don’t build up the weak ones, don’t heal the sick, don’t doctor the injured, don’t go after the strays, don’t look for the lost. You bully and badger them. And now they’re scattered every which way because there was no shepherd—scattered and easy pickings for wolves and coyotes. Scattered—my sheep!—exposed and vulnerable across mountains and hills. My sheep scattered all over the world, and no one out looking for them! 7-9  “‘ Therefore, shepherds, listen to the Message of  God : As sure as I am the living God—Decree of  God , the Master—because my sheep have been turned into ...