Mission-driven Man
Dr. Mathews Cherian (Founder & President)
The founder and President, Mathews Cherian, is an Indian
national. He was born in India, saved in India, and ministers in North India
. Born in the southern state of Kerala, Pastor Mathews was saved as a result of the preaching of the Gospel during a street meeting. After he was saved and attended Bible college, Pastor Mathews felt the call of God to take the Gospel to the northern regions of his great country. He settled in the city of Baroda, which is located in the state of
Gujarat. The work, now primarily located in North India, has “spilled over” its borders into Nepal
, Myanmar, Thailand and other countries as well.
In the simplest sense, all that it takes for one man’s vision to become a movement is for someone to follow. As with any movement that is born in the heart of God, a mission-driven movement begins with a mission-driven man. As is historically the case with most men who God has greatly used, it did not start off as a goal to become a movement. Pastor Mathews Cherian and Grace, affectionately known as Mother Grace, were just doing what God told them to do. No thought of a movement. No thought of an organization. No thought of a legacy. No thought of a place in Church history. But God had other thoughts, “Higher than our thoughts…” (Isaiah 55:9). And God had plans beyond what the Mathews could have ever imagined.
The little 10’x10’ room that was the first meeting place of the
Alpha Bible
Church was starting to fill up. In the earliest days, two factors caused the direction of a mission-driven man to become a mission-driven movement. The first was the emphasis on discipleship and the second, missions.
Perhaps it was Mathews Cherian’s recollection of his early days in the faith in which he so desperately needed the fellowship and mentoring of other
Christians. It was in the early days of his faith that God allowed Cherian to be surrounded with believers who were willing to love, care for, nurture, and disciple this twenty-year-old farmer’s son who had been thrown out of his home because of his stand for
Christ. Perhaps discipleship was so important to him because he knew from is study of the Scriptures that discipleship was important to God. More than likely, it was both. Cherian’s obedience to
Christ and His Word caused him to see the priority that God places, not only on the salvation of a soul, but on the discipleship of that soul as well. The personal fervor in which he embarked on the task of discipling being motivated by the conviction that discipleship had played a tremendous role in his life and walk for
Christ. The result was that God began to entrust the most precious commodity in the world to pastor Mathews and the
Alpha Bible
Church: the eternal souls of men.
The second reason that the mission-driven man saw his vision spread into a mission-driven movement was due to the fervor by which Mathews Cherian sought to preach Christ and plant churches among the unreached people groups of North India. Even in the early days, days in which any new pastor who was experiencing a measure of numeric and spiritual success in this “Jerusalem” might be tempted to stay home and put all of his efforts into building a great church, Cherian always looked beyond the borders of India.
Often times God would allow Pastor Mathews to lead a people to Christ who had family in the outlying areas of the city. The new converts, as they grew in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, would become increasingly burdened for their own family and friends. Pastor Mathews was equally burdened for the unreached as well. Several times a month he would leave
Baroda to travel, usually on foot, to the tribal areas that surrounded his home. As time went on, God allowed Pastor Mathews to see many come to Christ from many different villages and many people groups.
It was the merging of his commitment to discipleship and missions that drew Pastor Mathews back to the villages and their converts over and over again. It was the result of that commitment that God used to mature believers in these villages and, in turn, bring about the beginnings of a number of new local churches which were being planted in areas that no church had ever existed before. It didn’t start out to be a movement. It started out to be one church. Soon there were twelve. What happened was what always happens when something is alive; it grows. Today as the converts grow, they share their new found faith with others and some believe. They are discipled and share their new found faith with others. And on and on and on.
As God grew the local
Church and an increasing number of village churches, God started calling men into the ministry. These men would come from close by, and they would come from distant villages. They would stay in the home of Pastor and Mrs. Mathews for days at a time, studying the Word of God and absorbing his vision. On weekends the men would go to the surrounding neighborhoods and preach Christ and plant churches where no church had existed before. As the vision to reach North India grew larger the fire that began to burn and spread from village to village in a land that had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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