On November 29, 2025, just before the winter session of Parliament, the National Christian Convention was held at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. It was not a festival or a spiritual retreat. It was a constitutional rally and presented documented evidence of systematic violence against Christians.
Incidents of violence against Christians increased by 500%.
The numbers are sobering. Between 2014 and 2024, incidents of violence against Christians increased by 500%, from 139 to 834. In just nine months of 2025, 579 incidents were recorded. Police registered first information reports in only 39 cases. The difference in justice is 93%.
Nearly 5,000 incidents occurred in 12 years, and each figure represents a family living in fear. A memorandum was prepared for the Prime Minister and some MPs also attended the event. Organizers expected 5,000 worshipers to attend. Less than 2,000 people came.
The next day, a church festival in the same vicinity drew large crowds, and social media posts went viral announcing the arrival of the Christmas season to Delhi’s Christian community. This is about multiple events. It’s about what moves us and what doesn’t move us.
When the atmosphere is celebratory, we readily come together…but when there is a call to solidarity for justice…something within us hesitates.
When the atmosphere is celebratory, when worship lifts our spirits, when we are sure to be encouraged, we readily gather together. But when we are asked to stand up in solidarity for justice for persecuted Christians, to visibly witness suffering we don’t want to see, something in us hesitates.
restore unity
Christmas is approaching and we are asked to remember things that we have begun to forget. God did not send a strategy from heaven. He sent himself. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Emmanuel. God is with us. Rather than managing from afar, not just inspiring from above, but being vulnerable now and sharing our condition and suffering.
God’s answer to human need and suffering was presence.
If presence is God’s answer to human need and suffering, what does it mean that we have learned to be absent from each other?
A vision is stirring throughout the world church, and many of us in India have embraced it. Movements around the world are coming together to make significant progress in the Great Commission by 2033, the 2000th anniversary of Pentecost.
Christians from all nations and traditions work together to share the Gospel with those who have never heard it. This vision is good and correct. There is something beautiful about that ambition and a reminder that the gospel is for everyone.
If we cannot stand with our fellow sufferers, how can our testimony be trusted?
But I can’t avoid more difficult questions. If we cannot stand in solidarity with our suffering members, how can our testimony be trusted?
If we are not with those next to us, what is our love for those far away? The apostle John wrote: “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
The foundation of mission is always Christ and His Gospel. It’s not up to us. But the sincerity of our witnesses is certain. We are not called to perfect our love before sharing the gospel. We are called not as a prerequisite to mission, but as its true expression, to live a life worthy of the gospel we preach.
Now that integrity is broken. We talk about reaching the world unaware of the suffering of families.
don’t forget the pain
Manipur bothers me. More than 250 people died. More than 60,000 people have been evacuated. Nearly 400 churches were destroyed. Two years later, believers are still living in camps in fear and unable to return home. They are staring at an uncertain future even as the government talks about closing relief camps in the state.
Manipur itself was largely absent from the convention held in Delhi on November 29. The people whose voices needed to be heard didn’t come together in large numbers. What does that mean? Have they given up believing that the rest of us will emerge? Or have we trained them so much to endure suffering in silence that they no longer expect solidarity?
Dalit Christians have been denied Scheduled Caste status for 75 years. Three generations excluded from constitutional protection solely because of their status in society. 75 years. we know this. We will discuss it at the seminar. But when a national congregation called on us to unite and demand justice before our government, the church stayed home.
And now there are growing calls to exclude Christian tribes from Scheduled Tribe status, strip them of the protections they have enjoyed, and threaten their welfare and dignity solely on the basis of their religious identity. Where is the anger? Where is the unity?
resist superficiality
But we show up for other purposes. Christian concerts fill auditoriums with staging and production that rivals any in the entertainment industry. Worship bands release singles on YouTube and hope each one goes viral. There is a lot of good music, and I have no doubts about the sincerity of the many people who lead worship with a true heart.
We have created a culture where spiritual authority is measured by platform size, not loyalty.
But look what we made. We have created a culture where spiritual authority is measured by platform size rather than fidelity, where name recognition matters more than personality, and where the quiet patience of a persecuted believer matters less than a celebrity preacher’s Instagram followers.
The Bible testifies to the apostles whom Christ appointed to lay the foundation of the church and the prophets to whom God spoke His Word. These were not titles to be claimed, but vocations to be received. The teachings of the apostles that they gave us are inscribed in the Bible and remain today. The work of pioneering ministry, prophetic faithfulness, and building up of Christ’s church continues.
But today we see these hallowed titles self-adopted as brands. It is argued that this is not due to divine appointment or proven accomplishments, but because impressive titles attract crowds and confer status in the ministry market. Stadiums are filled to capacity for those who promise a dramatic encounter, but conventions for persecuted believers draw few people.
When persecuted believers need our companionship, we are at home.
We pack venues for religious spectacles, but stay home when persecuted believers need to stand up for them before the authorities. Thousands of people gather when the lights are bright, the music is sophisticated, and an extraordinary experience is promised, but not even a few thousand in solidarity with those who are suffering.
The platform is the key. Visibility has become the measure of anointing. And the suffering body of Christ became a prayer request that we send before moving on to more appealing things.
Are we forming disciples who take up the cross, or are we forming consumers who love the experience but scatter when faithfulness becomes too expensive? Ironically, persecuted believers in remote villages may notice and aspire to the glamor of urban Christian culture not because it resembles Jesus, but because it seems like an escape.
Justice disparities are not limited to police stations and lower courts. It exists within our own communion. Part of the body of Christ suffers, but the rest continues in peace. We have received reports from distraught believers in Chhattisgarh and from village churches in Uttar Pradesh where families have been threatened and worship services disrupted.
We have learned to live not as members of one body, but as distant relatives.
we pray. We will add them to our intercession list. We forward the prayer request and shake our heads at how things turned out. And we’re back to planning the next concert tour, the next construction campaign, the next leadership summit with international speakers. We have learned to live not as members of one body, but as distant relatives.
resolute attitude
I’m not writing this to shame us, but let’s stop acting like this is acceptable. I love the church in India. We believe that fidelity can be matched by rhetoric. But we seem to be adrift. We measure success by how many people come together when it costs nothing. What if we measured it by who shows up when something costs money?
We praise platforms when we should be celebrating expensive obedience. We ignore 2025 and plan for 2033. The gap between what we believe and real life is widening.
The vision for 2033 is good and correct. But we cannot fulfill the Great Commission globally while failing to love locally. The world isn’t driven by our strategies, music videos, or ambitious timelines. Even if it is, it will be driven by whether we actually love each other.
This has always been a test: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). It’s not about whether you’re doing great or not. Unless you have a grand vision. If there is love.
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God, who came to us as Immanuel, shows us the way. His answer to a broken world was not a program or strategy sent to him from afar. It was himself. The Word created a body that came to live, suffer, die, and rise for us. If we belong to God, we can do no more.
For Christians, attendance is not optional. Solidarity with those who are suffering is not for especially spiritual people. That is the basic expectation for all who bear the name of Christ.
The November 29 convention recorded 4,959 incidents of violence, 93% judicial disparity, 75 years of exclusion of Dalits, and threats to tribal protection. The church never showed up. But it’s never too late. The call to existence is still before us. Will we have an answer in 2026?
Do we support Dalit Christians seeking justice? Will we resist being removed from the list of tribal followers? Will we carry the burden of Manipur and not just forward the latest information about Manipur? Do we measure our faithfulness by our love for our brother next door rather than our plans for a faraway people?
May the God who came to us as Immanuel give us the grace to be a church known not for the magnitude of events or the sophistication of works, but for its willingness to be with those who suffer.
The mission begins here. This is where the integrity of our witness is tested. Not in 2033, but now. We have brothers and sisters right here next to us, not somewhere far away, and we have the choice to show up, no matter what the cost.
Originally published in AIM, the magazine of the Evangelical Alliance of India. Republished with permission.
Reverend Vijaysh Lal is the general secretary of the Evangelical Federation of India (EFI). He has been deeply involved in training, socio-economic development, advocacy and research activities in India and abroad. He is the editor of AIM, a monthly magazine published by EFI Publications Trust in India.
