BFLC Pastor's Symposium--Monday, January 15

Today we began the Lutheran pastor's symposium in Guntur hosted by the Bible Faith Lutheran Church (BFLC). The BFLC is an association of 42 Lutheran churches located in villages across Andrha Pradesh, employing around 35 pastors to serve these congregations. The BFLC also has an orphanage, the Moriah Home which provides housing for nearly 60 children ages 5-16, a seminary to train pastors, and a private Christian school for children.

Paul and David Dasari, co-directors of the BFLC along with Pastor Shalem Raju wanted to reach out to the various Lutheran bodies across Andrha Pradesh (A.P.) to stand together in mission for Christ and colleagues in ministry. Right now there are five or six different Lutheran bodies represented in A.P.: Andrha Evanglical Lutheran Church, Bible Faith Lutheran Church, Confessional Lutheran Church of India, Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of India, etc. Monday would turn out to be an historic event in the history of the Lutheran movement in India. No where in the 160 year history that Lutherans have been represented in India has such an event, bringing together the various groups together ever happened. The response to the call to register for the event was tremendous with over 400 pastors indicating their commitment to attend.

At 9:30a.m. when the symposium was supposed to begin, there were only less than a hundred pastors attending. Throughout the day and into Tuesday, pastors arrived and the numbers swelled to over 400.

Over the past years, the integrity of the Lutheran church has been compromised, sometimes by the character of it's pastors, but also in it's understanding of the distinctiveness of Lutheran theology. Much of the important theological documents that are foundational to Lutheran theology have never been translated into Telegu, the local language of A.P., requiring the pastors to have the ability to read either English or German. So, for those who attended this symposium a copy of Luther's Small Catechism translated into Telegu was given to each pastor to be used within their congregations. The Small Catechism is an important document to help people live out their callings as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The BFLC invited three western scholars to teach each of the days at the symposium: Dr. John Pless from Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Pastor Michael Albrecht from St. James Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dr. John Kleinig from a Lutheran seminary (the name escapes me) in Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Pless began our time with a teaching about the Small Catechism and how to utilize it in preaching and teaching (pictured to the right).