Cooperative Outreach of India

Church planting movement is an organic Holy Spirit inspired action through church leaders & members who are motivated to share the gospel message through their testimony & prayer among their neighbours, people groups or unengaged village communities around them.

COI’s church planting movement began in 1998 through discipleship, mentoring and recruitment of various native leaders who were motivated to plant churches in their neighbourhood, cities and share the gospel message around them. Due to the superstitious nature of our culture, idol worship & black magic prevalent across the country people are confused about salvation, abused by various religious priests & seem to be stuck in the reincarnation cycle. What this means is that many people, families & communities are usually oppressed by evil spirits for some it could mean that they can’t have children, for some literally demon possession, oppressed by various physical ailments & diseases and for some evil oppression in the homes. In this scenario when some one offers a prayer of peace or invites a non-believer to a worship gathering and when people start experiencing supernatural healing, peace & escape from demon possession they not only bring their families to hear about the salvation received in Jesus Christ but they become actively involved in sharing of their faith among their relatives, neighbours and villages.

This is a brief intro into the church planting movement that we have experienced in India over the years similar to how we read in the book of ACTS. The challenge here is to make certain that our leaders are periodically theologically equipped and continue to promote healthy christian doctrines so that they can promote healthy church culture also recognise & recruit new native leaders who can then willingly take the good news further into hostile regions. We will be sending out our newsletter which will give you some insight how the church planting movement over the years spread into NEPAL from year 2009 onwards. We are now formalising some of our leadership training modules, children’s projects & skill development centres for women that allows us to bring communities out of poverty also disciple them to continue to grow in their knowledge of Christ through years of interaction and weekly engagement.

COI baptizes over 1000 individuals each year from various cities across India through the discipleship & church planting efforts of our team now spreading into western NEPAL.

- Ravi Landge