• Proclaiming the gospel
• Baptizing believers
• Training and equipping for ministry

When entering a village for the first time, the Barefoot Pastor works to build relationships and identify opportunities to share the gospel. With the acceptance and approval of the village leader, the Barefoot Pastor is able to work openly. Village people who accept the Lord through individual contact with the Barefoot Pastor are encouraged to be open about their faith without concern for being ostracized or persecuted. The Barefoot Pastor also can arrange for a team equipped with the JESUS film to come to the village and show the film to large groups of people.

The Barefoot Pastors are anxious to win new converts and baptize people into the Kingdom. New believers must first show their understanding and commitment to Christ as the one and only true God. Prior to being baptized, a believer is asked to bring at least one other person to the Lord.

Through small group Bible studies, called New Life groups, new Christians are trained in the Scriptures, learn about prayer, and join together in worship. Also, adult literacy training is made available so that believers can become self-sufficient in their study of the Word.

A key aspect of the equipping process is teaching and encouraging the believers to share their faith among family and friends. Through personal witness, new people are invited to and introduced to the Lord through the New Life groups. As the New Life groups mature and expand, several groups are brought together to form a congregation. This is the process that is followed for the planting of village churches.

As part of the equipping process, the newly planted church’s local pastor begins to identify potential New Life group leaders, who are then sent for leadership training. Future evangelists and pastors are identified from these small group leaders, and they enter into a full-time, three-year study program. The second year of the training is spent on the mission field in a supervised field ministry experience in evangelism and church planting. One of the prerequisites for graduation is the actual planting of at least one church.

A minimum of 20 adult baptized members constitutes a church. The long-term goal for each new church is that it becomes self-propagating, self-sufficient financially, and self-governing.

In 1992, the Vision 2000 movement was started in Salem, Tamil Nadu, during a pastors conference in which about 200 church leaders were gathered from different parts of India. A goal was set to plant 1,000 churches by the year 2000 A.D., and strategies were planned to achieve the goal. By the end of that first year, about 800 churches had been planted. It looked as if the Lord was challenging our faith and asking us to broaden our vision. Later, as more church planters joined together in sharing this vision, the goal was revised to plant 2,000 churches by 2000 A.D.

As other church planters across the country heard about this unique interdenominational movement, they joined hands with us. Regions were formed throughout the country, and regional coordinators were appointed at the district level. An evaluation at the end of the second year showed that 1,800 churches had been planted. The goal was once again revised, this time to plant 5,000 churches. When that goal was met, it was decided to plant 12,500 churches by 2000 A.D.

At present, there are more than 7,000 church planters all over India who are involved in Vision 2000 church planting. They plant at least one church a year in an unreached village. By the end of 2000, nearly 20,000 churches had been planted. The vision continues to grow. The new goal is to plant 100,000 churches by the end of this decade!

The Seven Pillars of Vision 2000:

With a vision to raise and train women for leadership in the local churches, the WWM movement was started in November 1998. The target was set to mobilize 10,000 women leaders by 2002 (within five years). Many women are coming forward to be involved with the spread of the gospel. They are being trained and equipped for evangelism and ministry. They are being trained in discipleship, evangelism, and church planting as well. This movement will help women of the church to be involved boldly and courageously in reaching the unreached people throughout India.

The Y21 youth discipleship and training program was started in October of 1998. More than 7,500 young people ranging in age from 15 to 26 have joined the youth clubs and been trained and equipped for evangelism.

 A primary outreach for Y21 is the Children’s Gospel Club (CGC) program. Because of Y21 youth’s leadership in this ministry, hundreds of thousands of children across India can be part of a weeklong Bible school program and a 48 week follow-up club. Other Y21 young people are being trained for new ministries. Some have been sent out as “missionaries” to live among and work with migrant workers.

Each year in May the message of God’s love is taken to children all over India through the CGC program. The clubs are held in up to 5,000 different centers around the country, and combined they can reach close to 500,000 children. In 2001 the program was conducted in 16 states and seven major Indian languages. For the first time, it was conducted also in the country of Sri Lanka in two different languages.

The IGL provides Bibles and other Christian literature to pastors and evangelists throughout the country. The newly released custom study Bible and study New Testament in Tamil, one of the country’s major languages, are now being used by WWM and Y21 groups for training and evangelism. These special editions contain study outlines for 60 topics related to the basics of Christian faith, songs for worship, group Bible study, and personal devotion aids.

Satan’s strongholds are broken through prayer. People in India are being liberated from the bondage of sin, superstitions, and idolatry through the work of the Prayer Chain. Miracles are happening, and the Kingdom of God is being established.

The Prayer Chain movement began in 1996 with the goal of having people in prayer for India 24 hours a day. Over 400,000 believers across the country are committed to pray. This movement has helped the indigenous churches experience a steady and stable growth. The Holy Spirit is moving and answering prayers.

One of the highlights of The India Gospel League in the past decade was the initiation of the National Association of Interdependent Churches (NAIC) in November of 1996. This historic movement was launched in Salem, Tamil Nadu, when over 300 pastors were gathered together for a Vision 2000 pastors conference.

The formation of the NAIC was a very significant move in bringing together hundreds of churches in the villages of India. Evangelists, pastors, and Christian workers have planted thousands of small, independent, village churches within the past few years, but without NAIC they and their churches have no support from other Christians. They are persecuted. They suffer silently. They are left without an opportunity to fellowship.

The NAIC seeks to bring these pastors and their churches together under the principle that members of the family of God are not "independent" of each other but are actually "interdependent" on each other. The NAIC recognizes and affirms that each church needs the other for mutual support and growth.

The known fact is that most independent pastors are not trained for the ministry. Some of them have had the privilege of going to a Bible college, and these pastors have trained others. Most of them continue in the ministry for several years with little training in the Word of God and how to minister to the people in an effective way.

Empowering the pastors is the main emphasis of NAIC. We have succeeded greatly in helping members understand the importance of coming together for information sharing and imparting skills to achieve the common goal of winning souls for Christ throughout India.  Our challenge is to continue this effort as the NAIC increases in size and geographical range.