A Brief History of the Church of God
in Bangladesh
By John R. Zerkle
Beginnings
The name John All-ud-Din Khan may not be widely known to
Church of God parishioners in the United States, but if you are affiliated with
the Church of God in Bangladesh, you are well-aware that the movement there
started with Khan. Born to Muslim
parents in East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh) in 1877, Khan became a
Christian at the age of 16 through the influence of Australian Baptist
missionaries in Mymensigh district. He
pursued further studies in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India at the London
Missionary Society College.
As Khan grew in his faith, he found himself attracted for a
time to the Salvation Army because of their Wesleyan emphasis on holiness,
although the bewildering array of Protestant denominations was confusing to
him. He immersed himself in the Scriptures,
searching for what he believed was the model for the Biblical Church.
This immersion resulted in Khan’s creating a ten-point model
for what he believed to be the Biblical Church, and he then set out to find a
denomination or group that best fit his paradigm. As he examined all the church groups present
in British India at the time, none fit his model. He later wrote in his book, India’s
Millions, “…I found myself in an isolated place; I could not join any of
the denominations. I became “peculiar” in
every way.”
At that point in his life, he came across an advertisement
for “holiness” literature published in the United States and sent for further
information. The advertisement was for material published by the Gospel
Trumpet, the publication arm of the Church of God based in Moundsville, West
Virginia. Upon receiving a reply and reading additional material, Khan had a
growing sense that he had found his Church.
Khan and E. E. Byrum, Editor of the Gospel Trumpet, began to correspond,
and after a time Khan declared his affiliation with his American brothers and
sisters. He ultimately visited the U.S. in 1903 at the invite of Byrum,
returning for a second two-year visit in 1908 and 1909. Khan went on to secure a firm foundation for
the Church of God in what is now Eastern India and Bangladesh before his
untimely death at the age of 44.
Thus, it is not at all inaccurate to say the A.D. Khan is to
the Indian and the Bengali Church of God what D. S. Warner is to the American
Church. The Church of God in British
India wasn’t the creation of mission outreach by a fledgling American holiness
movement with its headquarters in a small West Virginian town. It was “home-grown” in the truest sense of
the phrase: Khan was a native East Bengali who never lost his love for his
own. Today he is honored as the founder
of the Church of God in India and Bangladesh, and all that has followed has
been built on the groundwork he laid for the Church in his homeland.
American Involvement – The Early Years
The history of western Christian missionary involvement in
foreign lands is a story of fits and starts, great victories and terrible
mistakes, wise choices and misguided decisions…the list could go on and on. And
so it was with the American Church of God and its outreach to India and East
Bengal. This story is beyond the scope
of this brief article; suffice it to say that the story has not always been a
wonderful and peaceful tale. The most
tumultuous period of this East-West relationship was when the Missionary Board
in Anderson sent their first missionary to British India—Floyd Heinly—in
1918. Heinly was appointed “Field
Secretary” two years later, assuming control over the Church of God in the Far
East over the strenuous objections of Khan and other Indian leaders. The Indian brethren rightly felt that they
were quite capable of managing their own affairs; they likely would not have
objected to the American church coming alongside them in ministry. But
that was not the missionary model in 1920.
The heavy-handed “we’re in charge” approach by the Americans caused
strife and discord for years in the Church of God in India. This writer is amazed that our Indian
brothers and sisters remained affiliated with the Church of God through this
period (Italics mine).
Early outreach to East Bengal began in Bogra by Khan and
others. Khan encouraged Heinly to begin
work north of Bogra in the Kurigram District in what is now far northwest
Bangladesh. Through a fundraising effort in the US held on Christmas Day,
(Mission of the Day) 1921, over $10,000 was raised to purchase acreage for a
mission compound in Lalmonirhat, an important railway junction. Construction
soon began on a missionary house and other buildings. That Mission is still fully functioning today
under Bengali leadership.
Heinly and his wife served faithfully, albeit with modest
success, for the next 28 years. By all accounts the Heinly’s were dedicated,
faithful servants, and Floyd was appointed by the local authorities to several
honorary positions in Lalmonirhat. One of their most enduring legacies was the
establishment in 1946 of the local Church of God School, which sits adjacent to
the Mission and now conducts a full K-10 (last year of high school in
Bangladesh) program.
Bob and Fran Clark succeeded the Heinly’s as missionaries and
brought to East Bengal a new vision of what an American missionary could be.
Middle Years: The Clark’s and Hutchin’s
The story of Bob and Fran Clark’s work in East Bengal begins
with Fran. Her first husband, Warren
Edmondson, was a close friend of Bob Reardon, a classmate at Anderson College
and thereafter at the Graham School of Theology of Oberlin College. Fran and
Warren had committed to go to India as missionaries, but while driving to
missionary training school in Harford Connecticut were involved in a terrible
auto accident in which Warren was killed.
Fran was a widow at age 23 after only two years of marriage. But she was determined to carry on with her
dream; the Missionary Board of the Church of God agreed, if not a bit
reluctantly because of her single status.
While in missionary training school Fran developed a
friendship with Bob Clark, who was fulfilling his duties as a conscientious
objector in a state mental hospital nearby.
Their story of friendship turning into love--at least from her point of
view--was that of the eager groom and the reluctant bride; no matter. They were married in 1945 after Bob confirmed
to Fran his commitment to a missionary life, and they headed to India in 1947.
After seven weeks on a merchant marine freighter, traveling
through the Mediterranean, and Suez Canal, and around the tip of Indian to
Calcutta, they took a train and arrived in East Bengal only months before the
“Partition” in August, which carved East and West Pakistan from India. This was a time of great turmoil and
violence—at times a bloodbath--as huge populations of Hindus and Muslims
attempted to relocate.
These early years were difficult for the Clarks. They saw few conversions and experienced many
hardships, including the heartbreaking loss of their 6-month old son,
Eric. Fran describes their efforts in
those early years:
“We would go to the village leaders
and say that we wanted to become friends.
We would tell them that we were Christians and that we would like to
talk to the people about Jesus. But that
even if they didn’t want to hear about Jesus, we wanted to be friends. Then, if we were invited back by the leaders,
we would return to preach. We would go
to a village and set up camp outside the village for five days. The leaders would specify a place in the
village—normally a courtyard-type area—where we could speak. We would tie a
rope between two trees and hang a sheet over the rope to make a projector
screen. And then, using a carbide
lantern that would show images on the sheet, we would present the Gospel of
Jesus.”
They served for 15 years in Kakina, Nilpharmari, and
Lalmonirhat, all in the northwest of modern-day Bangladesh. Aaron and Kathrine Kerr worked with the
Clarks for one year, 1951, before moving on to Southern India where they
continued as missionaries. Bengali
Church of God folks today remember the Clarks with a love normally reserved for
blood relatives.
Two years before the end of the Clarks term as missionaries,
Paul and Nova Hutchins and their two daughters arrived in Lalmonirhat to
succeed them. This pattern of missionary overlap had worked well with the
Heinley-to-Clark “handoff” and was followed as the Hutchins succeeded the
Clarks. The Hutchins’ tenure was a time of further growth and expansion. They were joined by Joseph and Ramona Spires
for a few years, but their partnership was interrupted when the Spires and Nova
and her children were evacuated to the Philippines in 1965 because of political
disturbances in the area. Nova and her
children rejoined Paul when things calmed down; the Spires returned to the US.
It was during this time that the Hutchins guided the Church
of God in Bangladesh through important organizational steps. They assisted in
the development of Bylaws for an Administrative Council for the Church of God,
providing for the first time an outline of how the ministry of the church in
Rangpur District should function. Eleven
years after first arriving in Bangladesh, the Hutchins returned to the US for a
well-deserved furlough.
The War of Independence – 1971
In March of 1971, West Pakistan
forces mounted a sustained assault in East Pakistan that was to begin a
nine-month conflict in which hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of Bengalis
were massacred. The war ended in
December of that year after India intervened; the result was the liberation of
East Pakistan and its establishment of Bangladesh as an independent
nation. It was birthed as the seventh
most populous country in the world in a land area roughly the size of the state
of Iowa.
The war had a direct impact on the
Church of God in Lalmonirhat, as West Pakistan forces occupied the Mission
Compound and killed three church leaders, including the headmaster of the
Church of God High School. Several
buildings were damaged, and the church work came to a standstill, with the
locals fleeing to a refugee camp in nearby India. It would be several years
before the Compound was fully repaired and up-and-running again. Paul Hutchins was able to return for a brief
visit during this time, a visit that was a “great encouragement” to the local
Christians. In the ensuing years, Bob
Clark would return on a regular basis to visit the Christians in Lalmonirhat,
but the Hutchins were the last full-time missionaries in Bangladesh.
The Emergence of Local Leadership
In the decades following Bengali
independence, the Church of God appointed its first two national leaders, Robin
Das and Provat Kumar Das. They led the Church ably from 1978 to 1999, despite
all the issues that face any church movement undergoing fundamental changes in
leadership and governance. An important
ministry in northwest Bangladesh during these years was the child sponsorship
program, Kinderhilfswerk (KHW), coordinated by the German Church of God. Many leaders today credit their ongoing
involvement in the Church of God to KHW. Unfortunately, certain areas of
conflict arose between the American church, represented by the Missionary Board
(now Global Missions), and KHW, leading to a leadership gap of approximately
one year following Provat’s death in 1999.
With the assistance of the Clarks, Ex Missionary of Lalmonirhat Mission,
the Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific, Michael D. Kinner, interviewed and
then appointed Tapan Kumar Borman as the new national leader and
Secretary/Treasurer of the Administrative Council of the Church of God in
Bangladesh in 2000. Tapan subsequently obtained his Master of Divinity degree
from Union Bible Seminary in Maharashtra, Pune, India. Borman’s leadership continues today. Borman’s tenure has been marked by
a sharp increase in evangelism and outreach in northwest Bangladesh. In 2003, Tapan attended a church growth
conference in Thailand, where he was introduced to a key leader with Compassion
International who had Church of God ties. This initial meeting led directly to
Compassion’s deciding to establish child sponsorship projects in Bangladesh;
the first such project was established in Kakina, only 14 kilometers from
Lalmonirhat. Five additional projects
followed: Lalmonirhat, Kaunia, Barabari, and Ghongagach, all villages in the
far northwest of Bangladesh, and Dhaka, the nation’s capital.
These “Village Projects” combined
initial capital investments by the Church of God in the US and Bangladesh
together with ongoing financial support through the ministry of Compassion
International. Approximately 1,500 children are currently being provided with
school and hygiene supplies, medical services, daily lunches, after school
programming, and other support services through these Projects. In addition, Children of Promise is providing
similar services to almost 70 children in northwest Bangladesh and Dhaka (the
capital city).
In addition to these Village
Projects, approximately 80 house churches make up the Church of God in
northwest Bangladesh. These churches
range in size from a few families to over 100 members each. They meet in a wide variety of settings, many
times in open spaces or courtyards in the middle of rural villages; sometimes
in small homes; less frequently in small church buildings. Key to the success and growth of these house
churches is pastoral leadership; those men and women are for the most part
graduates of the ongoing “Barefoot Pastors” training program held each year at
the Mission Compound in Lalmonirhat.
For
the past four years, approximately 25 men and women have gathered each spring
for four weeks of intensive Bible and pastoral training. The Shartel Church of
God in Oklahoma City and The Church at the Crossing in Indianapolis, with
guidance provided by Don and Carolyn Armstrong (Asia Pacific Regional
Coordinators since 2008), have provided vital leadership to this training
program. This training continues in late
February and March of 2019 with its fifth annual class.
In April of 2019 the Church of God
is hosting a Centennial National Convention, celebrating 100 years as a
movement in East Bengal and Bangladesh.
God has certainly blessed this ministry, and we look forward to a great
time of celebration in Lalmonirhat!
***************************************************************************
Author’s note: In addition to
having discussions with persons mentioned in this brief article, I have relied
heavily on a number of works in compiling this very brief history without
attempting to footnote each resource.
These resources include:
Ahead of His Times: A life of
George P. Tasker by Douglas E. Welch
A study of Church of God Ministry
in Lalmonirhat—Graduate Thesis by Sikha Borman
Into All the World--A Century of
Church of God Missions, by Lester A. Crose, Cheryl Johnson Barton,
and Donald D. Johnson
Pioneering Indigenous Leadership by
Bakyrmen Nongpluh
I post this report by John Zirkle to stimulate new interest in our nationalized ministries of Asia, places like Northeast India, Bangledesh, Pakistan. I grew up in our American Church knowing many of the named people as personal friends, supporting fumbling missionary efforts of our Missionary Leadership, and supporting greater cooperation with now nationalized Ministries. Our American church needs to be more deeply involved in coming alongside the Churches of India, Pakistan, Banglesh, et al.
From Warner's Worldand, this is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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