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Frozen Chosen
7 Lessons From the World's Fastest-Growing Congregation
7 Lessons From the World's Fastest-Growing Congregation
Micheal Brown
In 1995, God began to speak to a young leader in Hyderabad, India, named Satish Kumar, telling him that he would have a very large church, but nothing materialized for the next 10 years.
In 2005, he planted Calvary Temple, starting with 25 members. Now, in 2015, he has more than 130,000 members, adding 60,000 in the last three years alone.
Perhaps even more remarkably, the massive building that houses this congregation—seating 18,000, with additional overflow facilities—was built in just 52 days, despite significant government opposition along the way. (The building is also centrally air-conditioned, which is a tremendous plus in India, and everything surrounding the building, including the beautiful gardens, was completed in the 52-day period.)
On my recent trip to India, my 23rd in 23 years, I had the pleasure of spending several hours with Pastor Satish, whom I had met before only in 1995. I also had the privilege of bringing a short address to his congregation during two of their five Sunday services.
What are some of the keys to this church's supernatural growth?
Prayer and Fasting
The congregation always put a strong emphasis on prayer and fasting, but when they were about to embark on their building project, Pastor Satish called for 40 days of prayer and fasting, with believers fasting and joining together in corporate prayer as much as they were able to.
The problem was that he called for this during the rainy season, a time when it is unbearably hot and unbearably wet. Yet night after night crowds of thousands gathered on the empty property to join together for hours, sitting with their umbrellas up as Satish preached in the pouring rain (without an umbrella). It made for quite a sight.
When they came to the end of the 40-day period, he called for another 40 days of prayer and fasting, and when that ended, he called for 40 days more—so, 120 consecutive days of corporate prayer and fasting. It was then that he received the word to build the entire facility in 52 days.
The building miracle and the church growth miracle are directly related to prayer and fasting.
Preaching the Word
Despite conducting five services every Sunday (each service runs close to two hours in length), Satish preaches a full message in each service, averaging 60-70 minutes per sermon. (The first service starts at 6:00 AM; the last service ends at 8:00 PM.)...
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/...g-congregation
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Senior Member
Truly awesome! We in the West need just a fraction of this pastor's (and church) gumption, and it would change the nation.
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