I recently wrote an article about a unique church plant. It is an Asian-Indian congregation that is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
One aspect I liked about writing this article is how it upends stereotypes. I would not have expected a need for an Asian Indian church in Texas, but apparently, there is quite a need. The church had a great launch and appears to be going strong.
Most people don’t realize there has been a history of Christianity on the Indian Subcontinent almost from the very beginning of the Church. Tradition says, the Apostle Thomas sailed to India and baptized Syrian Christians in the area around 52 AD!
Assumptions and Categories
We make assumptions all the time because it’s easier to come to a conclusion than do the homework. Stereotypes are one way we do that. Another way to do this is by categorizing people and things. But what if something doesn’t fit into our category? What if something is in a category you know nothing about?
For instance, how many languages are spoken in India? Before I wrote the article, I would have assumed most Indian people speak Hindi. But while that’s the official language, there are up to 447 languages spoken on the Indian Subcontinent. The congregation in my article speaks Malayalam. I had no idea this language existed. It can be foolish to jump to conclusions right away about categories!
I love having the privilege to write an article where a learn a few things. Hopefully, I do the same for readers. There is so much knowledge in the world to uncover. I’ve learned over the years it’s wise to admit you don’t have all the knowledge in the world. No matter how knowledgeable a person is, they can’t even come close to knowing it all!
