“We Have to Film This…”
Joshua Job is a pastor in southern India. In late 2023, he discovered the oikos principle by watching The OM’s YouTube page. After connecting through Zoom, he told me, “Pastor Tom, I believe leveraging the oikos principle may be the only way to reach India with the Gospel.” He got no argument from me, since it’s the primary way God has used to reach every culture throughout history. So, in mid-2024, my wife Sheryl and I discussed the obstacles of sending a team to India with three global ministries with a focus on that part of the world. All three of those organizations discouraged our taking that step until we better understood the environment and had confidence in our hosts ability to help us navigate it.
Learning more about that region’s hostility toward Christians, and not yet feeling confident in our team’s safety, I told Joshua, “Why don’t I simply send you what I’ve discovered about the oikos principle and we can begin zoom conversations to train you and your team to do what we would do if we were actually there.” So, Joshua’s guys drew up a plan to train pastors in the 38 districts of southern India. And Joshua and I spent many of my nights (and his mornings) discussing the power and local church implications of this dynamic idea.
The OM then arranged the translation of our training materials and the 8to15 Book into Tamil. Then, at a cost of $7 per pastor, we provided bus or train fare for the pastors in a particular district to attend a day-long training, led by Joshua and his team. That $7 included, travel expenses, food, all training materials and a free copy of the 8to15 Book. Using that strategy, to date, Joshua’s team has trained almost 2,000 pastors in half of those 38 districts.
But Joshua kept asking. “Pastor Tom, an OM team from the U.S. would be such a blessing to the pastors who have already attended these trainings, and even those who have yet to discover the oikos principle.”
When I received one of Joshua’s emails, I was having dinner in WA at the home of one of The OM’s board members. Their son Clark was sitting next to me when I got the email and, not wanting to be rude, I told him, “Sorry, but I need to get back to this guy. He’s in India.” So, Clark asked, “Are you doing work in India?” I explained what had transpired to that point and he responded, “We have to film this!” I said, “What do you mean we? You think I should record my next zoom with Joshua?” He said, “No, I mean we need to get a film crew and go to India and record what God is doing through this ministry!” I said, “I don’t have a film crew.” He said, “Well I do.”
Then Clark, who actually worked in the film world for a while, led us to a friend of his, Keith Rivers, who was a documentary filmmaker, and then to another friend of theirs, Taylor Johns, who happened to be an award-nominated cinematographer. And I said, “I’m pretty sure that I can’t afford any of you.” And, they said, “You won’t have to.”
So, I called on two of my friends, both gifted oikocentric pastors, one from Central CA and one from Indiana, and asked if they would like to join that three-man film crew for a week in India. Your gifts paid for the two pastors to travel to India, for all the expenses that week required, including multiple conferences, food and lodging for the five men and our Indian hosts, as well as for the expenses for the hundreds of pastors they encouraged at those events. This film reflects their experience that week.
It’s important to note that the two training pastors had never met one another in person until they arrived in Bangaluru. Neither of them had ever met any member of the film crew. And none of the five had ever met Joshua or the other members of Joshua’s team. So, we had no idea what would happen. I asked Sheryl, “What happens if they don’t even like each other?”
But they all were brothers in Christ, who came together to honor the Great Commission and do what they could to help bring the Gospel to the most populous nation on earth, 1.5B people.
Turns out, if God is for us…