DR. EBE SUNDER RAJ, CIM, BENGALURU, 5 SEPT 25
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BUILDING: NEHEMIAH 2:18 The beginning of the twentieth century saw the indigenization of the Indian Church from the structures of the international missions in India. Amalgamation of all overseas missions resulted in the formation of Church of South India, Church of North India, the Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Assemblies of God etc. and the federating body viz the National Council of Churches in India. Around the same period, the Indian indigenous cross cultural mission movement started with the Marthoma Evangelistic Association in 1888 and most of the 80 pioneering indigenous missions in the nineteen sixties and seventies resulting in the formation of the federating body viz India Missions association, mainly by the efforts of the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
REBUILDING: ISAIAH 49:6; 58:12 When the colonial era missions handed over their churches into Indian hands, a century ago, they wrote very little safeguards in their Constitutions. Because it was a transfer from overseas saints to the Indian saints. They did not foresee decay and court cases to set in within a century. The other positive factor was the growth and diversity of ministries over this period. Also, all the Indian leaders were only seminary trained with no training in management. Therefore, structural reformation becomes a necessity in most cases.
Ambedkar the liberator of the Dalit slaves had Moses the liberator of the Hebrew slaves as his inspiration and the Mussaic Constitution as his model (not the Hammurabi code nor the Manu Smruti) in drafting our National Constitution incorporating in it surpassing level of social justice, surpassing several European nations of that time. Do our Church Constitutions in India today stand as a model for other secular non-profit Constitutions. Because the tree is only as stable as its root.
TRANSPARENCY: MATHEW 5;14-16. Hundred years ago, the major pioneering Indian missions started publishing their Audited Financial Reports in their magazines. Some heads of organisations publish to this day their Family Assets, as is done mandatorily by all public servants and elected legislators in India. This transparency is fading away today. Billy Graham, the main visionary behind ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) submitted himself to be paid only fixed salary by his BEA organisation, instead of going for invisible “faith living” which may mean non accountability. That saved him from the disasters we see happening today among the Christian preachers and celebrities in the West. We must learn lessons from them and set standards.
ASSETS MANAGEMENT: I COR 6:1-8 The overseas missions transferred their huge assts to the Indian Church. The Indian Church asset is among the topmost religious assets in India. The SYNOD TRUSTS, ETASNI, ETASI and other professional bodies were formed to hold them in trust. Some of them are doing effective service. Some do not do so because of outdated Constitutions and weak Systems. This results in numerous court cases. Mission properties must come urgently under high level professional management and accountability systems to avert court cases. They can also generate sustainable income to pay our church staff adequately and also financially support the one thousand weak or dying mission hospitals and other such noble care services to the poorest. We must set Standards before the State enacts controls. The Judiciary has advised the State last year to enact control.
MANAGEMENT TRAINING TO ALL PASTORS: EZRA 7:25 If the Church is the salt of our nation our seminaries are the salt pans. William Carey and Alexander Duff started Serampore College, not only to produce leaders for the Indian Church but also for the Indian nation. They also taught the ICS Civil Service Trainees in Fort Willian College in Calcutta. Harvard (of the Puritans) and Yale (of the Congregationalist) were started by Christian pioneers (Pilgrim Fathers) not only to raise clergy for their churches but also governors for their new nation. Our Bible colleges need to recapture that vision. Our prestigious Christian liberal education colleges must produce Christian Dalit governors for India, instead of producing Dwiji (Indo European) graduates who migrate to become governors in Europe and North America.
CIM in partnership with ATA and Serampore started from 2020 onwards training some select faculty in each major Seminaries / Bible college in India up to master’s level in Management. They in turn to teach Management to their graduating Seminarians and their Alumni. The plan is to cover all the Seminaries and Bible Colleges in India. The goal is to act preventively not curatively of failures in Church Management.
CORPORATE MANAGEMENT VS CHRISTIAN MANAGEMENT: Many assume that the above management needs can be met by sending and training our Christian managers and leaders in MBA colleges. Therefore, we need to briefly mention here the difference between training in corporate / secular management and training in Chriatian management.
The goal of Corporate Management is to generate maximum wealth for the shareholders. Good goal. John Wesley said “Work as hard as you can. Earn as much as you can. Give away as much as you can”. Wesley by his preaching on social justice prevented England from facing a French type of Revolution. Warren Buffet, the fifth richest man in the world today, practices what Wesley preached centuries ago. Warren gave away 83 % of his wealth to the Bill Gate Foundation for social service. He asked his Government to tax him more. He encouraged all the rich men to give away 50%. That is Business as Mission. But Warren is one in a billion persons. For most others personal wealth is the driving force for management.
The goal of Christan Management is to generate maximum health, by our co-governance of the Kingdom of God. Math 6:33; Rev 22:5. For spreading righteousness on the earth, which is the Foundation of God’s throne. Psalm 89:14. Wealth generation can be one of the means to that end. But health is the end.
Corporate management is motivated by ownership. Christan Management is motivated by stewardship; as Sons of God for their Father’s Kingdon. Adult sons do not work for wages or reward or award from their father. They just do their family duty. For family honour. Ezek47:9
Corporate management follows the Natural Evolutionary principle of Survival of the Smartest. In some companies the ratio within their lowest paid and the highest paid is as high as 1:500. Agreed, the smartest must be paid very well for their high contribution. But not at the cost of depriving the weakest. CIM ratio is 1:5
Christian Management includes the Survival of the Weakest. It does recognise the smartest as well. Gandhi suggested a ratio of 1:10 between the highest paid and the lowest paid in India. It stands today at 1: 6,000. The Minimum Wage Act is a fading dream in India. 60 rich Indians own what 700 million Indians own together. Christian Management must set the model for the secular world and the State.
Corporate management practices Minimal compliance to statutory obligations to avoid penalty. Example: Concentration of power or assets into the hands of two or three. Even some Christiansgo for Trust than Society because of its minimal level of accountability. Christian management promotes Maximum compliance to the Kingdom laws that the Kingdom values may be spread on the earth. Math 6:33
Accountability: I COR 9:1-27Accountability is an offensive word today in a world of growing narcissism. Is God accountable to anyone? If he is not, then why should I, asks the autonomous man. Yes, God is mutually accountable within the Three Persons. All cosmic decisions are done collectively by the Three but communicated to humans often in singular person. The very first chapter of the Bible reveals this divine plurality in decision making.
Redemptive Management: John13:14 Christian management is redemptive management. It avoids Court Cases. It serves Mediation, Arbitration, ADR. In adversarial Court litigation you win the case but lose your partner / relative. The secular Manager does not mind that loss. But every Christian Manager is a small redeemer to his managed community. When all formulas in conflict management fail, feet washing succeeds. This we learnt by practice in the Managing Board meeting of the largest mission in the Third World. Secular management promotes winning. Good. But not enough. God promotes relationships.
OUR FAITH JOURNEY IN MANAGEMENT: We studied the work of Christian Management Association in USA and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, adapted some of their steps suitable to India. In the Eighties IMA in partnership with Operation Mobilisation started Leadership Training for leaders of Indian missions. In the Nineties EFI, IMA, ETANI, ETASI, Raja B. Singh and E. K. Koshy collectively organized Management Seminars for managers of Indian missions and churches. A two men unit under IMA called the ‘Missions Standards Cell’ from 1992 onwards built awareness and basic standards in management of missions in India. These efforts over a decade culminated in the emergence of Christian Institute of Management in 1998.
By the Lord’s grace and with the partnership of about one hundred Resource Persons and Haggai, EFI and others, CIM in the last 25 years has trained in management about 40,000 leaders of missions and churches, through seminars conducted in 60 cities across India. 3,850 leaders were trained through Management Study Courses, from Module level to master’s level. Currently 27 leaders across India are pursuing Doctoral Level Research in Christian Management accredited by Martin Luther University. CIM has built up the Management Capacity level of over 500 major organisations and churches. CIM helped numerous Organizations to review and amend their Constitutions. CIM helps catalytically churches and missions in some South Asian and Southeast Asian nations in training and building their management standards and accountability level.
OUR WAY FORWARD TOGETHER
COURT FREE INDIAN CHURCH: I COR 6:1-8 Last year in a case relating to the Waqf Board of Muslims, the Madras High Court directed the State regarding the need for a structure for proper governance of Church assets. The holy scripture is explicit in its command for Christians to avoid the civil court. But many in the Indian Church leadership disobey this command. The trend now even in the civil society worldwide, including the commercial community, is to move away from the adversarial litigation to the conciliatory mediation or arbitration. The Methodist Judicial Council and a few others are doing noble service. CIM in the last 25 years has rendered a few major professional arbitration services besides several smaller ones. Shriram Panchu the Father of the Mediation Movement in India has been teaching Mediation in the CIM seminars. Last month the National Council of Churches in India started Mediation Seminars with this goal. Last week a team of Christian ADR professionals conducted excellent training in Goa. It is time now for all of us to collectively form a national level system to establish Arbitration / Mediation Units in each of the national federations of churches and missions, like the NCCI, CBCI, IMA, CMAI, AIACHE, SPCI. EFICC etc. and make it mandatory for their respective member bodies to seek arbitration / mediation before going to the court. This national level network will become functional in 2026 with retired Christian apex courts Judges and senior Advocates as professional service providers.
INDIA’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE THIRD WORLD: ISAIAH 49:6India needs to share with the Third World nations its experience and expertise gained in the last 25 years in Management Training and Capacity Building. Because most Third World nations have nothing of this privilege. We have done this in a small way for South Asia. Now CIM, GTP, EFAC, FMSF, IC and all other partners have to collectively do this for the Third World nations.
With the digital media tools now, we have crossed geographic boundaries. A good part of the management training can be done from India online to the Third world nations. On site training can be built up for training the locals with a few high-end Indian management professionals, preferably of Doctorate of level, going out as cross-national missioners. We already have a very small model on this in Ethiopia where an Ex CIM Director is training hundreds of native Christian workers in management. This has to be multiplied many folds. Sixty member missions of IMA have committed last year to send out missioners to the Third World. Some of them can be trained by CIM as high-end professional management trainers and sent out.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We are deeply thankful to the Lord for all the Partners past and present, Resource Professionals, Society Members, Board Members, Directors and Staff of CIM, for their very dedicated and highly sacrificial service in the last 25 years, whose commitment, contribution, wisdom and leadership built up CIM.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Ebe Sunder Raj www.ebesunderraj.in
Address given at the India Management Summit in Bengaluru on 5 September 2025