Candidate 8 Profile

Section A. Background Information

10. Year of Ordination

11. Denomination of Ordination

Anglican Church of India/Church of Northern India

12. If not RCA, what classes or supervising body from the ordaining denomination recognizes your ordination?

United Church of Christ, Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church

13. Present denomination

Presbyterian Church of Happauge NY

14. Present classis or judicatory

Church of North India Diocese of Lucknow

15. If you are not now a member of the Reformed Church in America, can you, in good conscience, agree with the doctrine, discipline and government of the RCA?

Yes.

16. Do you support the mission and division of the Reformed Church in America?

Yes.

17. Citizen of what country? If not USA, do you have permit to live and work in the USA?

—. Yes.

18. Previous Experience

19. Formal Education

20. Continuing Education

21. Languages (list any languages, other than English, in which you can preach or converse fluently)

Tamil and Nepali

Section B. Reflection

1. Describe your strengths, the best of who you are, and what you bring in service to the church.

My strength is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He strengthens me in every which way. His grace is sufficient unto every one of my circumstances because of my trust in Him. He connects my relations which I seek none of my own and relish in His provision of friends, relatives, and enemies too. 

I meditate on and practice the Gospel of the Lord so that I can Evangelize and bring people to experience the glory of our God so that one day we may all meet again in paradise. My ministry is to share the teachings of Jesus Christ to all people, for those in the neighborhood as well as the poor, sick, and homeless.

2. Name two or three mentors who have significantly contributed to your ministry, and explain why these people are important to you.

These are the two most important mentors who’ve contributed their time and patience to nourish me in the Lords ministry. 

Late Dr. Rev Singaram Durairaj taught me the spiritual values of the Gospel. He showed me how to trust in the Lords word so that I will be a powerful witness to Christ alone. 

Secondly Rev Gideon Jebamani, who contributed his time during my young adult age. He taught me why and how Christian education is the most important part for the developmental years of the young generation. The youth of the church should focus on music, group studies from the Gospel, liturgy, and praise and worship for the Lord.

3. What caused you to enter ministry, and what are the core values that define your vision for ministry?

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I was raised in a Christian family. My father, an active member in the church, was a lead minister in outreach ministries in the Church of South India. Throughout my childhood, my parents made it their duty to ensure that I was familiar with the teachings of Christ and the church; their unwavering guidance led me to my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior at an early age.

At the age of 15, I diligently began to seek the knowledge of Christ through personal relationship and His divine word. I accepted what I considered a divine call to the pastoral, preaching, and teaching of the gospel ministry. While under the supervision and charge of wonderful elders and senior pastors, I proactively began to pursue a path toward Christian leadership, pastoral care, and the preaching of the gospel. I have been steadfast in the faith since then, earning my Master’s in Divinity and Christian education. I have grown tremendously in faith and practice, and my progress thus far is built on nothing less than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

As believers, we are all called to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15). Thus, as one called to a specific office in the body, the charge to equip His people is of utmost importance (Ephesians 4:12-13). The overarching goal of ministry is found in Matthew 28:19-20, which indicates that God desires that people live lives indicated by His presence, leadership, and an unequivocal faith in Him. Effective ministry develops a mature Christian’s ability to withstand, endure, triumph and ultimately represent the embodiment of God’s will for humanity. Without the word of God, this is not possible. Therefore, study and practice of the sacred scripture is necessary for proper nourishment and growth. In sum, 2 Timothy 2:15 indicates that it is after such steadfastness that we are able to truly appreciate the byproduct of God's grace towards us.

DOCTORAL BELIEF

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, who in His sovereignty created and rules overall. I believe in Jesus Christ, the son, who was dead, buried, resurrected, and ascended. He came to offer eternal life to those who repent, believe, and faithfully obey Him. I believe in the active presence of the Holy Spirit, who effectively works in the lives of every believer. I believe the Bible to be the infallible and inspired word of God, which is sufficient for the needs of the believers and of the universal church, including growth in holiness and righteousness unto the Lord.

4. Explain the strategies or ideas that most excite you for helping a church to become and remain missional.

The Church as a community of faith, called and sent to continue the mission of Christ to the world, must maintain her missional character. The missional character should be expressed in the programs and activities of the church.  

Programs  The programs of the Church should consist of categories, which I preferred to call it a “Tripronged” programs, such as (1) Spiritual Nurturance, (2) Mission, Witness and Service, (3) Resource Generation.  

 (1) Spiritual Nurturance - it is an inherent duty of the Church to provide its members spiritual nurturance though Worship, Holy Communion, Bible Study, Discipleship Seminar and among other activities aimed to broaden and deepen the faith and strengthen our relationship to God and each other.  

(2) Mission, Witness and Service - The Church as the body of Christ must be incarnational in nature by bringing the redeeming words, love and blessings of God to the people, most especially the unchurched, the needy, the neglected, marginalized, the victims of man-made and natural calamities.     

(3) Resource Generation - This is pooling of both human and financial resources that are deemed necessary to sustain the missionary work. Human Resources includes training future leaders, lecturers and lay preachers while financial resources includes stewardship (tithing/pledging) and other fund raising activities.    

 Program Planning and Assessment  

As the book of Proverbs chapter 21 verse 5, it says that “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Hence planning is essential. The programs could be most effective if the some groups, like the officers or leaders, would sit together sharing their visions for the Church, and have come up with a common vision, then conceptualize an Action Plan which enumerates the specific program and activities, times frame, person in-charge and budgetary consideration. The programs can be 3 years or 1 yea rolling plan. However, it is important to conduct a mid-term or annual assessment and planning just to monitor how far the programs go applying the SWOT analysis.  

Implementation and Teamwork      

It is but proper that a program is duly approved by a highest leadership or Church council before it is officially implemented in order to ensure teamwork among the implementors or persons involved in the programs. Another most effective program implementation is by organizing the 3 sectors, such as Men’s Organization, Women’s Organization, and Youth’s Organization. Each organization should elect among themselves officers. The purpose of organizing the sectors is for them to carry on the Church program to their respective organization. This is a kind of enhanced teamwork in program implementation.

5. Name three of your most passionate hopes for the Church at large, and why they are significant to you.

My three most passionate hopes for the Church at large are collegiality of all leadership bodies as well churches, more progressive and relevant. These three are essential and inseparable. Because progress of the Church in general depends greatly on the collegiality of the leadership bodies, the ministers, and the local churches; and the Church should be relevant to the contemporary times in order to remain faithful the mission of Jesus Christ.

6. Give an example of how you would theologically address an issue facing your contemporary world. Please be thorough enough to help the reader to understand your thought processes and your life commitments.

Today, the world is continuously facing a problem of social injustice particularly here in America in which racism and deportation of undocumented immigrants are rampant. This is the issue that I would like to focus in this discussion as to how should I, as an ordained priest, address this issue theologically. Promoting the gospel and ministering the people towards healing and reconciliation are integral part of my ordination vows. In other words, it is inherent duty of a priest to exercise the threefold prophetic ministry: to announce, to pronounce, and to denounce. The duty of a priest is not to predict what will happen to the future, as what the prophets of old did, but to guide the people in their journey in life and faith. During the ancient Israel period, God appointed the prophets to be His mouthpiece by announcing and pronouncing the words and laws of God to the people as well as denouncing their sinfulness and inordinate abuses of their leaders. However, the abusive leaders had killed the prophets and continued exploiting and oppressing the people.  That is why God decided to incarnate himself by the birth of Jesus Christ, to live among the people. He with his mother Mary and Joseph, his foster father lived as immigrant from one place to another because the Emperor wanted to kill him. He live among the marginalized and the oppressed and even among the sinners. The words and laws are no longer relayed through the prophets, because he is the Word that became flesh, he is the law. But the people rejected him, because they could not accept his teachings, because he defended the poor and the oppressed, criticized the abusive leaders, hence was accused as subversive and put him to death. That is the mission and ministry of Jesus, which he pronounced in Luke 4:1618 - “to proclaim the good news to the poor, proclaim the freed for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”      

In compliance to the mission of Jesus and to my ordination vows, I can help the Church in addressing the issues confronting us nowadays, though sermons, conducting Bible in context group Study, holding seminars on Current Issues, Participating in the Fora, Disseminating a Pastoral Letter, Participating with other Churches and Ecumenical Organizations in promoting healing and reconciliation and for the just lasting peace of the world.

7. What theologians, pastors, authors or other leaders have had the greatest influence upon your life and thought? (List up to 4 and explain.)

Dr Martin Luther king Jr whom is the leader of the civil rights movement to bring freedom, peace, non-violence and civil disobedience to our people and communities with the help of his Christian beliefs. His contribution to society guides me to bring these same contributions to others in the world and applying these traits to my life’s work.

Mother Theresa found her calling with the Sisters of Loreto. Mother Theresa was an inspiration to me and my mission to help the others for the better. She not only influenced me, but influenced the world. As she showed others love compassion, faith and prayer. She’s helped millions of people especially those in poverty, sick and the dying. 

Nelson Mandela was political leader and Philanthropist who served as a president in South Africa his mission was focusing on institutionalized racism and fostering racial reconciliation which our human race is still struggling with today. 

Bill Graham is a preacher, a spiritual adviser to US presidents. Graham used the media to spread his excessive knowledge of Gospel of Christ and experiences of his faith to millions of people nationwide. As in my mission as a minister I want to bless and teach the world my knowledge and with hope guide them my experiences.

8. How do you hope someone influenced by your ministry would describe what s/he considers to be most important?

It is my utmost hope that whoever would have been influenced by my ministry would find the importance of both vertical and horizontal relationship - vertical refers to man’s relationship to God while vertical is a relationship of man to men. The foundation of such vertical and horizontal relationship must be Love as stated in the greatest commandments of God taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 22:365-40 — “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” These two are the summary of the Ten Commandments. To love God means to fulfill the first 4 commandments - He’s the only God and only Him shall we worship. That we should consistently attend the Sunday worships and others liturgical fellowships. To love our neighbors means to fulfill the 5th up to 10th commandments which stipulates that we should love others the way how we love ourselves. That loving our neighbors must be expressed concretely by a loving service most especially to the less fortunate, ostracized and the oppressed. The vertical and horizontal relationships are inseparable as it forms a cross which symbolizes servanthood. As it is written in 1 John 4: 20-21 and I quote - “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” In short, whoever is influenced by my ministry is hopefully be a renewed and loving person.

9. Name at least one challenge for a pastor who accepts a Call to lead a church whose culture is other than his/her own.

One of the challenges of a pastor encountered in a new church assignment whose culture is different from his own is Acquaintance period and Flexibility. Admittedly, it is not that easy to start leading a Church with different and unfamiliar culture. That is why, acquaintance and flexibility is the foremost and basic step of a pastor. Just like a newlywed couple that they should go first in a honeymoon where they would acquaint with each other and at same be understanding and flexible. Acquaintance period and flexibility would help a pastor to behave properly and become careful in making a decision. Flexibility does not mean subservience and to compromise what is right and proper. Flexibility is integral part of pastoral approach but it must be within the bounds of the Church laws and Discipline. In short, Church laws and discipline should not be compromised with pastoral flexibility. This is challenging because as much as possible no one in the Church should get disenfranchised. As the saying goes, you cannot please everybody, but if you would insist to do so, you will please nobody.

10. Describe your vision and hopes for the Church over the next 5-10 years.

As the book of Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” My vision for the Church over 5- 10 years is to make it a progressive Church, which should be measured in 3 aspects: Physical, Financial and Liturgical.  On physical aspect, it includes (1) the attendance every Sunday that over 5 to 10 years there should be a minimum of 150 regular church goers; (2) The 3 sectors: women, men and youths must be organized with their respective set of officers; (3) The building should be maintained and or improved. On Financial aspect, there should be at least 150 regular pledges and have a minimum monthly pledge collection of $11,250. There should be properties that generate income such as from rental. On Liturgical aspect, should be an organized and good performing choir during Sunday Worship and other liturgical celebrations. The services must be more solemn that attracts the people to come and worship regularly.

11. If there is anything else you would like to add about yourself that you think would help a search team to better understand and consider you as their next pastor, please elaborate here.

I’ve attached my resume, cover letter, as well as a personal statement which answers number 3 for your team’s review. Thank you for your time and consideration.