Gospel for Asia (GFA) is a Christian missionary organisation founded by K. P. Yohannan in 1978, focused on spreading the Gospel to India and surrounding countries through the use of national missionaries. GFA is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex suburb of Carrollton, Texas.
Yohannan argues that Western missionaries are ineffective, and that it is more appropriate to provide financial support to missionaries from the relevant country.[1] Instead, Gospel for Asia supports indigenous missions; direct mission work by western churches is seen as religious neo-colonialism. GFA is also opposed to the social gospel.
In 1981, Yohannan formed a branch of GFA in his native Kerala, with an Indian headquarters being set up in Tiruvalla in 1983. It is active throughout India, especially in the North, and directly administers bible colleges, whose graduates receive financial support to found new congregations. Increasing donations made GFA "one of the most financially powerful mission undertakings in India in the 1980s."[2] GFA directly supports more than 50 Bible colleges in various countries.[2][3]
In 1993, GFA began founding its own network of Pentecostal churches in Asia,[4] including the Believers Church network in India.
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Criticism [link]
Its magazine has been criticised for having attitude of wilful ignorance, bigotry & intentional misinterpretations of Hinduism , after an issue said about Hindus as "The Indian sub-continent with one billion people, is a living example of what happens when Satan rules the entire culture... India is one vast purgatory in which millions of people .... are literally living a cosmic lie! Could Satan have devised a more perfect system for causing misery?"[5][6]
See also [link]
References [link]
- ^ Van Rheenen, Gailyn (1996). Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies. Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-20809-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=uaS2fV1FYNsC&pg=PA84.
- ^ a b Bergunder, Michael (2008). The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2734-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=XGiv3riaunQC&pg=PA54.
- ^ Philip, Shaju. "An archbishop’s spiritual factory". The Indian Express. https://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-archbishops-spiritual-factory/323561/0. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
- ^ Anderson, Allan; Tang, Edmond (2005). Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic face of Christianity in Asia. Regnum Books International. ISBN 1-870345-43-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=LDZgKELq7AoC&pg=PA196.
- ^ Evangelical Christianity: Devils in high places, Sunday, 27 March 2011, Yogesh Pawar, Mumbai, DNA
- ^ Missionaries in India, Arun Shourie, HarperCollins, 1998, 302 pages
