On 29 March 2016, an All India Apostles and Bishops Meeting, which spread across five days, was held in Hotel Evoma, Bengaluru. District Apostle Helper David David had recently attended the International District Apostles Meeting (DAMI) in Zurich, Switzerland, and he opened the meeting with a spiritual part. The meeting was focused on the reorganization and consolidation of the working areas of the Apostles and Bishops.
He then shared key points from the DAMI, including some aspects of the Chief Apostle’s church strategies and implementation plans for church buildings, youth and other ministry related activities.
A Workshop on new Stationary Formats
Another session was led by Brother Robert Maier who introduced new stationary formats to the Apostles and Bishops. All attendees were given the task to practice filling the sheets which helped them getting familiar with the procedure. Only after clearing all the doubts and minor errors, the new procedure can be implemented with all the ministers across the country.
District Organization, Database and ID Cards
Later on, Priest Sunny, the operator of the ministers’ database, gave an update on the process of generating ID numbers for all the ministers in India. Sunny spent the last few months consolidating the database which when complete will ensure that every minister has an identity card with their personal data in order.
A big part of the meeting went into the restructuring and reorganization of the districts in each Apostle’s and Bishop’s working area. With the help of state maps and district codes, so-called “District Rector Areas” were identified which will each by made up by about 10 to 15 congregations. This topic gave rise to many discussions and considerations among the attendees.
NAC India Website gets a new Look
In another session, Robert introduced the new design of the website for NAC India and pointed out a few highlights. While the website is being developed, journalism workshops have been conducted with the youth. A short presentation gave the Apostles and Bishops a glimpse of the activities and techniques that had been taught to the workshop participants.
Choir Members Rejoice
One the fourth and last day of the meeting, the choir conductors of the National Choir were present to discuss current issues, plans and future events. One of the issues that was constantly raised in the past was finally resolved – earlier, many choir members often missed practice or important choir updates due to the lack of proper communication. The introduction of a Whatsapp Group (a popular smartphone chat app) makes coordination very easy since any updates can now be sent and received without any delay.
The meetings were extremely productive and each Apostle and Bishop left the venue with a new set of tasks and renewed sense of purpose. After the conclusion of the five day meeting, the congregation in Bengaluru Central had a blessed surprise when suddenly five Apostles were present for the Divine Service on Sunday, 3 April 2016.