
The Background
The early Christians passed through the ages of persecution during the period of Nero and latter peace under the Emperor Constantine. Eventually the misunderstanding of Christianity gave birth to Islam which wiped out Christianity in the North African regions. Then the Crusades to occupy Jerusalem brought further animosity between the Muslims and Christians.
The Background
The early Christians passed through the ages of persecution during the period of Nero and later peace under the Emperor Constantine. Eventually the misunderstanding of Christianity gave birth to Islam which wiped out Christianity in the North African regions. Then the Crusades to occupy Jerusalem brought further animosity between the Muslims and Christians.
This also closed the trade route to Asia, particularly to India by the Islamic nations such as Turkey which blocked the Christian nations to pass through to India. Because of which the Pope commissioned kings of Europe to find India by sea route which resulted in finding the Continents of America, Africa, Asia and thus the whole world became the colonies of various countries of Europe. During this time the division of Christianity into two as Roman Catholics and Protestants further divided the new colonized world. The European countries which conquered brought their brand of Christianity to different parts of the world. Thus, Christianity, till today, is seen as the religion of Europe and the religion of the conquerors and some see it as the religion of the exploiters of the nations. This has its tremendous backlogs for Christianity.
The Protestant missionaries worked very hard and the world was influenced by the many missionaries who sacrificially worked to help people to follow Christianity. They shaped the present missions’ thinking and the total mission endeavours in the newly awakened mission sending countries. The missions’ methods and policies were strongly influenced by the then leading Protestant missionaries such as William Carey, Hudson Taylor, William Cameroon Townsend, and Donald McGavran. The philosophies and practices of mission organisations emerged from those people, thoughts and times.
In this scenario around about 1950s most of the European colonized nations became independent and lost the traditional Protestant Western missionary services. The new independent nations restricted visas for the traditional missionaries. Thus, the church was left stranded developing their own indigenous leadership for their church denominations. Once the indigenous leadership for the churches established, due to some revival and consciousness about the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, Mission organizations came into being from mid 1960s.
Origin
At the gathering of the leaders of Christian NGOs whose focus is on the wholistic development of communities in India at the National Conference, at Karnataka, India few leaders of these organization realized the need for an association for fellowship, collaboration, sharing their resources, prayers and care.
Origin
At the gathering of the leaders of Christian NGOs whose focus is on the wholistic development of communities in India at the National Conference, at Karnataka, India, few leaders of these organization realized the need for an association for fellowship, collaboration, sharing their resources, prayers and care. At the end of this national conference, these leaders of the organization affirmed their need to be united and work together towards the wholistic development of the communities in India and serve the people with the love of God. That affirmation resulted in the formation of India Mission Association (IMA).
India Missions Association is the National Federation of Christian NGOs in India legally registered with the Government of India both the state and the Center. IMA assists its member organizations / Churches in India to serve the Christian NGOs with their people of various languages, cultures and geography in raising the standards of excellence in the area of Governance, Statutory Compliances, Financial Management, Human Resource development and the Mission accomplishment. IMA collaborates with its Member partners in Resource development, Research, Wholistic services, Contextual Training, Accountability and Care. IMA is journeying with 317 Christian NGOs & Churches tirelessly providing the services with the clear Vision, Mission, Values and Ethos to see that the work done by its partners are effective, strategic, and contextual appropriating to the needs of the people / communities facilitating. The standards, integrity, mutual accountability, credibility of information shared and compliances consistency are the core values of IMA.


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