I surrendered my life to Christ sometime in the spring of 1985. I was staying with a pastor’s family in a town called Dhangadi in far west Nepal, but no one led me to Christ; it was my personal decision. Oblivious to the pastor, two booklets, “Sabaiko Saathi” (collection of gospel stories from Luke) and “God who answers by fire”, had done a remarkable work in my sinful heart. In one afternoon of that spring, I walked to a nearby forest, knelt under a saal tree and asked for the forgiveness of my sins from the savior I had come to know by this time. Came fall that year, and my relationship with my savior had deepened; I could no longer avoid his call to pastoral ministry. But there was a problem. The pastor who I was staying with was certain that I was not going to be a Christian; our relationship had gone sour. At the same time, I came to know that one has to take baptism in order to be a Christian, let alone be a pastor.
In divine providence, two young men of that congregation decided to take baptism at a short notice in that fall. When the pastor was planning for their baptism (no one told me they were going to be baptized), I asked him if I could also join them. With skeptical look he said, “You don’t believe in Jesus Christ, why you would like to take baptism?”
To make the long story short, I was included in the baptism program; we were three now. But another problem arouse. Baptism in Nepal was punishable by one year imprisonment for the candidate and 3 to 7 years for the one who baptizes if it is reported to the police. The pastor decided not to take the risk. He had found a fellowship with a ministry called “Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission” in the Indian side of the border, in a town called Tanakpur. He arranged our baptism program and off we went. That was a wonderful day of my life; the old church overlooked the vast Mahakali River bank in the east separating the two nations. On the Indian side, in that old little church, I was baptized by an Indian pastor by the name of Philip. After the baptism, we had to attend a seminar where the speaker was Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi. This was my first experience of hearing a Christian speaker addressing a handful of people in that old church. Prior to this, I did attend the little congregation in the house of the pastor I was staying with, but there was no speech as such. They would be sitting in circle and pastor would speak for about 15 minutes while seated. The talk would always appear to be “I know better than you” kind. And, I was ridiculed for deciding to take baptism because in the eyes of the leadership of that congregation, I was a village boy without having any intelligence of his own. they thought I had some ulterior motifs in deciding to take baptism. It was humiliating, and an insult to my intelligence and sincerity by which I had fallen in love with Jesus. Had I known them before I decided to believe in Christ, I might have never taken the step of faith.
But Dr. Mangalwadi was different. He was elegant in style and rich in content. For me, having come from the communist influence, he hit the last nail in the coffin of my Marxist aspiration when he began to speak of the atrocities committed by Stalin and Mao; the very people I had thought were the champions of human liberation. But the thing that attracted my attention the most was his sincere respect for his audience. He spoke with conviction and clarity but there was no sign of arrogance and pride in his language, tone and attitude. He spoke to us as if we were dearly important to him; he demonstrated respect towards us when he took our questions, though some of them were silly, seriously in attempting to answer. It is now nearly 3 decades and still that speech is fresh in my memory. I have followed Dr. Mangalwadi’s messages given in various place around the world, and have read his books; he has grown even more respectful towards his audiences.
The other speaker, haven’t met in person, who catches my imagination is Dr. Ravi Zacharias, not by his brilliance alone, though there maybe none like him, but again by his utmost respect for his audience. He silences his critics and commands their attention not so much by the force of his arguments, but by the sincerity of his respect for them. On the other hands, I have also had the opportunity of hearing some of the brilliant minds of our times and sit under their speeches and lectures, but when it comes to respecting their audience, some of them were very disappointing. Who cares how much you know if you can’t respect the very people you are trying to convince?
Therefore, a word of advice to the aspiring preachers is that if you humble yourself and give due respect to your audience when you start speaking, you will have their attention for what you wish to communicate. Of course no one thinks of oneself being an arrogant preacher. But, the language, tone and the attitude, if not taken seriously, would deceive you into thinking that you are doing a good job while the audience thinks you are one air-filled balloon that thinks s/he knows better than everyone else. The way you compose on the stage; erratic moving around the stage can be viewed as a sign of disrespect, the way you greet, the way you present your topic, the way you ask the audience to participate; too many “amen”, “hallelujah”, “clap your hands”, “greet your neighbor” and “say this” and “say that” kind of habits are signs that you have taken your audience very lightly. That is why Peter admonishes us; “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1Pet. 3:15). You must respect your audience and not impress them.
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