INDIA
Our mission in India is to preach the Gospel to unreached people groups, those who have not heard the Gospel or seen it lived out in the lives of others in their community. We also work to meet the physical needs of the most vulnerable people by providing food, medical care and education. Our partners live and work full time in India, and Crossline supports them financially and by sending teams on short term missions trips.
India is home to 1/5th of the world’s population, but only 5% of its population is Christian. It has one of the smallest Christian populations in the world.
Most non-believers in India are part of an “unreached people group.” This means they are part of distinct ethnolinguistic people groups with less than 2% followers of Jesus and less than 5% other Christians in their group. Unlike non-believers in Europe, North America or Latin America, non-believers in India have very little exposure to Christianity in their community. They have very few, if any, Christian neighbors, or Christian churches nearby. Some of them may not even have the Bible in their language (India hundreds of different languages and dialects).
To better understand unreached people groups, check out this video from Telos Fellowship.
India desperately needs the gospel and yet, its government is taking extreme measures to prevent the spread of Christianity. They are not allowing foreign missionaries to come in and are deporting missionaries already there. The government is also restricting funds from the West that are going to nonprofits in India. Hindu extremism is also on the rise and the government is doing nothing to stop extremist who burn churches, beat up pastors, and drive Christians away from their communities.
To learn more about persecution in India, check out the World Watch List 2024, a list of the 50 countries where Christians face the most intense persecution. India is number 11.
Crossline has missionaries all over the world. Visit our main missions page to learn more.
You can support our work in India by giving to Crossline Missions and designating your gift for India. We will share specific fundraising needs in the near future.
Want to receive specific pray requests for India and our partners there? Sign up for our missions email.
A Crossline team visited in India in March of 2020, January of 2023 and 2024. If you are interested in going on our next trip (now planned for January 4-14, 2025) please fill out this interest form.