The curtain has come down on the ABAM Sesquicentennial Celebration of 150 Years of Christianity in the Naga Hills. A lot of people have put in a lot of effort, each according to his role and ability, to make the celebrations a grand success. Many more others have prayed for its success. It is indeed pleasing to know that the celebrations have ended in the most successful manner. Those two days and three nights of celebration in Impur will be remembered for a long time and the event will be forever etched in the history of Christianity in Naga soil. When the dust settles, there will emerge more work to be done. The much anticipated sesquicentennial milestone has come and gone but the journey must continue. In the Naga parlance today, the church is what society is. And Naga society is what the church is. They are inseparably intertwined. Thus, what the church does is what the society is. It is in this respect that this column appreciates the delegates for adopting the five sesquicentennial resolutions. It is heartening to learn that the sesquicentennial resolutions are built around the aim of resetting the Biblical and spiritual foundation of ABAM and Ao (Baptist) churches.
150 years is a long time and yet, nominalism among the believers remains a great challenge for the church and faith leaders. It can be argued that Christianity as practiced by Nagas today in general has become a mockery, a blasphemy in essence, and, therefore, it is reassuring to learn that the church has resolved to strengthen its spiritual foundation. It indicates that the church is aware of where the society is headed and where the fault lies. Of course, the outcome would depend a lot on what is done and how it is done but the fact that the church realizing ‘nominalism’ as a gray spot and resolving to work on it is the right way forward. Surely, outreach and home missions are important for the church and, in fact, it is primarily what the church exists for in the first place. Therefore, it is no surprise that one of the resolutions was based on missions. However, it is appreciated that the resolution deals largely with evaluation of the mission works and that is something that was needed from a long time ago. The resolution to make the work of ABAM Social Concern a full-fledged ministry of ABAM after the sesquicentennial is welcome. The fact that it proposes inculcating the Christian culture of hard work and industry among the youth so that they may become economically self-reliant believers through their own entrepreneurship, among other things, is appreciated. The church’s presence was sorely missed in the marketplace. The fourth and fifth resolutions are both equally important resolutions which seem to be more of an institutional reset but resets that will affect not just the church but the society at large in all ways, positively.
At least for the next 25 years, the sesquicentennial resolutions should be like the guiding principles of ABAM. If the efforts put into implementing the 5 resolutions bear positive results, better days beckon us. It has to. Let this be the great reset that posterity will read and write about, with praise and thankfulness.