In Mokokchung, Nagaland, in Northeast India, local churches are demonstrating what mission can look like when it is rooted in the realities of their own communities. Among people affected by substance abuse, incarceration, family breakdown, and stigma, congregations are discerning God’s call and responding with courage, compassion, and faithfulness. Their witness reminds us that the Church in Asia is not merely receiving mission from elsewhere. It is also discerning, leading, and offering wisdom to the wider Church.
One such story began while Rev. Dr. Temsu was serving as pastor of Alempang Baptist Church, a former CBM partner. As he ministered to people affected by substance abuse, his sense of calling began to grow. With the encouragement of other local churches, he established Shalom Tribal Trust to bring congregations together in caring for those often overlooked by society.
Shalom Tribal began with the question: What does it mean to embody the gospel among people whom society often forgets? Through prayer, reflection, and careful discernment in their own context, they became convinced that proclaiming Christ’s redemption could not be separated from showing Christ’s compassion. The gospel must be both proclaimed and demonstrated. Guided by this conviction, Shalom Tribal began working with churches to minister to people affected by substance abuse and to prison inmates, many of whom continued to face rejection and shame. They were often defined by their past rather than seen as people Christ came to seek and save.
This is what becomes possible when leadership grows from within the community itself. Evangelism, discipleship, rehabilitation, livelihood support, family care, community reintegration, and public awareness are held together as part of the same gospel witness. This is integral mission: word and deed joined together in response to the needs, wounds, and hopes of a particular community.
People recovering from addiction and those released from prison receive spiritual nourishment and opportunities to rebuild their lives through small business initiatives. As lives are transformed, families experience healing, and churches become places of welcome and hope.
Because this response was discerned and led by churches in Nagaland, it also points to something larger: mission is not moving in only one direction, from one centre to the rest of the world. It is being shaped by churches who know their communities deeply and have gifts to offer the wider body of Christ. This is where integral mission and polycentric mission meet. The gospel is being proclaimed and demonstrated locally, while the wider Church is invited to recognize, receive, and learn from emerging community leadership.
The gospel is being proclaimed and demonstrated locally, while the wider Church is invited to recognize, receive, and learn from emerging community leadership.”
To date, twenty-seven churches, two theological seminaries, and two Christian institutions have embraced this expression of mission. Pastors, theological students, church leaders, and congregations are being formed together as they strengthen work in rehabilitation, spiritual formation, family support, community engagement,
and sustainable livelihoods.
Over time, the impact has reached into the wider community. Families have become more stable. Children are growing up in healthier homes. Churches report signs of change where addiction, domestic violence, alcohol-related accidents, divorce, and crime have brought deep harm. In this context, churches are being recognized not only as places of worship, but also as communities of hope and restoration.
Since the start, CBM’s role in Shalom Tribal has been to accompany, not direct: to pray, encourage, share knowledge, strengthen capacity, provide financial support, and remain in dialogue. Leadership and decision-making have grown through relationships grounded in trust, mutual respect, and confidence in the wisdom of local churches. In this partnership, both CBM and the churches in Nagaland are giving, receiving, and being shaped through participation in God’s mission.
This partnership has also become a source of learning for the wider CBM family. The churches of Nagaland remind us that mission is not simply a program or strategy. It is a way of embodying the gospel in everyday life. Their witness challenges us to consider whether our own churches are prepared to embrace those whom society forgets, and whether our understanding of evangelism reflects both the proclamation of Christ and the demonstration of his love.
For Canadian churches, Shalom Tribal’s witness is an invitation to listen carefully, honour local wisdom, and hold together evangelism, discipleship, compassion, and justice. In Nagaland, CBM sees churches embodying Christ’s love among those society has forgotten, and we are reminded that God’s mission is often discerned most clearly by those closest to the pain, the people, and the hope of transformation.
