A Historical Study of the Nepal Baptist Church Council (NBCC)

Abstract

A Historical Study of the Nepal Baptist Church Council (NBCC) is a research project about the historical development and emergence of the Baptist Church in Nepal. This Christian denomination was brought to Nepal by a group of indigenous young people who returned to their home country Nepal from Northeast India during the 1980s. Without any involvement of foreign missionaries and evangelists, they started what would later become the NBCC. Therefore, NBCC considered an “indigenous Baptist organization” founded by native pioneers, and that has been part of the World Baptist Alliance (BWA) partnership over 25 years. Among the many other church denominations that exist in Nepal, this research project is focused on the Nepal Baptist Churches and leaders. Nepal is a multicultural, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic, society with people of many races, colors, casts, and ethnicities. Since ancient times, Nepal had been ruled by Hindu kings who shaped Nepal into Hindu society. The Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians, who have always been religious minorities in the country, were often vulnerable to discrimination and persecution. The thesis briefly explores the arrival of the Baptist faith in Nepal, chronicles church planting, the formation of NBCC. The conversion of pioneers and their return home, international partnership, and NBCC’s growth as an organization and its struggles to success. The study concludes with a (presentation of the) analysis of NBCC’s effective church planting models and administration and improvement areas based on Baptist church leader’s interviews and opinions. These findings are gathered in adherence to empirical and qualitative methods and rely heavily on oral history, using oral theory as a method to write a history of the NBCC.