In Punjab, a 1st for Pentecostal churches: Pastor Ankur Narula's aide appointed chairman of state minorities commission
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He is the first appointee to the post from the followers of the Pentecostal churches, which emerged in Punjab in recent years, replacing those from the old mainline Protestant or Catholic streams.
Pentecostal churches headed by individual pastors, both in terms of their numbers and following, have shown phenomenal growth in Punjab in the last some years. Apart from people in Punjab, they also attract migrants from other states in Punjab, and also getting traction in other states.
Coming from a Balmiki-Protestant family in Kalanaur, Gurdaspur district, Jatinder Randhawa became a follower of pastor Narula around a decade ago and took the name Jatinder Masih 'Gaurav'.
As he became a close and loyal aide, he was appointed president of the Ankur Narula Ministries management committee. He also became president of the Global Christian Action Committee. After his appointment, several pastors of the Pentecostal stream congratulated him on their social media pages.
According to a Christian community leader, earlier, most of the time, chairmen were picked from among the old-time Protestants in the state. Jalandhar-based Ankur Narula Ministries claims to be the biggest and fastest-growing church in Punjab, and this claim does not appear to be an exaggeration, given the numbers he attracts for his weekly congregations, both physically and online. "The church building (at Khambra) we have raised would be the biggest church in Asia, and it would be without pillars.
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It would be able to accommodate 50,000 people at a time," Gaurav told TOI in September 2022. Their church, he said, attracts people from across Punjab, but most come from Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, and Kapurthala districts. Narula also initiated scores of pastors, who are now spread across Punjab and other states. Some of the individual pastors attract thousands in their weekly congregations, where the biggest attraction remains miracle healing of serious and chronic diseases, or sorting out other problems, including financial ones.
Though no data is available, but looking at the congregations, it can be assessed that the old established Christian institutions of Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican Churches, which were dominant in Punjab, have already been outnumbered by individual pastors, mostly from the Pentecostal system.
Outgoing Chairman Now Head of Muslim Devp Board
Earlier, most of the time, the chairman of the Punjab State Minorities Commission would be from the Christian community, but in Jan 2024, Abdul Bari Salmani, a Muslim, got the post. Salmani was president of the minority wing of the Aam Aadmi Party. He resigned from the Commission sometime back and has now recently been appointed chairman of the Muslim Development Board. He is also joint secretary of the state unit of AAP.
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