What Is the Opportunity?

India’s population is more than 1.3 billion, and has overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. Missionaries have taken the gospel to India for centuries, perhaps beginning with the Apostle Thomas, and later including William Carey and Amy Carmichael. Today, despite low official estimates, it is thought that Christians may make up seven percent of people in India, which equates to more than 98 million professing Christians.

Persecution against Christians in India is rapidly increasing, especially against those from a Hindu background, and it is often inspired by government policy or local officials. There is an urgent need to help churches in this vast and varied country stand fast in the faith—the need for gospel teaching to counter nominal Christianity, and for discipleship resources to strengthen local churches.

Hindi is the most spoken language in India. Over 600 million people speak Hindi—making it the third most spoken language in the world.¹ Ligonier’s outreach in Hindi includes book translations, a dedicated website for Hindi-speaking people, and a Facebook channel. India as a country has the largest Facebook audience in the world, with more than 340 million Facebook users.²

How Is Ligonier Meeting These Needs?

We strive to reach pastors, laypeople, and unbelievers from all walks of life who speak Hindi through the following outreach efforts:

Online Outreach

We are reaching Hindi-speaking people with the gospel in India and around the world. Ligonier’s dedicated Hindi website, together with our Facebook page, is providing ready access to trustworthy teaching. Our website is regularly updated with articles and video teaching series about the Bible and theology, and it contains historic Christian creeds and confessions.

Books

Growing interest in the Reformed faith has sparked an eagerness for more resources from R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Our plans include translating, printing, and distributing the following titles:

• Titles from The Crucial Questions booklet series by R.C. Sproul
• Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in the Christian Life by R.C. Sproul

Recently Published Books

• Does Prayer Change Things? by R.C. Sproul
• The Race of Faith by R.C. Sproul
• Everyone’s a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by R.C. Sproul
• What is Faith? by R.C. Sproul
• What is the Church? by R.C. Sproul
• Who is the Holy Spirit? by R.C. Sproul
• Who is Jesus? by R.C. Sproul

The Ligonier Statement on Christology

Confusion abounds regarding Christology—the doctrine of Christ around the world. As the church continues to grow, it is imperative that believers learn the truths of Scripture as summarized in the great confessions of faith. We produced The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology to help Christians know what the church has historically taught and provide clarity on the person and work of Christ. Our goal is to distribute this statement worldwide, and it has already been translated into numerous languages, including Hindi.

Teaching Series

Our video teaching series help promote theological education in the Hindi-speaking world. The following teaching series have been dubbed into Hindi, and are available through the Hindi YouTube channel.

• Loved by God with R.C. Sproul
• The Basics of the Christian Life with Sinclair Ferguson
• Justified by Faith Alone with R.C. Sproul
• Lessons from the Upper Room with Sinclair Ferguson
• The Holiness of God with R.C. Sproul
• What Did Jesus Do?: Understanding the Work of Christ with R.C. Sproul
• Who is the Holy Spirit? with Sinclair Ferguson

What Is Needed?

• Digital outreach — $20,448 USD (annually)
• Translating and publishing print and digital editions of five Crucial Questions titles — $44,400 USD

Funding needs reflect quoted estimates based on May 2023 foreign exchange rates and current translation fees.

How Do Your Gifts Help?

These are only a few of our many international projects underway. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting our efforts through your financial gifts and prayers for the Hindi-speaking and global church. By God’s grace, your generosity enables the translation, printing, and distribution of trustworthy resources, providing countless opportunities to reach people with the truth of God’s Word. You can donate here.

Our policy is to apply gifts given toward a specific program. If we receive more contributions than can be wisely used for a given project, we apply these funds to meet other pressing needs in our outreach efforts. We are committed to stewarding all gifts wisely toward the goal of proclaiming the holiness of God to as many people as possible. Ligonier Ministries is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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¹ See https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/ethnologue200 as at Aug 18, 2021 ² See https://acodez.in/facebook-users-worldwide/ as at May 22, 2023