Love can cross cultural, social boundaries, church planter believes

PLANO—Ask Immanuel Thomas, Asian-Indian immigrant and founding pastor of Crosspointe Church in Plano, how to bridge the gap between cultures to reach people from varied social and religious traditions, and he will answer with a single word—“Love.”

Students from the University of Texas at Dallas gather at a Crosspointe Church home group. The home group meets every Friday night, often until 3 or 4 in the morning, according to Pastor Immanuel Thomas. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Crosspointe Church)

Thomas wants to befriend members of the rapidly growing Asian-Indian community in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to introduce them to the life-changing gospel message. Asian-Indians in the Dallas-Fort Worth area doubled in the last decade—from 49,043 in 2000 to 98,950 in 2010—the most recent census revealed.

Thomas regularly invests time, energy, home and heart to connect with his Asian-Indian neighbors and build relationships that will serve as a platform for evangelism.

“It takes time—maybe a year, two years, three years, seven years. It depends on how much time you spend with the person, but it’s basically (about) relationships,” he said.

Thomas is leading efforts to launch Crosspointe Church, sponsored by Hunters Glen Baptist Church in Plano. Texas Baptists provide assistance to new churches like Crosspointe through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

Every Thursday evening, Crosspointe Church sponsors an activity for Indian women. Pastor Immanuel Thomas provided child care while the women participated in scrapbooking. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Crosspointe Church)

Crossroad Church in Irving provided the outreach model for the new work in Plano. W.J. Subash—founding pastor of Crossroad, who will relocate this summer to India—recalled his observations that spawned the Irving church.

 “There was a major influx of Asian-Indian immigrants, but there was no church that had a strategic outreach to Asian-Indians,” he explained. “… We developed several home groups, and in 2008, a few leaders came together, and we thought we would launch a local church that would reach out to Asian-Indians here.”

Thomas served as an intern at Crossroad and led several home groups, witnessing the cultural challenges firsthand. The Indian way of life with its ingrained social customs, religions and caste system present several barriers that often must be broken before the gospel can readily be accepted, he said.

“They’re very family-oriented. … Even if a person comes to study here, he is very closely connected to the family back in India,” Thomas said.

Every other Saturday, Crosspointe Church sponsors a couples’ night featuring food, fellowship and discussion. Deepthi Thomas (2nd from right), whose husband is Crosspointe’s founding pastor, Immanuel Thomas, joins friends in an Indian board game, Carrom. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Crosspointe Church)

Consequently, trusting in Christ might result in an Asian-Indian being disowned by his or her family, he added.

“It’s a completely different thing for a Hindu to completely leave his background, leave his family and jump into Christianity. They’ll have to face opposition,” he said.

Since Asians generally consider America a “Christian nation,” the distorted picture of Americans presented in movies and other media may cause Indians to reject the gospel, because they see Americans as “disrespectful” and Christianity as a “white religion.”

“We have to break that idea that they have by showing them a love and affection. That’s the only way. The only way to do it is love. You have to spend money, you have to spend time, (and) you have to spend energy,” he said.

So that’s what he does—every day of the week. Each day includes some form of outreach, from Bible studies to couples’ meetings to scrapbooking nights and birthday parties. He also works extensively with area college students, particularly students of University of Texas at Dallas. He cooks, plays volleyball, gives rides, goes grocery shopping and builds bridges to people in the community.

Students enjoy food and fellowship at a Crosspointe Church home group.

“We invite them to our home, and then we build relationships slowly to share the gospel. We had two Christmas parties where we had about 250 people come, and they all heard the gospel for the very first time,” he said.

When leaders approached Thomas about taking the helm for Crosspointe, he prayed about it and felt God calling him to follow through. In July, he relocated his family to a predominantly Asian-Indian neighborhood, where he and his wife continue to lead local evangelism efforts and reach out to the community.

“One day—God is going to ask me: ‘Immanuel, I let this guy come in contact with you. Did you share the gospel?’ So, I’ve made a commitment that every student I meet every day, or any person I meet every day, I don’t stop without using the word Jesus, or I don’t end the conversation without saying something about God,” he said.  

He added that the best he can do is just “do his part,” loving them with a love he cited from Romans 5:5—“poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

“Our responsibility, our duty is to share the gospel and do all possible things. If it takes one year to befriend a person, fine. If you take one step, God can always help you take 10 steps,” he said.