THE INVISIBLE PILLARs
Gladson Anchan
Missionary • Evangelist • Mentor • RTMC member since the early 1990s
Gladson Anchan moved from Bombay to Bangalore in the early 1990s and became one of RTMC’s most purposeful lay leaders.
A missionary with the Indian Evangelical Mission and a board member of Mukti Mission, he brought to the congregation a missionary discipline and a clear sense of gospel purpose that shaped everything he did.
His focus was always the same: see the person in front of you, discern what God has placed in them, and help them become it.
“He identified spiritual gifts in young believers, discipled them, and released them into ministry — in the church and far beyond it.”
— Dr. Praveen Prasanna
His most visible legacy is the Srinagar Methodist Church, established around 1997–98 through his evangelism in a predominantly non-Christian neighbourhood off Mysore Road.
The late Mr. Dattatreya and his family were among those who came to faith through his witness there. Anchan and a small group from RTMC took turns sharing God’s Word at Srinagar on Sunday evenings — a commitment sustained not by programmes, but by fidelity.
Gladson and Ranja Anchan came to be regarded as spiritual parents by the Srinagar worshipping community.
As Chairman of RTMC’s Missions and Evangelism Committee, Anchan also initiated the Christmas evangelistic programme “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Over the years, the programme has reached many people from other faiths.
It was characteristic of his approach that the programme brought together genuine welcome and clear proclamation.
His influence was not limited to the programmes he initiated or the churches he helped establish. Much of it was invested quietly in people.
Dr. Praveen Prasanna, who took over the Austin Town Area Bible Study under Anchan’s mentorship, is one among many who trace a significant part of their formation to his patient investment.
Anchan saw what people could become before they saw it themselves.
Then he gave them the responsibility that helped make it real.
His legacy therefore belongs not only to the places where he served, but also to the people he equipped — people who carried what they had received from him into ministries and communities far beyond RTMC.
Profile based on a tribute by Dr. Praveen Prasanna, RTMC member. A fuller account is in Gladson Anchan’s testimony, “Moulded For a Purpose: A Journey of Faith.”
