✞ FOREWORD
From the Senior Pastor’s Desk
Rev. Rajesh Anand • Senior Pastor, Richmond Town Methodist Church
Dear People of God,
The story of Richmond Town Methodist Church is not your story, and neither is it mine. It is His story — the story of Jesus, and of our living God’s faithfulness across 150 years. The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds us: ‘If we are faithless, He remains faithful.’ (2 Tim 2:13) Has God been faithful to Richmond Town Methodist Church? Without a shadow of doubt: yes, He has.
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful.”
2 Timothy 2:13
God’s faithfulness is a doctrine both weighty and deeply practical. It is not something to be acknowledged only in Bible study or from the pulpit. His faithfulness matters every day — in our lives and in the life of the church. It matters when we fail. It matters when we fail again. One thing we must ponder is this: how does God’s faithfulness impact our past, our present, and our future?
The faithfulness of God means He is unchanging in His nature, true to His Word, committed to the salvation of His people, and certain to keep His promises forever. He is worthy of eternal trust, no matter how unlikely His promises may seem. Nothing in heaven or on earth can prevent God from accomplishing all that He has promised His people through Jesus Christ. And this faithfulness of God to us should be the primary motivator for our faithfulness to Him. Hebrews 10:23 exhorts us to hold unwaveringly to the hope of Christ’s effective priestly work on our behalf — because the One who promised is faithful.
That faithfulness then takes shape in the everyday practices of the Christian life: spurring one another to love and good deeds, and habitually gathering with other believers for worship (Heb 10:24–25). Ultimately, God’s faithfulness motivates our faithful living as we longingly anticipate the return of Christ. One day the Faithful One will appear in the clouds and accomplish the final sanctification and purification of His people (1 Th 5:24). Until then, let us a Church be faithful and humble.
As we celebrate 150 years of God’s faithfulness, this magazine — Grace & Growth — documents the story of RTMC through His grace. It gives us a glimpse of our heritage. So let us continue to grow in the Word, live in the Word, be strong in the Word, be instructed by the Word, protected by the Word, and preserved through the Word.
Why? Because it was Bishop William Taylor — a faithful servant of God — who came to Bangalore as an evangelist and sowed the seed of God’s Word. That seed has grown into the tree that stands today. Richmond Town Methodist Church is built on God’s Word. Let us never forget it.
As I close, let me remind the church: no church grows by human power. It grows by the power of God. As Zechariah 4:6 declares:
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 4:6
God bless.
He should increase; I must decrease.
In His service,
Rev. Rajesh Anand
Senior Pastor
Richmond Town Methodist Church, Bangalore
