Rev. Dr. Vivek Gundimi looks back on a decade of ministry at RTMC • 2017–2026

“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 4:6
Written under the ceiling and above the Altar at RTMC. The verse I could not stop seeing.

If you asked me to name my single most vivid memory of Richmond Town Methodist Church, I would not name a sermon or a programme. I would name a Bible verse — the one written under the ceiling above the Altar: Zechariah 4:6. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.’

It was there every Sunday morning, above everything, as I looked out at the congregation. I read it more times than I can count. It never stopped being relevant.

That verse, in many ways, captures what I observed and experienced across nine years at RTMC. The church is Caring, Spirit-filled, and Authentic — three words that came to mind immediately when asked to describe it in three words, and that still feel exact.

The congregation welcomed me not simply as a pastor but as part of a spiritual family. The ministry here taught me that walking with people is as inseparable from the calling as preaching to them.

A Decade of Resilience

The years 2015 to 2025 were, by any measure, a decade of testing. Bangalore was changing rapidly — urbanisation, the growth of the IT and startup sectors, increasing migration, traffic pressures, social and economic shifts.

And then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and disrupted everything: families, employment, the very possibility of gathering together as a congregation.

What I observed at RTMC during those years was resilience. The pandemic especially tested our faith, our fellowship, and our way of worship — but it also taught us to persevere, to embrace new ways of connecting, and to appreciate community more deeply than we had before.

Moving to online services and Zoom Bible studies was not without its awkwardness, but the congregation adapted with a determination that I found genuinely moving. The decade ended not with depletion but with new beginnings.

The church sought to remain relevant to a city that was itself in flux: strengthening pastoral care, engaging with a growing and increasingly diverse population, supporting people in times of practical need, and never setting aside prayer, discipleship, and fellowship as the foundation of everything else.

What the Church Was Doing Well

Several parts of the congregation’s life stood out to me across those years.

The WSCS, the Senior Citizen Fellowship, and the Sunday School were each serving with consistency and commitment — not only within RTMC but reaching beyond its walls into the wider community. Their faithfulness to unglamorous, sustained service is something the church should name and honour.

My own work during this period centred on pastoral care: introducing a Prayer Request Form to help the congregation name and share its needs, and offering weekly counselling — including premarital counselling and support for those navigating difficulties in relationships and professional life.

These were not high-profile initiatives. But in the lives of the people who used them, they mattered.

I continue to carry a concern for the Mission and Evangelism Committee, and I pray that God opens doors for concentrated, imaginative outreach into Bangalore’s urban neighbourhoods. The city is large, and it is changing fast.

The church’s instinct to serve it has always been there; what I hope for is the strategy to match the instinct.

Richmond Town, Then and Now

Richmond Town itself changed considerably across the years I was here. The quiet, familiar streets became busier. Older homes gave way to apartments and commercial buildings. Many families I had known in the neighbourhood moved away, and the area took on a more cosmopolitan, fast-paced character.

The Richmond Town of 2026 is a different place from the Richmond Town of 2017.

And yet some things held. The character of the old streets is still there if you look for it. Johnson Market is still Johnson Market. The aroma of the beef rolls still finds you. Prakash Tailors is still welcoming. Fanoos and Hotel Select are still landmarks.

A neighbourhood changes in layers, and the older layers do not simply disappear.

“Don’t schedule God into your life. Schedule your life around God.”
— Rev. Dr. Vivek Gundimi, his message to the congregation of 2075

Two Moments I Carry with Me

Among the sermons and services of nine years, one stands apart in my memory.

It was called ‘Revival in the Rattle’ — drawn from Ezekiel 37:11–14, the valley of dry bones. I preached it as a God-moment, and it stayed with me as one.

The image of bones coming together, the breath entering them, the standing up of a great army — it is a passage about what God can do with what looks finished. I needed to preach that sermon as much as anyone needed to hear it.

The other moment is less theological and considerably funnier.

During a second morning service, my laptop froze mid-sermon. In all my years of preaching, I had never felt nervous in quite that way — the notes inaccessible, the congregation watching, the silence suddenly very loud.

I told them plainly what had happened, opened my Bible to the text, and continued. I sensed the Spirit simply saying: ‘Speak.’

So I did.

Afterwards, I realised that no one seemed to have noticed anything wrong except me. God was, as He always is, faithful.

There is a related memory that still makes me smile.

Before one service I told the congregation, ‘Please put on your seat belts before we begin, for a safe ride.’

After the service, greeting people at the door, one member came up and said:

“Pastor, you never told us to take off our seat belts after the sermon.”

Sometimes the congregation listens more carefully than we realise.

The Healing and Communion Sunday, held every third Sunday at 6 p.m., was another consistent thread across these years.

Again and again, members and visitors testified to physical, psychological, and emotional healings and deliverances. I do not know how to explain all of what I witnessed. I know that it was real, and that it happened in this place.

[Place WINSLOW – Image No. 53 of Pastor Vivek here within the article.]

And then there were the Barbecue Nights on every fifth Sunday after the Sing Song worship service — food, fellowship, and laughter in the compound, which is perhaps the most accurate summary of what RTMC is at its best: a community that worships together and then stays together, around a table, for no particular reason except that it does not want to go home quite yet.

Rev. Dr. Vivek Gundimi
Associate Pastor, Richmond Town Methodist Church • 2017–2026