Nepal is a land of mystery and contradiction where beauty and ugliness can be found side by side as companions to the people in their daily lives in the villages and towns of Nepal. (14)
My ministry recently took me across the Himalayas to the wonderful ancient land of Nepal. It’s been a bucket-list county for me these past 15 years, ever since I started researching Gurkha history for a youth novel I was writing (and have yet to publish).
Whenever I travel for ministry or otherwise, I always try to read book about the places I’m visiting. This time, I packed 3 books about ministry in Nepal and the Himalayan region that I was able to devour during long airport delays and cross-country flights. These books were:
- The Cross in the Land of the Khukuri by Norma Kehrberg (2000)
- God Spoke Tibetan by Allen Mayberly (2001)
- No Ordinary View by Naomi Reed (2006)
Each introduced me to the needs and opportunities of the area, yet all had their own unique takes as well. While this book might be considered the driest of the three, it was also by far the most informative regarding the history and culture of the region.
About the Book
Until the time of publication, Norma Kehrberg had spent 3 decades as a missionary in Nepal, learning the language and customs of the region and generally sticking with the people, through good times and bad (and there were certainly some bad times!). She published this work (which honestly feels more like a dissertation than your average book) mainly to report her team’s findings after interviewing 500 first-generation believers from across the land of Nepal.
While the findings in this study are highly informative and excellent data for researchers to ingest while conducting follow-up surveys or similar surveys in other areas, I found Kehrberg’s introductory chapters about her own ministry experiences and the history and customs of Nepal the most fascinating.
The Religions and Culture of Nepal
Up until this trip, I had only a small working knowledge of Nepali history, and really only that which led up to the Gurkha War in the early 19th Century! I was essentially going into the country blind but grateful to have had these chapters on hand before delving deeply into the nation myself. The following are some key bits of religious and cultural information I found helpful:
About Religion…
Nepal is the birthplace of Buddha and yet is the only Hindu country of the world. Until 1990, the law prohibited one to change one’s religion, but even before then, Nepalis were called to faith in Jesus Christ. (15)
The religion of Nepal, an eclectic mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism, animism and tantrism, does not fall within the descriptive Hinduism of the academic scholars… The most helpful approach to Hindu religion in Nepal is to consider the practices of the people. “Ordinary practicing Hindus are not greatly concerned about different schools of Hinduism. For them, religion consists in the worship of special beings (their gods) at particular times (holy days of the week or month, or annual festivals) in particular holy places (temples, shrines and altars”… Hinduism and Buddhism as practiced are a way of life, not easily distilled into a series of academic concepts. (65-66)
There is no concept of god in Buddhism as gathered from the teaching of Buddha. Over the years, however, and as a result of different understandings and schools of Buddhism, there is a pantheon of gods or deities that are worshipped. Some of these are Bodhisatvvas, those who have reached enlightenment but have chosen to remain on earth to teach others. (83)
From my own experiences, I saw a great many signs of Hinduism maintaining a hold on the culture, yet since I spent most of my time among Christian believers, Hinduism was actually all background noise to me. I saw some idols and statues, and everywhere around me were the tikka marks, the red dye on the forehead that usually signifies someone has done their worship. I even watched one hotel clerk perform a full 5-minute ritual with bells and incense throughout the corridors of my hotel’s first floor. It was a new experience for me, as my Asian experiences had otherwise taken me in heavily Buddhist or animist locations, but I don’t feel like I got the full taste of the darkness of Hinduism that I’d get if I’d just spent extended time with some proponents.
About Culture…
For the unprepared westerner, to live in and experience Nepal, a sense of humor is helpful. This allows you to laugh, with all the others, when you painfully bump your head against the top of the short Nepali door; to smile when the school children scramble up the mountain ahead of you then turn and watch you struggle up behind them; to realize how ridiculous you look swimming in a sari, with six yards of material floating over your head; to cool off in a stream, only to find ten water buffaloes cooling off upstream; and to endure the Nepali word kooney, a colloquial expression meaning “who knows?” when you really need to know if the airplane is coming to the remote mountain airstrip (34-35)
The best source of information for gauging discontent in any city of the world is to talk to the taxi drivers. (55)
I found the Nepali people of 2025 to be the friendliest, most smiley people in the world. Their concern for the guest didn’t have the same ulterior motives I felt in, say, Uganda. Their smiles and greetings were genuine, a far cry from the stares or scowls a foreigner might feel in, say, urban China. The hospitality from total strangers was warm and genuine and the closest I’ve felt since my time in rural Yunnan and Tibet.
The Indigenous Church in Nepal
Beyond these broad-stroke observations, Kehrberg also delved deeply into the history of Christianity in Nepal and the practices of its indigenous church, which I was surprised to read had kept itself fairly free of outside influence up to that point. Bearing in mind this book is now 25 years old and written by a foreign missionary, here are a few snippets of what she wrote:
About Local Practices…
Sunday is a regular workday in Nepal; Saturday is the traditional day off. In the early 1970s, some families of the main church started’ worshipping on Saturday afternoon, though with some hesitancy as the Nepalese Christians wanted to follow the scriptures, and to them the Sabbath meant Sunday. Saturday worship was obviously a sensible decision however, and soon it became the norm to hold Saturday worship services. (19)
Not far behind the Bible as an educational tool in sharing the gospel were the Christian songs. Unlike Hinduism, in which the act of worship is primarily an individual act, Christians gather together in communities to encourage one another and to grow in faith. The singing of Christian hymns was used to teach new believers and to encourage the new worshipping groups. One song was composed to serve as a common prayer and was used to remind believers of the need to share the Gospel inside Nepal. Across the plains of India, on the border of Nepal and in the Christian churches in Darjeeling, Nepalese sang and prayed for God to open the doors of Nepal. (96)
I would have been thrown by Saturday church, save for the fact that I read that part of this book before landing in Nepal! I was floored by the wonderful music in this country, among believers in church, at conferences, and in the orphanages I visited. Even today, there is a heavy culture of singing one’s experiences—even if it’s new words to an ancient tune—and the Nepali are great at keeping rhythm and moving to the music. I heard several hand-written songs during my short stay there, and while I couldn’t understand the words, I knew from those to whom they were sung that they were heartfelt and deep. Apart from the food, the music was my favorite takeaway.
About Church Leadership, Growth, and Denominationalism…
At one point, Kehrberg recounts a church’s search for a pastor, where one member concluded:
“If we are not able to pay for our pastor and have to rely on outside funds, we should not call one.” This wise discussion has been repeated in many other settings at other times. It has helped the Christian church in Nepal remain independent from foreign influence. It was and still is, free to be an indigenous church, to identify its own leaders and theology. (33)
The traditional mission pattern was to start the church with expatriate missionaries taking leadership positions and making most of the decisions. [But not so with the Nepali churches.]… Remaining apart from the foreign mission groups was a difficult decision for the original committee; wanting to avoid some of the mistakes and weaknesses that they recognized in other parts of the sub-continent, they organized independent of mission but opened their worship services to all. This significant decision to separate the church and mission has allowed the church in Nepal to develop its own theology and to identify its own leaders. (100)
The churches in Nepal primarily share the same doctrine but with different practices. All churches in Nepal can be described as charismatic, but some groups put more focus on having the gift of speaking in tongues than do others. Long praise sessions, where everyone prays out loud at the same time, are a standard part of the worship service in all churches. Common in charismatic churches in other parts of the world, this practice enables those who have the gift of tongues to use that gift without alienating others in the membership who do not have this gift; thus, having the gift is not divisive. At the end of the decade of the 1990s, however, it was not uncommon though to hear some church leaders state that they were not charismatic; they did not focus on the gift of tongues. (120)
One thing we visitors noticed from our discussions with church leaders in Nepal was that denominationalism really wasn’t a thing. Of course, they had their church names and affiliations, but you honestly couldn’t quite tell a Baptist from a Pentecostal, because they were all mingling together with the Methodists and Presbyterians. I wouldn’t call it “Ecumenical”—instead I’d describe it more as a bunch of kindergarteners on “sports day” at school, whose parents dressed them in their own favorite uniforms: few kids really cared who wore what, and even fewer were beholden to the team whose colors they wore. Instead, they were just a bunch of kids who enjoyed hanging out with their friends. Denominationalism is a necessary evil, but the type of innocent Christian unity we saw in Nepal is more first-century than most churches can boast today.
Norma Kehrberg’s Study
It would be unkind to report on the full findings of her study, so I’ll just note a few of the statistics that stood out to me as I read.
About Healings
180 (34%) of the participants identified healing or some aspect of healing as the main reason that they became Christian. Of that number 102 (19%) became Christian because they were healed personally while 78 (15%) became a Christian because a member of their family was healed. (149)
This is still a phenomenon among the believers in Nepal and shocking to me. I still don’t fully understand it all, as I come from a U.S.-based, independent Baptist background where “healings” are as rare long-haired deacons. Still, one can’t deny the long history of prayer-for-healing that results in individuals, families, and even whole villages turning to Christ. The question is, however, in what are those people really putting their trust? A Jesus who can heal their physical ailments, or the Messiah whose death and resurrection can heal their broken souls? Are these conversions acceptance-based for what Jesus can give or repentance-based for what Jesus has done?
A follow-up question (one that I asked a few pastors) is: What happens when this same person who came to Christ because of a healing gets cancer and doesn’t enjoy the same kind of miracle? What happens to the faith of the family and village when those once healed eventually get sick again and die (like all of Jesus’ own miracle-recipients)?
About the Holy Spirit
In this study, however, there are only four references to the Holy Spirit from the participants. Three references to the Holy Spirit were recorded in the definitions given for being Christian; the only other reference was from one participant who stated that the Holy Spirit had assisted during a time of temptation to resist returning to the previous religion. No participant referred to the Holy Spirit in their reasons for becoming Christian, in relating a dream or in stating how they shared their faith with others. This disparity in identifying the Holy Spirit between church leaders and individual participants is quite marked. It could be attributed to the fact that the pastors and leaders have a deeper understanding of the Christian faith; they realize and experience the extraordinary support and power that comes in the form of the go-between God, the Holy Spirit. Most of the pastors who attribute the growth of the church to the work of the Holy Spirit are national leaders of the churches and are based in Kathmandu, whereas the majority of the study participants were from outside the urban centers; the disparity could be seen as a kind of urban bias. The finding suggests that the concept of the Holy Spirit, its teaching and place in Christian doctrine, may need to be examined more fully by the church leaders as they continue to develop a theology for Nepal. (170)
I kick myself for not engaging more pastors (especially in the 2 urban centers we visited that weren’t Kathmandu) in conversations about the Holy Spirit and his presence in the body of believers. I definitely don’t recall it being a topic of any of my conversations, though that’s not evidence that things haven’t changed over the past 25 years. I’m very curious about this question (now that I’ve re-read my highlights!), so it might become part of my follow-up communications with the contacts I’ve made.
Faithfulness to the gospel may be the most important finding of this study. A natural concern of a first-generation church is the degree to which the new believers understand what they believe. This is critical in a country where the dominant and protected religion has been Hindu, a religion that offers many paths to the way of salvation; for some Hindus, they may consider belief in Jesus Christ as a path. However, that is not Christian belief. Faithfulness to the gospel may be a greater concern in Nepal where the church grew spontaneously from the oral sharing of one first-generation believer to another rather than from a codified catechism. What is the message that the new believers are sharing? Arising within a Hindu context, from an isolated perspective and in a church that grew somewhat covertly, is the communicated message faithful to the gospel? (185)
Similar to the issues that arise from healings above, this remains a major concern in any community that’s “new to the Gospel.” What do they actually believe? How much syncretism is at play, especially when “the Gospel” is passed from one illiterate person to another based on healing experiences and dreams, and especially in a polytheistic locale like Nepal? The believers we met were strong in their faith, literate, Gospel-focused, and craving deeper Bible training. The same can’t be said of all the church members, of course, but every church must allow such room for growth. The Nepali Christians we met were very much aware of the dangers of syncretism, shunning many of “the former things” of their Hindu backgrounds. I trust that these 25 years have proven healthy for the church, and that even more time will strengthen it further.
Conclusion
This was an excellent book for me to read on my flight over to Nepal. Outdated as it might be, it provided a wonderful groundwork of history and culture from a Western viewpoint that proved helpful in grounding me during my first experiences there.
The further purpose of the book, to investigate the lives of 500 first-generation Christians in Nepal, was also incredibly informative to me, as I was able to meet many such first-generation and even some second-generation believers during my short stay. While this experience tells me that the Nepali church could use some long-term investment in training, I found the local assemblies I visited to be vibrant, Gospel-focused gatherings of Spirit-filled brothers and sisters. It was an honor to join them in worship and to share some messages from the Word, and I would not be surprised if Nepali believers become a driving force for evangelism and church planting in the more hostile regions of their corner of the globe.
I conclude this longer post with the author’s own apt and final words:
As the Nepalese Christian community grows and matures, following the living God and sharing its faith among Hindu and Buddhist, animist and Muslim, from the tops of the Himalayas to the plains of the terai, the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be shackled, contained or bound. It is freely given and is freely received. The message of the gospel is that all may be one in Jesus Christ. (193)
©2025 E.T.