In the history of the Lotha Baptist Churches Association (LBCA), April 5th 2022, marked as the Red letter Day, where 85 Lotha Baptist Churches gathered at Okotso Baptist Church to officially announce the formation of the LBCA-R with the sole objective to reform the LBCA which was deeply affected because of the violation of the core ideology of Baptist distinctive and doctrinal beliefs, abuse of LBCA constitution and undermining of the local church autonomy by the then unified LBCA leaders over the past 20 odd years. Keeping in mind the struggles, the uncertainties and reflecting the complexities of change in the formation of the Reformist group within the LBCA, initially many Churches were disheartened and discouraged. However, with Reverends & Pastors from the concerned churches based in Kohima & Dimapur painstakingly promoting the cause of reformation, many Lotha Baptist Churches rallied behind their slogan of reforming the LBCA, the result of which is reflected when the LBCA-R grew in numbers up to 107 Churches. The 10 points drafted and signed by these leaders on April 10, 2022 on why the Reformation is necessitated within the LBCA is still fresh in our minds and the ink is still not dried.
Owing to some circumstances, the LBCA-R leadership were forced to resign on June 15, 2023 and on July 14, 2023, new leadership under the incumbent Executive Secretary LBCA-R was instated. Within a span of less than 2 years since the coming of the LBCA-R, there was a paradigm shift from the initial stand of reforming the LBCA to reconciliation.
The question is – who would not want reconciliation? But reconciliation at the cost of what? At the cost of undermining the truth so that another lie is born to convince the believers that there is nothing greater than forgiveness and reconciliation, that our Baptist Doctrines which our forefathers had accepted and defended as sacred and divine was a lie, that our Baptist distinctive which we have respected and practiced all these years were valueless and any one on any day can disregard and violate the autonomy of Local Churches, that our constitution which has guided us for over 100 years is just an inking on some paper pages that we can refer to if we want and disregard it if the LBCA Articles and Clauses stands against our selfish interest, or what else?
Believers, when two brothers fight, the father who calls both of them, reprimands the wrong, pacify the other to forgive and make them reconcile is wise. But the father who simply calls both the brothers to compromise unconditionally is foolish because very soon the two brothers will turn into bigger and never ending fight. When Jesus entered Jerusalem and found the Temple in mess, he did not compromise. He overturns the tables, drives out merchants and cleanses the Temple and restores the sanctity of the Temple. Perhaps our believers who once stood tall to the cause of restoring our once LBCA Glory died down, convinced and pacified by false narratives of our own spiritual leaders, or perhaps our Reverends and Pastors failed to understand the meaning of Jesus restoring the Temple. This is a spiritual warfare, and there can never be compromise without correcting the wrong first, or else it will be generational misguide to our believers.
Today, the believers and leaders of LBCA-R are going through pain and shame, left in the wilderness midway even by the pioneers. Who knows, they may have left the reformation ship, seeking greener pastures for leadership, recognition, name and fame. In the name of One Lotha, One
LBCA, much damage to our faith and believe has been done. We have compromised our own dignity and integrity.
We have in the past, voiced out against all that is wrong and misconduct. Then how can we allow a Pastors’ Conference to override a legitimate association to call for a reconciliation meeting which rather turned out to be a compromised association today. Be it know to all that the Pastor Conference, which is just a fellowship of the Pastors within the LBCA, is never authorize by the LBCA Constitution to take decision on behalf of the LBCA. LBCA-R was and is never against reconciliation but our stand is clear, the wrong has to be corrected first before any reconciliation process. Today, almost all churches heeded the call of the Pastors Conference for compromise, but unfortunately it again started with a wrong system. If the intend of the LBCA-R pioneers was to compromise from the very beginning, why did they misguided the believers for so long, why waste so much of our believers resources, why created divisions and hatreds within brotherhood, why?
The LBCA also express strongest displeasure against the leaders of the Pastor Conference for spreading misinformation and rumours that the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) is setting the deadline for the LBCA to reconcile and if reconciliation did not happen before the deadline the NBCC is all set to discipline the LBCA whereby all the Lothas staff currently employed in the NBCC office and the Lotha mission workers under Nagaland Missionary Movement (NMM) will be terminated from their service. While no such official diktat has ever come from the NBCC, this misinformation and rumours spread by the leaders of the Pastor Conference had cause undue panic and mislead many pastors and members of the Church.
The LBCA express unfortunate for exploiting the good office of the NBCC by some groups and individuals to serve their selfish interest.
While forgiveness and reconciliation constitute the core tenets of Christian faith and the hope of every believers, LBCA cannot effort to undertake a costly misadventure by placing the cart before the horse. As stated clearly, the LBCA crisis is related to doctrinal issues which cannot be settled at personal level by simply forgiving each other. Forgiveness doesn’t meant covering up mistakes. Doing so will only create undue precedence in future emboldening others to commit the same mistakes again by using forgiveness as a licence. The reason why LBCA (Reformation) remain committed to reforming the LBCA in the first place is to place different priorities at the right perspectives to avoid any future complications.
The leadership of the LBCA on its part will continue its endeavours to engage with all the stakeholders of the LBCA, and deliberate honestly and openly and without any reservation on the misrule and mismanagement of the past leaders and correct those wrongs of the past. And in order to initiate the process of forgiveness, healing and restoration of the LBCA, the LBCA also expect from the past leaders of the LBCA, who are unfortunately on the wrong side, to acknowledge before God and believers their misdeeds and rectify the same which is the only surest path to a true reconciliation for the LBCA.
Somewhere far and beyond, we know there are believers who are still committed and strong in our cause. All is not lost as long as you are there. LBCA-R will continue to hold our cause high.
Media Cell
LBCA-R, Vankhosüng
Tuesday, July 1, 2025