History of Pfutsero Town Baptist Chuch by Rev. Zupelhi Mero

(Extracted from PTBC Golden Jubilee Souvenir)

The formation of Pfütsero Town Baptist Church was different from the way the village churches had formed. In most villages, churches had started with converts from animism but this town church grew out of the fellowship of CBCC staff along with the early settlers of the town. The early churches of the entire Chakhesang area at one time came under the banner of Kohima District Church Council but in order to administer the word of God more effectively, the Chakhesang Church Council is formed in the year 1950 with its Centre at Phezu, Phek. But since the place was given to the Assam Rifle by the local people there arose the need to shift the Centre. When a decision was to be taken by the Council, concerning shifting of the Centre to a new place, most areas wanted to have the Centre set up in their areas and for which the Council had met many times to resolve the impasse. Ultimately, the Council decided that the matter should be resolved by lot. With prayer the lot was taken and it went in favour of Pfütsero. Following this, the CBCC Mission Centre started to function at Pfütsero in the year 1961.

When the Mission Staff settled down at this town I was then asked to look after the Sunday programmes as pastor. Then I also approached the teachers of Government High School to get their cooperation in starting regular Sunday services in the school and their response was very positive. With the beginning of Sunday worship services, Sunday School classes also begins.

For some years, the church was functioning in this borrowed building but not forgetting its task of mission. It may be also noted that even prior to 1961 some kind of informal fellowship was in existence amongst the few settlers of the place with Ngulo Khape as in-charge of the fellowship.

Once the fellowship of the believers begins in any place, it is natural that building a church of its own becomes the common concern of every believer. As the Mission Centre was in its infancy stage coupled with thin settlers of the town the school building was continue to be used for about two years. At the same time the search was on to acquire the church site and we succeeded in acquiring one location opposite to the present site which was given by the Kapfo clan of Lekromi village.

At that site, the first church building made of thatch materials, measuring 50’X30’was erected in the year 1963.

In the following year the first Christmas Feast was offered to the members of this Church by Mr & Mrs Benyi Kapfo. But before too long, the church was completely burnt down due to wild fire and, therefore, we shifted the place of our fellowship to the Bible School in Mission Compound.

When the plan to build a new church was contemplated, the original site had come to be considered as too small from the future point of view. Therefore, the present site was proposed for selection. The decision to build the church at this site was initially opposed by some members saying that it was not easily accessible to many of the members in those days there were hardly any inhabitant, except few Government offices, beyond Menyitsüda range. But due to some kind of divine intervention everyone could finally welcome the selection of the site.

The site which was proposed and accepted for construction of the church belonged to two groups of people. A portion of it belonged to PFUTSEROMI VILLAGE and the other portion of it belonged to VERO CLAN OF KIKRUMA VILLAGE, THE DECENDANTS OF LATE YINÜ VERO, the founder of Kikrüma Village. But when we approached them with the request to give us their land to build the church there they happily offered it for the greater Glory of God. And as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee age of our church we implore God’s blessing for the Vero Clan of Kikrüma and Pfutseromi Village for the generosity demonstrated through deeds.

Since this very site was used as helipad by the army and that the situation was not yet normal like today there were some difficulties to procure it. However, around this time, by providence, a believer from South India was there as Commander at this army post. When we approached him with our humble request, stating to him that the town was not yet having a church building of its own and that we wanted to build our church at their very helipad, he answered us saying that it was not within his authority to grant us our prayer but he was so kind hearted and, therefore, he directed us as to how we should approach the higher set up in order to succeed in our plan. Following his guidelines, the church leaders along with the prominent public leaders of the town approached the GOC at Jakhama with our request. After a while, with God’s help, the GOC had directed us to approach the State Government.

Without delay we established contact with those in power and finally it was handed over to us with the visit of Sri N. Theyo, the then Transport Minister of Nagaland, on the 16th of October 1973. With a prayer by Rev. V.K.Nuh the visiting Minister had pronounced that the works of the new church building could begin henceforth. Concerning the selection of this site we believe that the Spirit of God was intervening on our behalf because it was also revealed to some people in dreams that the Word of God would be proclaimed from this place.

The first church built on this helipad was 80 feet in length and 42 feet in width and for this construction work Mr Pfükrünyi Kazhie was the Building Committee Chairman and Mr Ngulo Kronu was the Treasurer. For this undertaking, the Church had resorted to raising of fund through allotting of budget to all households once and one time free will donation. Different leaders and the contractors of our town had done their best in finding different types of works for earning by the members without taxing so much on the individual families. It took a little more than three years to build the church at the cost of Rs. 1,47,383/-. And on the 2nd of April 1977, the church was dedicated to God with the presence of Rev. Longri Ao, the then General Secretary of NBCC. In order to administer the word of God more effectively in the pastoral ministry, I was ordained on the same occasion as recommended by the CBCC.

In the beginning, when the church was yet to have a building of its own, the members consisted of the CBCC Centre staff, teachers and few others who settled down in the town. With the increasing population of the town the congregation of the church also grew but for some years most churches in villages were not willing to issue Transfer Certificate to their members. On account of this, for about five years no one had brought their TC. The matter was discussed very seriously even at the CBCC level and after appealing many times to the pastors the members had started bringing their TC to the church. The first baptised person to bring TC to our church was Puchotolü from Porbami church in the month of May in 1966. After realising the need of TC by the church for its members, the pastors of different villages started to issue TC to their members asking for it and the baptised membership began to grow.

From 1961 to 1970 I was serving as pastor on part time basis. In between this period, late T. Medo also served as pastor for one year on the same basis in the year 1968. My pastoral ministry on full time basis commenced from 1970 to 1994.

The church leaders, seeing the prospect of its growth, had planned that the church should extend itself in three directions in future – East (Reku), West(PWD) and North (Rukizu). However, at present, we have sixteen independent churches in this township. And amongst them the following four churches are the direct offspring of this church: 1. Revival Church(1976); 2. Mission Church(1980); 3. Rukizu Baptist Church (1984); and 4. Calvary Baptist church (1988). These four churches got separated themselves from the parent church, not on account of disagreement, but on convenience. In spite of the emergence of so many churches in the same township, the membership of this church has not dwindled. On the contrary, this parent church is growing fastest.

In the year 1988 a Revival Meeting was conducted by our church in which 112 persons had taken baptism in a day. In the course of my pastoral ministry I have given baptism to so many people but this was the largest number of people that I had given in a day. Again in the year 1990, Parents’ Camp and Youth Holiday Camp were conducted, at different times, leading to baptism of 115 persons. Following these events, the numerical strength of the church grew more rapidly and for all these, we give thanks to the Almighty.

Prior to 1990s, the church was not in a position to focus much on outside mission. In the earlier years, the task of the church was directed more towards home evangelism and sponsoring few non local students to study theology to prepare them for mission work. During the initial years of BTC, our church sponsored the salary of the Principal. In 1990s, the church started to sponsor two native missionaries in Arunachal Pradesh. The two missionaries being sponsored by us at present are Bigo Doke, Executive Secretary of GBCC and Jomto Eshi, Evengelist. Recently, we started sponsoring two missionaries Subrai and Sukumar in Tripura.

During the last three decades, the Church undertook several projects such as building Sunday School class rooms, Church Guest House, School, Pastor’s Residences, Mission Project Building, and the herculean task of building a New Church. The need to start the Sunday School to strengthen the Church in its foundation was felt for quite some years and the same was constructed in 1983. This was followed by a bigger project the construction of the church guest house and-meeting place. The plot of the present Guest House was purchased in 1984 and there a two storey building was constructed where the quests were accommodated in the ground floor and the first floor was used by Rev. Akha Shupao, who was the then pastor. In order to support outside mission, in 1989 a plot was purchased in Dimapur and we erected a building there which was inaugurated in 1990 and the same is being looked after by the Church Mission Department. The Church Guest House which was constructed near the Saw Mill was considered to be a little far from the church, therefore the construction of another Guest House, nearer to the church, started in 1993 and a part of it was completed in the year 1994 and the same was used for sometime in 1995. But since the place was too close to the Army Camp it was considered to be inconvenient in certain ways. Therefore, it was converted into a school. Accordingly, the Baptist School was started in 1996 with the initiation of Rev. Akha Shupao. This School was established with the aim of imparting quality education which will strengthen the Church. The school was upgraded to class 10 standard in 2006 and over the years we have been noticing healthy signs of growth.

Realizing the need to have a proper residence for pastor, a plot adjacent to the church with temporary structure was purchased way back in 1978 and the church caretaker stayed there. After the completion of the first floor in 2003, Pastor Rev. Akha Shupao was accommodated there for some time.

Later the ground floor for Associate Pastor was completed in 2004. When Rev. Dr. N. Chiero assumed the office of pastorship in 2004, the school was in need of an Assembly Hall and therefore we constructed it in 2007. Also seeing the space congestion of the church compound and realising the need for future development, the site under the occupation of the AR has been acquired by the church in May 2005 by disposing a site owned by the church below the NAP Camp. But the biggest and the most challenging task awaits him the gigantic task of the New Church Building for which the Foundation Stone was laid on 21st August 2005. It was planned that this New Church should be built in the same place by dismantling the old structure. The cost of the New Church Building was first estimated at Rs.150 lakhs. And the first hand construction to this herculean task was started with much enthusiasm on the first working day of January 2008. But as we entered the fourth year of construction the actual expenditure has already exceeded Rs.200 lakhs. At the same time, with God’s unending grace coupled with the able pastorship of Rev. Dr. N. Chiero and the cheerful giver of the church members, we are in a position to dedicate this New Church building humbly before the Glory of God on 17th December 2011. The dedication of the New Church building will be followed by the grand celebration of the Church Golden Jubilee.

God Bless!