Sheila and I, we’ve been married 29-and-a-half years. I count every day, every hour. We have a lot of differences — pretty, pleasing; perfectionist, playful; passionate, yeah I’m passionate too. She likes to close all the windows before sleeping. I get up two-three times to open those windows. (She) likes to keep the AC on at the minimum temperature. She’s a Siberian Husky. I get up and I like to throw the AC out of the open windows. I’m a hound.
But we’ve both had some fantastic Christian upbringing. Sheila is involved in several NGOs. She’s heading the Women’s Leadership Network, which is part of the Global Leaders Network in India. And we were blessed with amazing childhoods — godly parents, Evangelical home. Her father was a pastor for 35 years for a very vibrant church in the city of Hyderabad in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. It’s a church which spawned many pastors.
And I — my father was an English teacher. And I remember most of the education had to happen outside of the classroom. So after the dinner table many kids would sit around listening to his stories, his mesmerising voice, for those of you who know him, and his compelling content. And from those bunches of kids who used to listen to those value-based stories, we’ve had two Chief Ministers, Union Ministers, Chief Secretaries, diplomats, UN representatives, Bollywood, cricket commentators, 90 CEOs, and I just checked before lunch — three of the top 10 CEOs in the world are from that list. So I had this amazing upbringing, but I can’t boast much about it because I was on the other side of the scale — very mediocre, and struggled through my career so much as just a mere rat in the rat race.
But in 2006 on New Year’s Day I thought I was making it a little bit because I was in the US and I was taking a walk on New Year’s Day, as I always pray when I walk, in the very dusty landscape of Phoenix, Arizona punctuated by the saguaro cacti. And there I was praying, saying, “Lord, is this what my life is all about? I’ve made it a little bit, but I don’t get no satisfaction.” And God was compelling me to come back to India. I had a lot of struggle with the family and many people who got it confirmed now — that I was mad. But we came back in 2007. And one thing, which was a promise, that when I came back, we got wholeheartedly involved in ministries.
In April 2020 I lost my job at the start of the pandemic. A pretty good job. And I joined a startup. And it just occurred to me that a startup is such a wonderful difference from an established organisation. Because in the startup world, especially the business startup world, there’s so much energy. There’s so much positivity. There’s so much learning, which I learned. I was introduced as a HR guy but in the past four years I’ve been doing AI, ML, creating a private LLM. So much learning in a startup world. But that’s the business startup world.
In one or two sentences if I have to describe how a Christian startup is different from a business startup — if you take away the profit motive, and if you add a spiritual purpose to it, more or less you’ve got a Christian startup. And that’s where love rules the day, and where God’s wisdom and guidance is there every day.
I want to talk today, and we want to share about the Christian startup world, where the words are very different. It’s about pleasing God, honouring God. It’s about service, guidance, meaningful leadership, servanthood, servant leadership, positive relationships, blessings. In one or two sentences if I have to describe how a Christian startup is different from a business startup — if you take away the profit motive, and if you add a spiritual purpose to it, more or less you’ve got a Christian startup. And that’s where love rules the day, and where God’s wisdom and guidance is there every day. So our whole purpose of telling our story today is to talk about Christian startups and to encourage each one of you. You heard some fantastic startup stories in the morning. Every story was so inspiring. We’ve been involved, not at the helm, but in some way or so we’ve been involved in startups.
One story which I wanted to tell you is about LeadTalks itself. When the first LeadTalks happened in Chennai in February 2017,I don’t know why, but I was invited from Hyderabad. Myself and Sam Rufus. And since then I’ve been part of every single LeadTalks, except one of course, and The Witness sessions. There have been, as was told to you, nine LeadTalks before this, two The Witness sessions, and today is the 10th. There have been about 6,000 live participants; the online content is a bigger hit. There are 101 talks. Some talks are not online, but the YouTube video reach is 4.3 million. Amazing, isn’t it? Forty-five thousand organic — we say ‘organic’ because there’s no digital marketing, no marketing at all — organic subscribers, and 467,000 hours of viewing. Amazing. Joshua is going to talk. In fact, he was supposed to talk before lunch, and then time was a little tight. But I hope he does, on ‘Why LeadTalks?’
But I want to tell you, ‘How LeadTalks?’ is about so much prayer. So much planning. So much preparation. So much incredible talent juxtaposed with great humility. So much wisdom and guidance. What you see here on the stage is just 1%. So I want to encourage you to do something like that. The space is wide open.
And then, in a few seconds I’ll hand it over to Sheila, who’s — by the way, I don’t know why they do this. Whenever we walk into a church or anywhere, they call her ‘akka’ and they call me ‘uncle.’ Always. People of all age groups call her ‘akka,’ and people older than me also call me ‘uncle.’ So I’m going to hand it over to her to speak about two other startups. Christian startups that we were involved in in our life. God has given us this great, great pleasure. Because it’s a beautiful world and we want to encourage you to be a part of the startups. Go ahead, take it all.
Thank you, uncle — I mean Pramod. Well, growing up in the city of Hyderabad back then. You know, long time back. Not in his generation. My generation’s time. The YMCA conducted a lot of Bible competitions in Hyderabad. These competitions were the most exciting competitions for us as kids then. And these competitions were exciting because we got to make a lot of friends, and we had healthy competitions among each other. And one of my greatest competitors was Rufus Nallaraj. I’m sure most of you all know him. By doing these, we built up a lot of confidence among the children and we grew up together. It was really a fantastic time when the YMCA conducted these competitions. Now this also had a very tremendous effect on my life. And for me, at that time, it was all about the competition. I had to win the competition. It was all about winning. It was all about the prizes.
Whenever I went through any kind of problem or trial, I always went back to James 1:2 & 3, which says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds.” The Bible really came alive to me and that gave me the peace, the calm assurance that we needed.
Now, little did I know that subconsciously, the Bible was ingrained in my mind. As I grew up, I realised that my Christian life itself started changing. Because I remember memorising the whole book of James when I was a kid. And that was for one of the quiz competitions. And that became really practical to me. In my daily life it became practical. Whenever I went through any kind of problem or trial, I always went back to James 1:2 & 3, which says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds.” The Bible really came alive to me and that gave me the peace, the calm assurance that we needed.
This really triggered off and set off something in our minds. And we thought, Why can’t we share the same peace, the same calm assurance, with younger kids? Because they are the next generation, and they would see that it is more important to them in the kind of times that we have. So in 2015, we all got together as a group of truly committed Christian leaders, and we recreated the whole competition on a much, much larger scale, and we called it ‘Champs For Christ.’
With a great, ambitious vision, meticulous planning, days and days of hard work, we emerged with this giant version of gospel competitions. It was on a great, extravagant scale, for thousands of children. It was thousands of kids. Hundreds of churches participated in it. We had many volunteers and judges, and had to have a lot of organisers. So there we were. We started the first competition. The first year was a complete error. We struggled. Actually it was trial and error. But we struggled, and we made it work. And as the years went by, it got much better; and now it’s the most sought after competition for Christian kids all over Hyderabad.
When youngsters and children have public exams, you see the kids studying at the last minute, right? You see them all over the gardens, under the trees, on the benches, on the footpaths, they’ll be going through the last-minute portions, right? This is exactly what we see. We hire a school for our competitions. This is exactly what we see. We see little children, from ages four to 17, memorising the scriptures, learning the Word of God. And you know, every time I think about it, my hair stands up. Whenever I think about it, it just makes me excited because these kids are learning the Word of God. That’s all we need. What more do we need? When we see our kids memorising the scriptures and learning, more than the grand numbers or the involvement of children or the churches, it’s a personal impact that has been made on the child. And that’s what makes the great difference. That’s what gives us deep satisfaction as a group.
Our team is an awesome team. We have a beautiful team of husband-and-wife couples. And all sorts of people in our team. Unknowingly, we followed the PIE principle too. The Purpose was to plant God’s Word in young and impressionable hearts of children so that in times of their problem or their trial they can always fall back on the Word of God. Integrity — no personal gain of any kind, tangible or intangible. It was purely serving God by serving the children. Excellence — we organised it with perfection. And that’s how Champs For Christ was born. This was established seven years ago now. This is season seven, but 10 years. Champs For Christ had become very well established in Hyderabad. We did not realise that God was already orchestrating the next major move for Pramod and me.
When we see our kids memorising the scriptures and learning, more than the grand numbers or the involvement of children or the churches, it’s a personal impact that has been made on the child. And that’s what makes the great difference.
After seven years of being a pastor in a very traditional church in Hyderabad, Pramod and I decided to take a break. We thought we deserved a break, we needed that break, and no one could stop us now. I know we were called, we were there as pastors; now I think we should take a break. And it became very exciting. Let’s take a break, and it’s an exciting thing. Because the pastoral role was quite hectic and challenging too for us. Now he told me that we could now plan some weekend trips — something which we could not do for many years, in fact. So this February 2023, our grand plan for the break began with a trip to Chennai for LeadTalks. I just want to say thank you, Joshua. Because every time we plan for a trip, he starts a LeadTalks somewhere or the other. And we are there. So thanks once again. And by the way, I just want to let you know that Chennai pulao is very good, but Hyderabad biryani tops it.
So right after LeadTalks here, we went back to Hyderabad, and that very Sunday morning, we heard a doorbell ring at 7:30 am. Both Pramod and I were in shorts — I mean, we were shocked. And at the door was one of our close friends ready for church, a Bible in his hand. And he said he wanted to spend most of the time praying and studying the Word of God in our house. And we were thinking we were on a break, right? And we were like, Okay. Soon, others started streaming into our house. And this group became larger and larger. And our house wasn’t big enough to accommodate so many people. We were literally wondering, Aren’t we on a break? Aren’t we going to take a break? I was saying, “We should take a break.”
But in those few weeks, God reminded Pramod that when you put your hand to the plough, no turning back. Luke 9:62 says Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the service of the kingdom of God. We both were like, What? Whoa! How do we do this? What? Do we start a church again? We are pretty old. Okay — not me. Him. We are pretty old. And how are we going to do this? Who’s going to support us? And where do we meet? Leave alone all that. I don’t have the strength to start a new church. And who’s going to come to the church? Who’s going to sit and listen to us? Thousands of questions in our mind.
But Pramod as usual, cool as a cucumber, was pretty confident. He said nothing; and I had to say something. Then I said, “Lord, you confirmed it to him, right? Now what about me, Lord? Without me, I know he can’t do anything. But you have to confirm that to me also.” Then the Lord reminded me of Sarah. The Bible Sarah. Abraham and Sarah. And I said, “Whoa, Lord. Wait a minute. Sarah is too old. Why are you comparing Sarah with me, Lord? Look at me. I’m still a little young. I don’t think I’m that old. Why are you comparing Sarah, of all the women in the Bible?” [Don’t look at me.] And he was like, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say. Sarah was 100 years old and she gave birth to a promised child. Look at you, you look 22. Look at him, He looks 100. What’s your problem? Why don’t you trust me? Why are you doubting me?” And I was shocked. And that was my confirmation. No questions asked after that.
We were so foolish to be worried about such little things — growing old, or how do we start. I think the biggest fear was, How do we really start it? Who’s going to be our audience? Why do we do it? For what? But remembering all the people around us in our church coming here like scattered sheep, they were there, waiting for someone to shepherd them. And I realised, once you put your hand to the plough, there’s no turning back. We believe that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
What is your startup idea? Pray about it. I know you'll be disobeying God if God has put some thoughts in your heart and you have not acted upon them. — Pramod Chandrasekhar Share on X
The purpose was to build the right kind of foundation in people’s lives based on the Word of God. It’s a completely Bible-based church and we thrive to follow what God wants us to do. And in excellence, it was not our excellence but it was God’s — his excellence that we thrived on. Now we have about 100 people after a year. We have leased out two floors, all furnished, with people who had started coming to our church with gifts. ACs, chairs, everything. And mind you, guys, we didn’t ask for a penny. Gifts were just coming in, and the church was set up within two weeks. The whole church was set up within two weeks. And the best part was when people came to Neriah Church, the first thing that they said — and this was really special to us, and this is what we thrived for — they said they felt the presence of God. And the second thing was, they feel very welcome to come to Neriah Church.
As Philippians 1:6 says, “I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finished until the day of Christ’s return.” My dear ladies and gentlemen, this is the story of our life. Please pray for Champs For Christ as well as Neriah Baptist Church, as well as my husband because he’s going to come back home today.
Thank you very much. And I just have time to say just one thing. What is your startup idea? Pray about it. I know you’ll be disobeying God if God has put some thoughts in your heart and you have not acted upon them. This is a time to get inspired and a time to act. And I’m sure every single one of you — I mean it from the bottom of my heart. God will provide everything. God will provide people, finances, ideas, and after all your talent and your expertise is exhausted, there’s still a gap; and God will fill that gap. I want you to please pray about it very seriously. Thank you very much.
