A Jesus – like Leader

Tune in for today’s Leadership Talk in conversation with Pastor Sonia Bhattacharya from Kings Church, Assam. Listen to her amazing journey of encountering Jesus which led to her passion for lost souls and became a Vlogger for Christ. She rightfully calls herself a media missionary.

Transcript:

Pastor Priji: Greetings in Jesus name. Welcome to the leadership talk podcast. We are excited that you could tune in to today’s conversation. I have a special guest with me, Sonia. She is a Pastor, a Vlogger, social media content creator. There is so much of her content online. We will definitely leave a link for you in the notes. We would love for you to hear from her yourself.
Welcome Pastor Sonia for joining us and thank you for agreeing to be a part of this conversation. Sonia, will you take a moment to greet and introduce yourself to our listeners?

Pastor Sonia: Thank you Pastor Priji for having me over this podcast. I am so honored. I have enjoyed listening to every episode and I feel privileged to be here today. As Pastor Priji rightly introduced me, my name is Sonia Bhattacharya. I am currently serving as a Pastor in King’s Church central assembly in Guwahati, Assam. Of course, we have churches all over in Shillong, Delhi and other parts of the country.
Apart from that I love creating blogs for Jesus. I am a Vlogger for Christ.
That’s what I love to do. I love using media for evangelize. I call myself a media missionary. I love the Influence that media has and it is such a blessing for us. That is the mission God has put me on at present.

Pastor Priji: Wow, that’s amazing! So you are passionate about talking about Jesus through media. I think so many young people of our nation is on social media and that’s the best place we can talk to them about God and godly values. We would love to know how your personal journey begin..how did you encounter God, where did you grow up and how was your relationship with God before and after encountering Him and how has your life being transformed?

Pastor Sonia: I was born in a non Christian home, but I lived in a Meghalaya, a Christian state. I studied in a missionary school. No one ever told me about Jesus. In school, there wasn’t much access to things of God. For eg: holy communion was segregated. I would call myself almost agnostic as a kid. I was never interested in knowing about God. It felt like just another fictional thing that certain people believed in. But I remember we just had a lot of issues going on in our family, mom and dad marriage were on the brink of breaking apart, my elder sister was a very depressed kid..both of us ..we looked very good on the outside but we know the storms we were facing on the inside. Our home was a place we didn’t want to come back to because we knew the chaos, fighting’s that would happen. I talk about this because now people see the 4 of us worshipping Jesus. But 10 years ago, we weren’t like this. I would love the listeners to know this to take courage and just hold on. I remember my sister was a suicidal child and I knew about that.
One fine day, she comes back home from college and said, she met Jesus. I found that very funny and I asked, what do you mean that you ‘met’ Jesus…..she said ‘somebody came and prayed over me in the name of Jesus. He knew my past, present and future. And I knew that was Jesus and wasn’t the person who prayed..’ As my sister said this, I saw darkness lift over her..there was a tangible shift over the gloom that she had…
Then she said she had started going to Souls ministry …a ministry that was operating in signs, wonders and miracles, so she forced me to go there …I went there and I was really afraid ..this was in 2011I knew in my spirit that God was real in that place. There was people in tears, laughter, they were set free. Chains were breaking …and I saw that for the first time? For me, God was always where I wanted Him to be .. but in this place I saw God with a personality, God as a person. Jesus became real to me in that place …and I was too afraid. I didn’t go back there for the next one year.
I told my sister what you received, good for you…I am fine where I am.
But my sister just began to change completely. Her testimony spoke to me so powerfully. Our circumstances didn’t change, but she changed. She enjoyed the Shalom of God even during the all the fights and storms in the house. She was not fighting alone anymore. That’s when I realized I want it too. I could not do it alone. That’s when I started going back again. One thing led to another. Jesus became a real part of me. I became a part of Souls ministry.
There is an incident where I have spoken about in one of my vlogs, where my dog was almost dying and I prayed, Jesus if you are real, save my dog. My dog ‘s neck was stuck in a window grill …she was almost gone. Suddenly I see a person walking on the other side of the gate with a saw! He cuts open the gate and gives me my pup and vanishes…that happened in 2011 and till date I have never got to see that person…I knew it wasn’t a person at all…I knew it was the Lord just visiting me and I remember that’s the day I got born again . There was no way to deny Him anymore. And after that my mom came to the Lord. And we kept praying for my dad. The testimonies are just endless. We would need forever to talk about his wondrous ways and what He has done

Pastor Priji: Wow! Everything indeed changes when God becomes personal. He is no longer somebody who is only for admiration or adoration but he becomes somebody who is so personal where he becomes my Friend, leader, And every aspect of our life gets defined by our relationship with Him.
We want to know from your story how did your goals, ambitions, dreams change after your encounter with God?

Pastor Sonia: Before encountering the Lord, I just wanted to be famous…to be known by people…have people cheer for me, clap for me and I would do anything to get there. I would have tried for Bollywood if I hadn’t met the Lord. After I came to Jesus, I understood that all of that was me trying to be loved, recognized and accepted
But when I met the Lord, I understood that I am already accepted and loved. And it’s not just by any human, but the maker of the heavens and the earth. And it was true so I understood that I need to tell more people about it…for eg when we go to an amazing restaurant and we go tell everyone about it to go and try …
I tasted and saw that the Lord is good. I understood that my ambitions were way too temporary…and I realized that it is the Holy spirit who put his passion in my heart for lost souls, for people who are struggling like I was.
That is how my whole mission and vision in life just changed..before that it was just me, myself and I.

Pastor Priji: So you define leadership to not just something that would serve your purpose, but something that would serve God’s purposes here on the earth. Because your need and my need is already met in our relationship with God. Then there are people put there who can have an encounter with God because of our lives. That is what leadership is all about. What ways would you compare that the leadership that Jesus had and the way that Jesus walked on earth to the kind of leadership that is portrayed in the world around us ..coz the world has everything to do with outcome, productivity, how quickly you get somethings done…from your perspective how can we imitate the leader aspect of Jesus ?
Some of our listeners, they are ministers in their church, some are single mothers, working professionals, parents who are trying to manage everything. God has called us for influence and leadership. I want to understand from your perspective how we can actually imitate the lifestyle of Jesus in our day to day life

Pastor Sonia: Jesus demonstrated leadership in a very very different way
Firstly, in our world , the minute you say leader, you think ‘Boss’. And not just boss but bossy….it is always associated with being a leader. But Jesus showed leadership means to serve, washing feet, going really low in humility and that is when God would exalt you. I learnt that from Jesus.
It’s not about how amazing we are but it’s about how we can bless others …how can I serve you..I do not come to be served but to serve…I think that’s the first thing I learnt from Jesus. Leadership is about serving. I read somewhere it’s important to have the heart of a servant king. It’s about Jesus and the way He led.
Secondly, a lot of times , as leaders we feel threatened that somebody who you are mentoring starts doing better than you…it happens…you might expect them to get better but you would also want to be ahead of them or better than the one you train. The minute your mentee gets better than you it hits you somewhere. But Jesus taught us the other way around ..that we will do greater things than Him. And I absolutely love it. He was God but when on earth, he was also 100% man. He was never threatened by his disciples..in the kingdom, you are an excellent leader when the people you are leading become better leaders than you. Jesus did that.
Thirdly, it’s never about quantity. Jesus didn’t have a lac or thousands of disciples but only 12 close ones. Very small compared to the churches we have now..
I have learnt that pasturing our church, which is a young church. We operated as a ministry before..we recently got established as a church in 2017. I remember there would be days when I would be very discouraged to see very few people for our Sunday service. And I remember my senior pastor told me only an artist performs well when there is a crowd but we aren’t performers. Our level of commitment doesn’t change based on how big the audience is. We should have the same level of passion for Christ whether there is one person on the chair or whether there are a billion people. After all heaven celebrates that One soul that returns back home. The ministry of Jesus is not about the quantity but the quality of people that we build.

Pastor Priji: I think it requires for us to be a secure leader to walk in that level of humility where we can see that our disciples/mentees can do better than us. It’s not about the numbers but it’s about being in the center of my father’s will; doing and speaking what God wants me to do , exhibiting his grace even when I am off the stage, even when I am not in the limelight, it requires our hearts to be secure and be in that place where we completely recognize who we are, we know our identity. I think one of the temptations that our young generation faces is when they don’t see the results immediately or things don’t work out well in their ministry or social media or business they quickly get hurt or disappointed. They jump the gun. How can we be patient in times where discouragement or disappointment is natural ? How can we be secure in what God is doing when we don’t see immediate or quick results?

Pastor Sonia: One thing I have learnt is that: in the promised land, there will always be giants. We may not know it, but the enemy knows. When we get there, the impact that the enemy will have is so grave. Hell is going to be shaken. What we carry is powerful so the enemy tries to deviate you from that.
Understanding that obstacles are coming is important. Bible says before Jesus went to heal many people in Galilee, there was a storm. Before that major breakthrough, storms come. Storms are the biggest sign that breakthrough is on the other side.
Proverbs says that an inheritance that is quickly gained is quickly lost. Even when I had just started my YouTube channel , when I had just 10 subscribers, I would just keep asking myself why am I doing this…is it because my social media handle gets a blue tick or is it to see lives change? Even if 2 of those subscribers become fiery for the things of God, my job is done. I call that success.
My goal is to let people come closer to him. For everybody that is starting out, remind yourself about why you are doing it. If the why is to bless people and to make them know about Jesus, then the quantity really doesn’t matter. And the pace of growth, God knows how much we can handle at what time. Handling admiration, recognition and glory that people give you isn’t really easy. We have to trust the Lord and the process. He knows how to finish what he has started in us.

Pastor Priji: Yes, and also to be consistent from your side and not give up, and not to question what God has already spoken to you, that is very important because sometimes that can become the go-to. Just like Elijah asked God, why am I the only one…I wish to not live anymore…this was right at a point where there was so much success yet there was discouragement because of the leadership in the nation. I believe lord is raising up voices like you, that are bold in their confession and setting an example for this next generation to follow. I want to know from your perspective do you sometimes feel the pressure to generate content and, how do you deal with that? How do you receive an inspiration from God to prepare for something and how do you creatively get that content out? It’s one thing to hear from God and it’s another thing to put it out in a way that our listeners can understand it well.

Pastor Sonia: I think when it comes to YouTube, I do feel that pressure quite a bit because that is creating content digitally. When it comes to preaching in person, not so much, because it is directly what I receive from the Lord. For eg. You read prodigal son a 1000 times and everytime there is a new revelation. I don’t usually go by the pressure that people put, I really just wait on the lord. For me, the way I operate is I just wait. And if I don’t get anything I disconnect from social media for a bit and just wait. Even the songs that I write for my Assamese congregation, I sit and wait and get the entire thing from the Lord. It’s the same for my videos , it’s really just downloading it from heaven. It can be very different from somebody else.
Another thing that helps me is talking to other believers, asking them what they’re struggling with and what are the issues they have, etc. Sometimes you even get inspiration by watching a cartoon or a Bollywood film. Some of my vlogs also have references of a Hindi film. I remember watching Avengers and the Holy spirit reminded me to understand what is happening that people want a superhero, a savior…that’s why they are fascinated. I believe God is always relevant and he speaks exactly what his children need at that point. As of now, it’s been two months since I created a video as I have been working on something. But I am just waiting to have the Lord’s peace over the project.

Pastor Priji: Absolutely, that’s how we do things for the sake of not doing things because we know this is what God wants us to publish. Not just because we want our YouTube channel to have an upload each week. We make sure it is coming from the heart of God and that is definitely going to bless people. Could you share anything that you feel in your heart about any warning or anything we should avoid especially as young leaders that we should safeguard ourselves so that we do not fail?

Pastor Sonia: I have learnt this from my senior pastor, it is always to guard your heart and to make sure that your walk with the Lord is original and authentic, especially in the kind of generation when everything is up on social media. Sometimes, we may not realize it but the way we worship or preach might not be what God is asking us to do…it might be trending
That is a temptation we may have in leadership. A particular time or a particular style may become a trend. Being authentic is important because that’s what God has called you to be and that helps represent Jesus in the best way you can.
Second thing is the world always says practice what you preach but I believe we have to only preach what you practice. That is why my current fav verse is 1 Corinthians 4(20)
There might be temptations to cut and copy paste somebody else’s sermon. But to understand have I lived that, only if I have done that have I the right to preach that. When you preach a lived sermon, the anointing flows and the power of God moves. Otherwise it’s just words.

Pastor Priji: that’s true. Thank you
On that note could you pray for our listeners and could you release whatever the Lord has put in your heart ..thank you for doing this. We really believe it’s going to inspire some hearts and it’s going to quicken their desire to go after God

Pastor Sonia: sure!
Father, we thank and bless you for this beautiful time of conversation we have had and that is being empowered by the holy spirit. It is only by divine connection. We thank you for this ever expanding family of Christ. Every person that has tuned in they want to serve you better, and you are so aware of that. So we pray that you will bless each and every listener of ours. If they are struggling in any area, we just release your favor, your breakthrough over them. I pray especially for those in leadership that you would teach us how to lead and serve like King Jesus, that we would have a heart of compassion and serving. may it always be all about you. I especially pray for the creatives right now..may an entire generation of creatives rise up in India to represent you in an accurate way. We know there is going to be a revival that will break out of this place, through worship leaders, through actors, through cinema..we know you are moving and it is such an exciting time for us. We say yes to everything that you have in store for us. We bless your name. Amen

Pastor Priji: Amen. Thank you so much for joining us. If our listeners have to connect with you, what is the best way to do that? I believe you also have a store where you sell merchandise

Pastor Sonia: yes, the Ruach store. It is all available on FB and IG. I have got a page in IG, best way is to send a message on my page in IG(not on my personal) and I would be happy to connect. Of course the YT channel is also available. Just type my name, Sonia Bhattacharya and it’s available

Pastor Priji: we will surely leave the links in the show notes. Thank you so much for blessing us with your story.

Pls take a moment to connect with Pastor Sonia and share what you learnt from this conversation. We will join you next month with another episode of leadership talk. Until then just continue to lead like Jesus and serve like Jesus.