St. Andrew’s Church, Bangalore Restoration of 156 years old Parish Hall

 Network Leadership: A parish case study

 We are talking about an ‘empirical turn,’ in social sciences.

·       Parish case study at St. Andrew’s Church, Bangalore. A church with over 160 years of history, located in the central business district (CBD) with over 850 families, drawn from different walks of life.

 The story of a parish hall, 156 years old.

Our parish hall had stood since the 1860s. Restoring it was on paper, beyond us. The specialist work alone would have consumed years on budget.

What made it possible was not a grant. It was a network.

A heritage structure recovered without a single paid consultant- carried by volunteers from inside and outside the congregation.

1.      Map the gifts

2.      Invite, don’t recruit

3.      Hand over real authority

4.      Open the circle wider

Who stepped in:

·         Architects

·         Structural engineers

·         Management professionals

·         Chartered accountants

·         Craftsmen

·         Friends of other faiths

 

What makes the network hold

Four habits that sustain:

1.      Know your people

2.      Give real authority

3.      Keep the door open

4.      Be transparent

 The pictures after restoration are presented

Rev. Prof. Dr Dexter S. Maben                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            At The Kerala United Theological Seminary (KUTS)

Kannammoola, Thiruvananthapuram

 

Rev Dr Jacob Verghis Centre for Biblical Studies

Workshop on Christian Leadership

10^th & 11^th August 2026

 

 

THINK SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE EXPENDING RESOURCES IN THE CHURCH

 

I had been granted a few minutes to interact with the head of a Church. 

After the quick exchange of pleasantries I made my presentation 

"I felt you had to know

Basically I am a professional. Banker. Financier..

What I have observed in the Church is, no one bothers about ROI - Return on Investment or ROE - Return on Expenditure.

They go for fancy projects because of ignorance or a detestable human trait - self gratification. 

Resources are precious. Hard to source. You have to think several times before expending it. 

In many Churches or church related institutions leakage of income is never plugged.              They mask it with the beautiful and respectful word 'Grace.'

In  the church we have everything. Material resources, highly talented faithful.   

But we relish mismanagement. 

Jesus's parable on talents comes up here.

If only we lend our ears to it miracles would cascade.

My point is simple.                                                                                                                        

We must go for maximizing the utilisation of avaliable resources right in front of us.

The adage, "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush," reminds us why things go wrong.

I concluded.

Regret, I took up so much of your precious time.

I was only unfolding the torment within. 

Because I am concerned"

CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE TAKES YOU FAR

 

Think of your people.

The question is, are you deploying or developing them?

This is the question for every leader.

The answer decides whether you deserve to be in business.

You have to be the teacher, mentor or partner

Nurture with collaboration those who join up with you

Please grasp, real freedom is found in sharing the same platform

You have to amplify opportunities, resilence and growth for generations to come.

Teach them, they need creative intelligence to go far

You must support the people in their growth

Representing KUTS or your own organisation is not to be taken lightly

It's a moment you will cherish for the rest of your life

Ultimately, moments like those become shared memories

To be savoured

And cherished forever

Sequel to TRIPLE KNOT - Muppiricharadu - posted on August 5, 2026

 As I had been busy for almost a week I could begin anew from Folio 18 only yesterday. Each page memerised me. I went on uninterrupted. At last I reached the conclusion at Folio 122. There was pathos. There was ethos. One could see the sharp build up of emotions that swayed you.

The author, Rosy Philip, has done a great job of picturising the Syrian Christian family of the  1950-1990 era. But she has not confined it to one community alone. Through Vinayan she has thrown open what happens in another community as well. Though human beings have good traits, she shows us the other side of the coin as well. 

It's a good read where you can't put it down without finishing it.

The story is indeed touching. It relates to what happened in several households around us in the 1950s to 1990s.

Male chauvinism is explicit. Women have no identity whatsoever even if they are employed and earn a decent income. They are mere playthings for the opposite gender.

The translation is excellent. It doesn't look like a translation at all. It seemed it was the original itself. Chandrika has done a wonderful job. She weaves the story through incidents that look real.The sentences are crisp. The language employed is stylish. The description of nature leaves us in rapture. The rains, the mist, the moss and the mildew - we feel we are directly confronting them. The view of the Elenjical House in its splendour and its lost glory stuns us. The diction is rich. I could learn a few words from the novel. 

Vinayan, Zachariah, Sr Nirmala -Nimmy, Ranjit, Mariachechi, Annammachedathi, Ranjit,  Mother-Auntie, Mother-Stern, Fr.David, Babychayan, Jameskutty, Aby and Mili - it's a long list of characters who play their part well. They are embedded in our mind. 

Sara and her mother in law are a pair we can't ever forget. 

Ammachi's words echoes in Sara's mind forever.

"Don't let him beat you even once. I was not able to stop father. Once started, it will continue."

Sara finds to her horror, the contemptible man hurts a female body only when his senses are overpowered by liquor. He befriends liquor not only to harm, but even to enjoy a female body. 

'Triple Knot' truly is a message to the world at large. It tells us what should be and what should not be...
..........................

John Kurien, former CGM, NABARD critiques

Having read two vivid anecdotes of yours,  after  going through "Muppidicharadu,"  I was transported to the realm of having read the novel itself .

Hats off for the review or let me say factual appreciation of the arduous  task of a translation which you have considered as equal to the original.

BIGWIG OF KADALAAR

Seems although the bigwig of Kadalaar, had a great escape courtesy the munificence of somebody important, his whereabouts are unknown. He is not permitted to meet anyone at all. 

For all practical purposes it is confinement.

To put it mildly, he escaped from confinement to find himself confined

AJIT PRABHU CO-FOUNDER & CEO QUEST GLOBAL WRITES TO HIS PARENTS

I was going through a conversation with Ajit Prabhu, co-founder and CEO of Quest Global, in the Times of India of 12 August 2026.

I found  the letter he has written in it to his parents striking.

We had brought up our children providing them  a large number of comics. We knew reading alone would bring the best out of them. We furnished  the comics to get them cultivate extra reading. They did exactly that. A relative once recalled he had always been envious of them when he had seen them postured on top of  a mountain of comics.

They did not become engineers or doctors. But they learned how to negotiate life. They have struck out on their own individual paths. They still read. They manage themselves well.

I felt if they were going to write to us on how they had come up, they would certainly write  a similar letter like the one Ajit Prabhu wrote to his parents. It is  quoted.

"Dear Amma and Appa,

You wanted an engineer. I became one.But the engineer you see today wasn't shaped solely in classroom. He was made at home, nurtured by the two of you, long before I ever set foot in Karnataka University.

I carry my degrees with pride. But what I carry more deeply is something you gave me first, a love of learning and a sense of curiosity that was never asked to stay small.

I was the boy who paid 25 cents to read comics, he couldn't afford to buy and built a small business so I could read more of them. Those stories of Tintin crossing continents and heroes solving impossible problems gave a young boy from Hubbali the belief, anything was possible.

Here is what I have learned since then. The hardest problems in this world aren't solved by people who only know engineering. They're solved by Polymaths - people who have an interest in music, poetry, sports, history (and even comic books) and bring that passion into the lab with them. 

Curiosity is the engine. Discipline is the anchor.

As I think about the future generations, I know that the children who will solve the world's hardest problems are not the ones who will be asked to narrow themselves. They will be the ones who are allowed to dream big and have great aspirations. Just as you made space for the parts of me that did not fit neatly into a syllabus.

So when I think of the comics, cricket, the books that had nothing to do with my exams, I don't see wasted time. I see the making of a polymath engineer.

I see the two of you. 

Thank you for encouraging my curiosity and never making me feel my interests outside the classroom didn't matter. I am who I am, because of you. A proud creative polymath engineer.

With all my love, your son.

Sd/-

Ajit Prabhu
Co-founder &CEO, Quest Global Engineer
and everything that made him one"

How wonderful it is, when the children recognise and acknowledge the contribution of parents in their upbringing.

POLYMATH

 

A polymath is a person with deep, active knowledge and skill across many different and unrelated subjects. Also called a "Renaissance man" or "polyhistor", a polymath does not just casually know facts about various topics; they master and create work in multiple distinct fields. 

Famous Examples

Leonardo da Vinci: Mastered painting, engineering, anatomy, and invention.
Benjamin Franklin: Excelled as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, and diplomat. [

Key Traits of a Polymath

High Curiosity: Driven by a strong urge to learn how different things work.
Cross-Disciplinary Thinking: Combines ideas from separate fields to solve unique problems.
True Mastery: Reaches a high level of proven skill, rather than just knowing surface-level facts.