Rev. Dr. David Sagar (Dadhipogu Sagar) was born and grew up in Nellore, South India. Nellore was also the place where American Baptist missionaries first began Telugu mission work in 1840.

“I have seen the splendid sacrificial work rendered by the missionaries to spread the gospel, establish medical hospitals and educational institutions, not only in my home town of Nellore, but also in so many other parts of Telugu towns,” David says.

Telugu is the language of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in South India. Today there are more than one million Telugu Baptists in India.

From India to the U.S.

David emigrated to the U.S. in 1982 and became a naturalized citizen in 2005. In 1991, he planted Antioch Telugu Baptist Church in Northlake, Illinois. It is the first Telugu Baptist church in the United States. He earned his Master of Divinity in evangelism and counseling and Doctor of Ministry in leadership transformation. He then completed further training in counseling.

David had left India feeling burdened over the ways in which he’d seen some of the Indian Baptist leaders causing splits in the churches and division in the mission work. “After coming to the USA, still the burden was lingering in my mind to equip the leadership for effective ministry,” David says. He began to share this burden with IM Area Director for East and South Asia Dr. Benjamin Chan, who encouraged David to pursue this desire from God to build peace.

Building unity

For more than fifteen years, David served as an IM special assistant to India. He now serves as IM Consultant for India Development. He provides discipleship and leadership training, and builds networks that benefit Indian communities globally.  David has already conducted several workshops and seminars on leadership development and relationship-building among the Baptist convention of the Telugu churches. David, Dr. Wilson Kumar, and a group of dedicated Telugu Baptist pastors and Christian leaders have developed the Telugu Baptist Samaikyatha (TBS) to focus on building unity among Telugu Baptists.

“So far, TBS has successfully reached out to many Telugu Baptists and created a common group for communication, connectedness, prayer, and fellowship,” David says. “I firmly believe God has called me to use as an instrument to carry over the missionaries’ legacy to bring peace and unity.”

Learn more about David’s ministry on IM’s website: https://internationalministries.org/author/david-sagar/