Sheldon Bangera was born and raised in the city of Mumbai. Though his family were nominal Christians, they sent Sheldon to Sunday School every week. By the time he became a teenager though, he had decided that religion was too boring and he stopped attending any form of religious activity. Instead, Western music, and in particular hard rock, became a far more fulfilling pursuit and he decided to form a heavy metal band with his friends.
As he explained, “The band consisted of mostly Hindus, but they were not really practicing their faith religiously. When you’re in a band, I guess music is the only religion. In India we subscribe to a lot of things from the West, so we got into heavy metal music, but since I was a church boy, I did try to keep away from all Satanic or anti-Christian music.
However, the challenge is that when you listen to a certain genre of music, you begin to act it out in that way. If you feed your system with good things, there will be a good output; but if you begin to feed it hatred and violence and sex, you begin to go quickly down that road as well.”
I had friends on drugs and even lost a couple of them to suicide and overdose. I soon found myself in a dark, hopeless place, wanting to be alone all the time, just playing my guitar day and night, and not going out anywhere. I even flunked a year in college and had one more year to pass my exams.
Then one day I was invited to a prayer meeting, something I was pretty allergic to, coming from the lifestyle of a rock band, and I was all set to refuse them. But then they invited me to be a part of the worship team, (which was pretty strange, considering I didn’t even go to church), and that appealed to me, so I took a taxi, and with cigarette in hand, headed out to the meeting with my guitar and amplifier.
I had no idea what I was walking into though. While playing on stage, I began to feel like I was the unholiest among all the guys there. I knew that I must be the only one who was doing drugs and smoking and drinking there, and I began to feel strangely convicted, like I was unclean and a hypocrite.
Then the Holy Spirit started moving in that prayer meeting, and a lot of people began to be touched as the presence and the power of God began to descend all over that place. And suddenly I discovered the reality of Jesus in a very powerful encounter. All my life I’d heard about Jesus, but on the 7th of August 2004, my eyes witnessed the reality of His presence.
After that dramatic encounter with the Holy Spirit, I returned home in turmoil. The big question for me was how was I going to face the same friends with the same habits? I really wanted my life to change, but was it really going to change, or would I backslide again?
However, a voice inside my head assured me, ‘It has changed, and it will never be the same again.’ I was clearly hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and I knew that something had happened and that my life was never going to be the same again. I remember coming back home that night and telling my dad, ’I don’t want to speak to any of my friends right now. I need some time and space.’”
I then went into my room, and for the first time in many years, opened my Bible. The words from its pages jumped out and I had a fresh experience of the living aspect of God’s word. From then on, I was so hungry I wanted to know more and more, and to discover what this was that I was experiencing, so I started plugging into every possible prayer, fasting and healing and deliverance meeting – anywhere that God’s word was preached. Soon I was part of a local church where I began to be mentored and discipled and grow in the Lord.”
That church, Mumbai’s ‘United Basel Mission’ (UBM) is still Sheldon’s home base today. It is also known as Christa Krupa in Kannada. Because of the cosmopolitan, multi-lingual population of Mumbai, UBM conducts meetings in three languages, Kannada, English and Hindi. Sheldon is clearly proud of UBM’s forward- looking approach. “The church is growing, and we have initiatives where we reach out to people in the slums, constantly looking for opportunities on how to help them. Actually, the church at large in India is growing: there’s more people turning to Christ today than there ever was. We’re living in good times, but we’re also living in challenging times as well.”
After his conversion Sheldon began to work hard and resumed studying engineering in university. His passion for Christ continued to grow and for a season he stopped making any kind of music. He gave his guitars away, deleted all his music, and started afresh, only attending prayer meetings and helping out with some back-up guitar.
As time passed though, he sensed the Holy Spirit telling him to pick up the guitar again. “As I started playing and worshipping, God began to give me new songs. Hindi is not my strong language, but the Lord started giving me songs in Hindi. It was astonishing and amazing. As I began writing songs during my devotional worship time, they began to spread as young people started singing them in their youth meetings.”
Soon Sheldon became a zealous communicator of spiritual truth, leading others to Christ. He said, “During my student life I led a friend of mine, a brother and his sister, to Christ. The girl was heavily ostracised by the family and beaten up by her parents and relatives. The father even came and threatened me, ‘If my children become Christians, I’m not going to spare you. I won’t leave you alive.’ Truly, there is such joy when people receive Christ, and Jesus Himself told us that we would have to go through persecution of sorts.”
The persecution of Christians by Hindu fundamentalists is sadly a reality in some parts of India. Explained Sheldon, “In our cosmopolitan cities this kind of discrimination is fairly low, probably because of education. But in rural areas, one could lose a family member for their commitment to Christ.
Our WhatsApp groups and social media is rife with information about persecution, which is very common and very unfair, but we are commanded to love all people. So we love our brothers, we love this country, we were born here, we’ve been raised here, and we love these people. Still, it’s a tough call. We have a lot of respect for pastors and for people who go through these intense challenges, especially those who get physically hurt for their faith.”
Sheldon’s recording career began in 2007 with the release of the ‘Har Ek Praja Panth’ album. “We didn’t have much money, but with a couple of friends we put together what little we had and released an EP which did really well. People loved and connected with the songs, especially the young audience. These songs made people think, and though they had a secular approach, they eventually connected with the Gospel, and people loved that kind of stuff.
I had always been very involved in the local church, taking Bible studies and discipling young people, spending time just loving and raising them up. At the same time, I was also working in an Engineering company. Eventually God began to expand the ministry, taking it to a bigger scale- first national, and then international. Then there came a point when, with the blessings of my pastor, I had to hand over my responsibilities to someone else because God was beginning to use me nationally and internationally.”
In 2009 Sheldon released the 15-song album ‘Kaisa Tera Pyar Hain,’ as more and more requests came in for him to minister in worship all over India. Then in 2011 Sheldon met up with an English record company executive who would play a key role in expanding his ministry and influence.
“Ephesians 3:20 says, ‘Our God is able to give exceedingly and abundantly above what you can ever ask, think, or imagine,’ and that’s exactly what happened with me,” Sheldon explained. “John Pac from Kingsway Music, (they’re called Integrity Music now), happened to hear some of my music and he was intrigued. He wanted to explore if we could work together and suggested I do a translation project, in order to test the waters. He wanted me to translate some popular worship songs from English to Hindi, but translation was not something I felt confident of doing as Hindi was not my strong point. However, I kept sensing God saying, ‘My power is made perfect in your weakness.’
John Pac shared his ideas and I gave it my best shot., I translated ‘Worthy, You Are Worthy’ by Matt Redman first, because it was a simple song. John loved it. He then sent me Tim Hughes’ ‘Here I Am To Worship.’ That too was okay. Then he dropped me a bomb- he sent me Stuart Townend’s and Keith Getty’s ‘In Christ Alone.’ Not only were there lots of words, one had to do justice to the theology as well. We tried several modifications as it was a fine balance. On the one hand you had to have singability – the ability for a congregation to be able to sing it easily- and on the other hand, you had to preserve the depth of the theology. If you go too literal, you lose the congregation; and if you go too congregational, you can lose the essence of what the original songwriter is trying to say.”
But the resulting album ‘Nachoonga (Undignified)’ proved to be a major success all across India. “Around the time of Nachoonga’s release John Pac went to be with the Lord. But John had already introduced me to the whole Kingsway family; Jonathan Brown, Adrian Thompson, Les Moir, Freddie Strong. The entire team helped me connect when Worship Central came down here and toured India, which was a great blessing. My musicians attended the workshops and the conferences, but they didn’t play with me on stage. The English music musicians backed me, and it was a real honour playing with the Worship Central musicians.”
Sheldon’s 2015 album ‘Raaja Hai Mahaan’ (meaning ‘Our King Is So Great’) featured 12 songs, nine sung in Hindi and three in English. It received wide popularity among India’s churches and Integrity Music distributed it internationally as well. The Cross Rhythms radio hit “Jai Jai Naam Yeshu Naam” was a particular standout, with one reviewer describing Sheldon as “a real breath of fresh air and a stunning new voice in modern worship.” The Cross Rhythms reviewer also enthused, “The music is an enthralling mix of East and West, featuring traditional Indian instruments alongside the usual guitars, drums and piano. Bangera’s voice is confident, natural and unique, and even if you can’t understand what he’s singing, his melodies are catchy and his joy at praising God is palpable.
‘Pause’ on (God You Are Great)’ is probably the best of the English tracks. Other highlights include ‘Ayr Mere Maan’, an uplifting Tim Hughes-style soft rock ballad featuring a gorgeous violin solo, and ‘Stuti, Gao Stuti’ which is driven by heavy, distorted guitars and dramatic piano.”
Sheldon admitted to being rather taken aback by Cross Rhythms decision to put “Jai Jai Naam” on its playlist, as he expected one of the three English tracks to be on the album. Integrity picked one of them to be on the Essential Worship collection for 2016, which was also an honour.
Today Sheldon is able to support himself and his family from his worship ministry. “I feel that we’re gradually coming to that place where we can live comfortably and also give back into God’s kingdom. It’s been such a fantastic journey to be able to share God’s favour and witnesses. Favour is one thing I like to talk about – when God’s favour is on us, he opens unusual doors and gives us unusual opportunities.
‘Nachoonga’ was an experiment, but the Lord took it to another level. When I watch the YouTube video today, and I look at the number of views and the testimonies in the comments, I never would have dreamed when I was recording or translating it that this would be the impact, that this would be the reach. God is able to do more than we can comprehend. If we have our hearts right before him, if we’re doing it for him, then he’s going to make a way. Ultimately, the Lord will provide.”
Sheldon’s wife Anita sings background vocals with the singer/songwriter. Although he tries to be available for his church as often as he can, he is on the road nearly every weekend. “I used to be more available to the local church, but of late I’m on the road most if not all weekends.
I was just chatting with our road manager today, and we’re trying to say no to a bunch of events this year so we can be more available to the local church. It’s been a transition – from doing more church stuff and one or two travels- to now travelling every weekend. This year we’ll be covering about five countries: we’re looking at Canada, US, Kenya, New Zealand, and Dubai. We’re trying to not pick up more than this.
Sometimes it’s difficult to get visas for a whole band, so I travel with a shorter line up – a couple of musicians and a road manager, sometimes it’s just my wife and I. We’re doing New Zealand later this year where just my wife, my baby and myself will travel and do a couple of events there. For most events in India, we travel with the band.
We’ve also been able to start this Christian music festival in Mumbai called Jaago. It’s called the Jaago Movement and its growing slowly, but we’re moving to a space where we can host our own events. Jaago takes place in Mumbai, but strategically we know the whole of India is open to us. As the Lord shows us a certain region or state, we start moving in that direction and work with local churches to host events in that particular city.
We started with about 1000 people attending, but now we have anywhere between 5000- 10,000 young people attending an event. Where you want young people, you’re going to have music, and worship music in India is at a strategic point where it’s just waiting to burst out. We are some of the forerunners of that.”
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing, but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
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