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Respondents were presented with the statement "The only true way to worship God is to worship Jesus" and 28 respondents "Wholeheartedly agreed" with the statement and another 24 persons "agreed" with the statement. For the purposes of our study both these groups of respondents forming a total of 52 persons are termed NBBC's or non-baptized believers in Christ. Among the non-Christians who were interviewed about one-eighth of them said they had "no comments". Some of them could also be believers in Christ but who could not say so to the investigators. The proportion of NBBC's in the whole sample is 6.4% and it is the same proportion as that of protestant Christians of Madras. The total population of Madras city is 3.27 million and the population of protestant Christians will be almost 2 lakhs. Our sample study is based only on respondents who are 15 years of age and more. It is no exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of people in Madras who are NBBC's.

Some of those who are now NBBC's would eventually get admitted into a Christian congregation as a full-fledged member. Some are likely to remain as they are and some may lose their faith. Among those classified as NBBC's there may be a few who believe in the lordship of Christ but may not actually worship him.

Almost four months after the survey was conducted the investigators were asked to recollect some of the NBBC's whom they had interviewed in this survey and we present here the real stories of the people of Madras city. The interviewers were Helen George, Shantha David and Vasna Pushparaj.

Helen met a young woman who is 23 years old in an area called Kuyil Thottam in Mylapore. She has studied up to the SSLC and is working as a school teacher. She came to know of Jesus through family friends. She does not worship other gods worshipped by the other members of her family. She is very keen on reading the Bible and has only a copy of the New Testament. She would very much love to get a copy of the Bible. She is about to marry a Christian relative and the marriage has been arranged by their parents. She is very happy about the fact that she is going to marry a Christian.

Helen met a young man of 27 who is working as a coolie. He has studied up to VIII standard and he is a Harijan. He believes that Jesus is the true God and  had heard about Jesus through street preaching and also through Christian social work. He goes to church and plans to go to church in the future also. He is married.

Helen came across a lady who is about fifty years old in the Royapuram area. She is a teacher and belongs to the forward community. She has been a believer for over a decade and has come away from her family and is living alone by herself. She had come to know of Jesus in a school in which she was working. She has a good knowledge of the Bible and is a spinster.

Helen met an artist in Anna Salai. He had come to know of Jesus through attending a big healing meeting. He had seen miracles happen. He was changed and was convinced that Jesus is the true God. He does not have a copy of the Bible and would very much like to get a copy and also other Christian literature. He occasionally goes to worship in a church.

Helen met a businessman in Royapuram. He had come to know of Jesus through a Christian doctor who would pray and also give medicines. The doctor was Dr.G.Jeyasingh who is one of the leaders of the Layman's Evangelical Fellowship founded by Bro.N. Daniel. The businessman believes that he was cured by the healing power of Jesus and has great faith in Him. He goes to church occasionally and he has a daughter who also believes in Jesus.

Vasna met a newly married young woman who was 24 years old. She is living in the Vadapalani area with her husband and his mother. She is a secret believer and goes to church secretly with an older sister-in-law who visits her. They occasionally go to worship in the Velankanni church in Adayar. Her husband knows about her faith in Jesus but he himself does not believe. Her faith is kept a secret from his mother. She listens to radio programs and also writes to Bro.Dinakaran. She has studied up to the SSLC and reads Christian magazines borrowed from her neighbours. She would very much like to know more about Jesus from other women believers and wants them to visit her. If her husband's mother will come to know of her belief, she is afraid that she will be sent away since the older woman is a kind of a soothsayer.

In the same Vadapalani area Vasna met a teenage worker who is 16 years old. He does unskilled work in a small factory for daily wages. He has studied up to the VIII standard and is the sole supporter of his family with younger sisters. When Vasna explained to him the purpose of her visit he sent his mother away so that he could talk about his faith alone. He took out a picture of Jesus and a copy of the Bible from a secret hiding place. He said that he regularly worshipped Jesus without his mother's knowledge. He was ready to become a Christian but he was concerned about his young sisters whose prospects of marriage might be seriously affected if he were to become a Christian openly.

Shantha met a young girl in her teens. She had come to know about Jesus through her friends in school. She prays only to Jesus and this is kept as a secret from her parents. She visits temples along with her parents but when she prays, she prays only to Jesus even in the temple. She has a copy of a New Testament given to her in the school but wishes to have a copy of the Bible.

Shantha met a lady in Triplicane who had recently retired, as a school teacher. She had come to know of Jesus through other teachers. She worships only Jesus and her husband does not object. She has had an operation and was healed. She believes that it was through the healing power of Jesus. Both she and her husband belong to a forward community. She does not go to church but prays at home. She had written a letter to one of the Indian radio preachers but had not got a reply. Only she and her husband were living in the house. She is very much interested to discuss about Jesus in her home.

Shantha also came across a fisherman who had learnt about Jesus from the open air preachings and big meetings in the beach. He had no time to discuss or learn about Jesus.

Shantha met a young housewife in Triplicane. She was cutting vegetables with her husband's mother. She was very busy at the time of interview. She had come to know of Jesus through family friends before she was married. She spoke very softly to Shantha so that she won't be heard by the elders of the family. She would very much like to go to church and read Christian literature but is afraid of her mother-in-law. What she does is that she prays alone to Jesus.

Do some NBBC's eventually become Christians? In our survey about one-eighth of the Christians in our sample said that they have no Christian relatives. This would mean that about one-eighth of the Christians of Madras are first generation Christians. One cannot be very sure of the accuracy of this estimate since the sample of Christians is only 83 but it is certain that there are thousands of first generation Christians in Madras city.

About two-fifths of the NBBC'S' s belong to the 15-20 age group and another one-fifth belong to the 21-25 age-group. These could be due to many reasons. More and more young people may be coming to know of Jesus during this decade compared to the past when a smaller number of people used to go to school. People may be strong in their faith when they are young and. may lose it when they grow older. It is only when they are young, people may think seriously about their faith. It is also possible that when they get older they may get baptized and become full members of a church. All these factors may contribute to the age distribution of the N BBC's.

We wish to remind ourselves that we are dealing with a sample of only 52 respondents and one can only obtain findings that are broadly true.

About two-fifths of the sample of NBBC's are men and three fifths are women. Women may have fewer opportunities of hearing about Christ and more women workers and volunteers are needed to meet the needs of the women NBBC's.

Fifty per cent of the NBBC's have had an education up to the eighth standard and in the general population the proportion of this group is much lower. NBBC's are found among both the well-educated as well as those who had not had any education. There was one postgraduate, two graduates, 13 who had done SSLC or PUC, seven who had studied up to the eleventh standard, 26 who had studied up to the eighth standard and. three who had had no education.

The NBBC's had had opportunities to learn about Jesus through Christian institutions, through street preaching, through mass media and through personal contacts.

One-fourth of them said that they learnt much from a Christian school and another 15 percent said that they learnt a little. Three-fifths did not have an opportunity to go to a Christian school. About one-fifth had learnt a little through Christian social work. About five percent had learnt from a Christian hospital but 95 percent had not been to such a hospital. About one-eighth had learnt through a Sunday school. A little over one-third of the NBBC's had learnt about Jesus from their visit to Velankanni.

About 85 percent said that they had learnt about Jesus from the cinema. One third of them said that they had learnt much through the movies. There are Christian scenes in secular movies as well as movies on the life of Jesus which must have had a strong impression on them. About seventy percent of them have learnt through the radio. About one third of the NBBC's said that they learnt much about Jesus through the radio. Many of them listen regularly to Christian programmes.

One sixth of the NBBC's had learnt much about Jesus by reading the Bible and another two fifths had learnt a little. Forty-four percent had not had an opportunity to read the Bible. Fifty percent had learnt a little and another 8 percent had learnt much by reading Christian literature other than the complete Bible. Forty-two percent did not have an opportunity to read other Christian literature.

 About one-third of the NBBC's had learnt about Jesus through big meetings .What proportion of the NBBC's had learnt any thing at all about Jesus from street preaching and distribution of tracts? About one-fifth of the NBBC's had learnt much from street preaching and another fifty percent had learnt a little from street preaching. This percentage is identical for the distribution of tracts.

Did the NBBC's learn about Jesus through individual Christians and families? Yes. Two-fifths had learnt much about Jesus through individual Christians and another one-fourth had learnt a little. Thirty-six percent had learnt much from Christian families and another 33 percent had learnt a little about Jesus from families. Around five percent had learnt about Jesus through marriage.

The NBBC's had also learnt about Jesus by joining in a church worship and through attending Christian functions such as marriages and funerals. A little over 35 percent said that they learnt much about Jesus by attending a service and another 29 percent said that they learnt a little. In other words about two-thirds had learnt about Jesus through attending a Christian worship. About one-third did not have an opportunity to worship. One individual said that he-she did not learn any thing by attending a worship service.

What is their understanding concerning Jesus? About four-fifths believe he is the true God and. one-sixth of them believe that he is one of the gods. More than two thirds of the NBBC's said that from Jesus they learnt much to love others and to help the needy. A little over one-third of thern said that they learnt much to have peace and joy as well as to receive forgiveness.

Between eighty to ninety percent of the NBBC's believe that Jesus rose from the dead, he is alive, he raised the dead and drove out demons. Over ninety percent believe that he is alive, he healed the sick and that he has power to help those who worship him.

Even though we have reckoned 52 persons as NBBC's, one-third of thern had never prayed to Jesus. In other words they believe he is the true incarnation but had never prayed to Jesus. They could have prayed to the mother of our Lord or to one of the saints like St. Anthony, or they may not have prayed but may simply hold the belief about our Lord. Only one-third of them pray regularly to Jesus. Four percent said that they had prayed before but do not pray now.

Where do they worship? About two-thirds worship at home privately. One-fifth of them pray with other members of their family and about two-thirds worship in the church. A majority of them are very much interested to learn more about Jesus by discussion with a Christian evangelist, by listening to the radio and reading the Bible. Less than 30 percent said that they are not interested in learning or listening through the radio or by discussing with an evangelist. A little less than fifty percent said that they are very much interested in hearing about Jesus by attending rallies and about two-fifths of the NBBC' s were not interested in those rallies.

Four-fifths of them believe that it is possible for a non-Christian to worship only Jesus without changing his/her religion. Out of the 52 NBBC's three persons said that it was not possible and seven persons said "can' t say".

It has already been noted that many NBBC's said that they had learnt about Jesus through Christian families. It turns out that half the number of NBBC's have Christian relatives. Forty-four percent said that they know of relatives who are not Christians but who worship only Jesus. In other words a high proportion of the NBBC's do not keep their belief in Jesus as a secret from their relatives.

The survey has clearly established the existence of a vast number of NBBC' s in Madras city. Madras probably has not only the largest concentration of Christians in India but also of  NBBC's. The need of these NBBC's for closer Christian fellowship has to be met by the Christian community in Madras and this community must live a kind of life which is worthy of the name of Him whose name it bears.