Harbhajan Singh (1949—2011)

Country of Origin

  • India

Countries/Regions of Ministry

  • India

Traditions

  • Pentecostal

Ministries

  • Pastor
  • Evangelist
  • Church planter

Sant Harbhajan Singh of Khojewala was the founder of The Open Door Church in Punjab’s Kapurthala district. A native of the village where he ministered, he helped establish an indigenous Christian community whose story joins personal conversion, prayer, healing ministry, and congregational growth. His life offers a testimony to the Holy Spirit empowering a local believer to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

A former Sikh landholder, Harbhajan spoke frankly about drunkenness and moral failure before turning to Christ in 1986. His testimony presents conversion as deliverance into new life, rather than merely a change of religious affiliation. His subsequent ministry can thus be understood through the pattern of a transformed person becoming a witness to transforming grace.

According to the church’s history, Harbhajan began conducting religious discourses and prayer gatherings in Khojewala in 1989. These village meetings became the foundation of The Open Door Church, formally established in 1991. The beginnings were modest, but regular gatherings gave the emerging community continuity. In 1996, a management committee was constituted. As attendance increased, the original premises developed into a prayer hall of approximately 8,500 square feet, demonstrating that the ministry was becoming an enduring congregation rather than an occasional gathering.

This work demanded courage. Christianity Today reported that a village youth committee initially opposed the church building and that Harbhajan received death threats after construction began.[1] He nevertheless continued, expressing confidence in God’s protection. His perseverance belongs alongside healing prayer in understanding the character of his ministry.

Harbhajan’s understanding of spiritual power was explicitly dependent on God. Speaking about healing and inner peace, he declared, “The Lord does it. We are incapable.”[2] These words resist treating the minister as the source of divine power. They also provide a foundation for describing him as Spirit-filled: the emphasis falls on God acting through human weakness. Reports of healing should be received as religious testimony, not presented as independently established medical evidence or as proof of personal spiritual superiority.

By 2003, Christianity Today reported 2,800 baptized members, with others awaiting baptism. Its description of villagers sitting on floor coverings and praising God conveys an accessible, participatory worshipping community. Here, the significance of empowerment extends beyond the preacher. Theologically, a church is not simply an audience for a gifted leader; it is a people drawn into worship, fellowship, and witness. Harbhajan’s lasting contribution therefore includes the community that gathered, not only the public ministry associated with his name.

Historian John C. B. Webster places Harbhajan and The Open Door Church within the development of independent Punjabi Pentecostal congregations. He identifies them as an example of churches adopting a familiar regional pattern of community gathered around a spiritual leader.[3] Webster’s research included interviews with Harbhajan and newly baptized converts in October 2002. This scholarly evidence locates the movement within Punjab’s religious and cultural life. Christian interpretation can see such rootedness as a reminder that the Spirit’s work need not erase local belonging: witness to Christ can take shape through local people and recognizable communal forms.

Harbhajan continued leading the congregation until his death in 2011. His son, Pastor Harpreet Singh Deol, carried the ministry into its next generation; the church’s official account dates his assumption of leadership responsibilities to 2012.

The church’s continuing identity encompasses worship, prayer, biblical instruction, and community engagement. Its published mission includes spiritual learning, ethical values, and congregational unity. Pastor Gursharan Kaur Deol also participates in prayer services and congregational support. Such ordinary practices matter alongside extraordinary testimonies: spiritual empowerment finds durable expression when people learn, pray, care for one another, and sustain a shared life of faith. Harpreet’s later work extended to Punjabi-speaking communities abroad. In 2021, he founded the Pentecostal Christian Management Committee, linking churches across several northern states. This widened institutional horizon belongs to the successor’s ministry, while resting on Khojewala’s earlier congregational foundations.

Sant Harbhajan Singh’s legacy is therefore best understood as a local Christian witness whose significance reaches beyond buildings or attendance figures. His story invites reflection on grace that renews a life, courage that sustains a calling, and prayer that directs attention toward Christ. In this sense, The Open Door Church stands as the community continuation of a ministry interpreted through dependence on God and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

Richard Howell
United Kingdom for Graduate Education
 
Notes
 
[1] Manpreet Singh, “Power in Punjab,” Christianity Today, July 2003.
 
[2] Ibid.
 
[3]John C. B. Webster, “Punjabi Christians,” Journal of Punjab Studies 16, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 35–56.
 

For Further Reading:

  • Singh, Manpreet. “Power in Punjab.” Christianity Today, July 2003.
  • Webster, John C. B. “Punjabi Christians.” Journal of Punjab Studies 16, no. 1 (2009): 35–56. 
  • Webster, John C. B. A Social History of Christianity: North-West India since 1800 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007), 299–300, 350–351.


© 9/25/2026