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Agape Bible Fellowship, is
an indigenous, non-denominational ministry and
is registered as a Christian charitable trust.
I am Pastor Reuben M.Sathiyaraj, and I have
been in the Lord's ministry for the last 29
years, starting this Church and ministry in
Bangalore South India in 1990.
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My vision is
to reach the unreached masses of more than 1.5
Billion Indians, especially those who are living
in spiritual darkness, with a specific vision
not only to reach the non-Christians, but to bring
each believer to spiritual maturity, so that they
may also have a vision and commitment to reach
out to their own people.
God demands and I believe that everyone has the
right to hear the life changing power of the Holy
Spirit, the gospel, and the love of Christ. Therefore,
our focus and outreach is to the needy, especially
those living in slums and rural areas, befriending,
helping with their material needs and showing
them the love of Jesus in Word and deed. We try
to teach ways they can be self sufficient and
help themselves. To achieve this God given vision,
we at Agape are directly involved in training
believers, teaching befriending skills, and publishing
the relevant materials in regional languages.
In August 1990,
I initiated this ministry as a Bible study group
with 3 families; it has now grown to 900 new believers
consisting of 6 language groups. I am shepherding
the parent Church in Bangalore which is in a rented
building, but now due to the number of attendees
and the size of the Church we are conducting two
services each Sunday, 7 a.m and 9:30 a.m to accommodate
everyone, even with these two packed services,
people are standing on the steps and listening
from outside. Every day the building is fully
utilized to spread God's word through Bible studies,
children's clubs, counseling, Pastors meetings,
discussion groups, and all the other many aspects
of ministry.
I also believe
that the Church must serve the people, so it is
fully utilized as a community centre in diverse
kinds of ministries, daily we take the glorious
gospel by personally visiting people providing
relevant literature and friendship.
We firmly believe
that plain teaching and practice of the Holy Bible
in day to day life will bring a Biblical revival
and solid belief in the Body of Christ in India.
As many believers and regular Church attendees
live below the poverty line, taking time from
their work to attend the Sunday service, it is
a struggle for them to even contribute to the
offering.
But it is our
firm hope to ignite, and fan the flames of revival,
and we firmly believe literature will play a vital
part in this area of the Lord's ministry. Already
we are publishing various types of gospel literature
for free distribution and follow-up. However repeating
the printing is governed by our finances. Most
people we are reaching and teaching have barely
enough money for food and basic needs, so any
financial help in this area of printing and publishing
would be greatly appreciated.
All opportunities
are grasped to raise up new believers with the
plain teachings of the Word of God, and we have
already published some Christian study books in
the local Tamil and Kannada languages, but it
is our great desire to translate and publish English
books for Christian growth and Bible study materials
especially from foreign authors, but to do this
we need their permission and also financial support.
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| What we
believe in agape bible fellowship churches |
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Agape Bible Fellowship has been
formed as a fellowship of believers in the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. Our supreme desire is to know
Christ and be conformed to His image by the power
of the Holy Spirit. We are not a denominational
Church, but we don't oppose denominations,
we are concerned with their over-emphasis of the doctrinal differences
that have led to the division of the Body of Christ.
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We
believe the only true basis of Christian
fellowship is Christ's Agape love, which
is greater than any differences we possess
and without which we have no right to claim
ourselves Christians. |
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We believe worship of God should be spiritual.
Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded
to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct
our worship. |
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We
believe worship of God should be inspirational.
Therefore, we give proper place to music
in our worship. |
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We
believe worship of God should be intelligent.
Therefore, our services are designed with
great emphasis upon the teaching of the
Word of God that He might instruct us how
He should be worshipped. |
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We
believe worship of God should be fruitful.
Therefore, we look for His love in our lives
as the supreme manifestation that we have
truly been worshipping Him. |
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We believe in THE APOSTLES CREED as the
fundamental facts of Christian faith. |
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We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture,
that the Bible, Old and New Testaments are
the inspired, infallible Word of God. |
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We
believe that God is eternally existent in
three distinct persons: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. |
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We
believe that God is the personal, transcendent,
and sovereign Creator of all things. |
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We
believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and
fully human, that He was born of a virgin,
lived a sinless life, provided for the atonement
of our sins by His substitutionary death
on the cross, was bodily raised from the
dead, ascended back to the right hand of
the Father, and ever lives to make intercession
for us. |
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We
believe in the personal, visible second
coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. |
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After
Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out
His Holy Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem,
enabling them to fulfill His command to
preach the Gospel to the entire world, an
obligation shared by all believers today.
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We
believe that all people are, by nature,
separated from God and responsible for their
own sin, but that salvation, redemption,
and forgiveness are freely offered to all
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When
a person repents of sin and accepts Jesus
Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting
Him to save, that person is immediately
born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit,
all his | her sins are forgiven, and that
person becomes a child of God, destined
to spend eternity with the Lord. |
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We
believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit
mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they
are valid for today if they are exercised
within the scriptural guidelines. We as
believers are to covet the best gifts, seeking
to exercise them in love that the whole
Body of Christ might be edified. We believe
that love is more important than the most
spectacular gifts, and without this love
all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless.
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