We are a small community of believers who come from different backgrounds and cultures, but joined together by the grace of God our Saviour. Together we are seeking to know Christ more deeply as He is revealed in the Bible so that we may grow into His image by the working of His Spirit unto the glory of God.
We have a bilingual worship service in English and Marathi, as we are located in Pune city which has people from all over the country.
Why the name?
All around us we see the devastating effects of sin. Guilt, pain, death, injustice and hopelessness are just few of them. We have once personally experienced the hopelessness of life without knowing and enjoying God our Saviour. But now by God’s grace through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have a “living hope”. Hope that is not simply wishful thinking. Hope that is not going to disappoint in the end, but a living hope that we are forgiven in Christ and will be with Christ forever. This good news is not a trivial message that we want to keep to ourselves in our desperate generation. Hence, we decided to call ourselves “Jeevant Asha” which when translated from Marathi to English means “Living Hope.” We added “Bible church” to always be reminded that the word of God stands over us as our authority and under us as our foundation.
What does our gathering look like?
In our corporate worship, we love to read the word, sing the word, hear the word and by God’s grace respond to the word. Because in the word by the power of the Spirit, we behold the life transforming glory of Christ. The glory of Christ is satisfying and at the same time we cannot get enough of it. Hence, we keep coming back to behold God’s love toward us in Christ and by the Spirit be moved to give God our Praise. This worship prepares us then to have holy and loving fellowship with God’s people. It moves us to gladly and increasingly submit to Christ our loving Lord in lives of discipleship. The Gospel so fills our hearts that we become people who share this great news with others. Although we are far from perfect, by God’s grace this is how we are beginning to look like at JABC.
What is the vision and mission of the church?
Jesus Christ the Lord of the Church has already given us His vision and mission in His word. We can summarize His vision for us as mentioned below.
- To be a biblically faithful local church that feeds on God’s word and seeks to think, worship and conduct itself according to God’s word. All to the glory of God.
- To be receivers of edification by the means of grace but also to use our spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ.
- To partner with other like-minded churches by supporting and encouraging Biblical faithfulness and be encouraged by them too.
- To be a growing church that by various biblical ways continues to spread the good news to our city, state, nation and beyond so that other biblically faithful churches are planted and established for His glory.