Our Journey
Ryan and Lakshmi and their three kids Nathanael, Elisha and Keziah were a part of Harvest of Grace Church led by Nigel Pereira and Desiree Periera for about 20 years where he served in leading worship, preaching, leading and overseeing english house groups, he was in the eldership team alongside Nigel Periera and other co elders of the Church.
In December 2016, Ryan and Lakshmi heard the call of God through a dream to plant a Church in Mumbai, Mira Road. This led to much prayer and fasting and waiting on God for one whole year for further confirmations, prophetic directions and his timing.
A word from the Lord came to us at the Harvest of Grace Camp in January 2018 by a Senior Pastor in the City who was the guest speaker “You have been on this mountain for too long”– This word was a further confirmation to what the lord was already speaking to us.
City Hope Church was born in 11th March 2018 with a team of 10 adults and 4 children that joined from Harvest of Grace Church, the Church has ever grown since its launch, gathering people from diverse cultural/economic backgrounds and languages.
Our Journey
Ryan and Lakshmi and their three kids Nathanael, Elisha and Keziah were a part of Harvest of Grace Church led by Nigel Pereira and Desiree Periera for about 20 years where he served in leading worship, preaching, leading and overseeing english house groups, he was in the eldership team alongside Nigel Periera and other co elders of the Church.
In December 2016, Ryan and Lakshmi heard the call of God through a dream to plant a Church in Mumbai, Mira Road. This led to much prayer and fasting and waiting on God for one whole year for further confirmations, prophetic directions and his timing.
A word from the Lord came to us at the Harvest of Grace Camp in January 2018 by a Senior Pastor in the City who was the guest speaker “You have been on this mountain for too long”– This word was a further confirmation to what the lord was already speaking to us.
City Hope Church was born in 11th March 2018 with a team of 10 adults and 4 children that joined from Harvest of Grace Church, the Church has ever grown since its launch, gathering people from diverse cultural/economic backgrounds and languages.
We invite you to be a part of our story.
Foundational Beliefs
1 - GOD
We believe in the Trinity, that God is one- Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are separate by one in essence equal in power and glory. We believe in God, the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. – Genesis 1:1; Psalm 90:2; Matthew 3:16-17
2 - JESUS
We believe in Jesus Christ, his (God) only Son, our Lord and Saviour. He was born by a virgin Mary but conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was crucified on the cross, was dead and burried, but rose again on the third day. He ascended to heaven and now is seated in authority at the right hand of God the Father. He will return to claim his Church and judge mankind. Acts 10:38-43; Hebrews 1:2-3; Matthew 25:31-32
3 - HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit was given to the Church in fullness at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit empowers a Christian to serve and share their faith with boldness, courage and the believer operated in various gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transforms a person from their old self to new, and conforms us to the image of Christ. Acts 2:1-4; John 16:7-14; Galatians 3:22-23
4 - THE CHURCH
We believe the Church is the bride of Christ, whose goal is to make disciples throughout the world. This global Church comprises of many local fellowships. We affirm those fellowships that see Jesus Christ as Lord and the only way to heaven. – Acts 2:46-47; Matthew 28:19-20
5 - MARRIAGE
We believe in the Biblical definition of marriage: one man and one woman, committed to each other in a union of mutual love, faithfulness, and respect. Marriage exists to be a picture of the unchanging love Christ has for His own bride, the Church. – Genesis 2:18,22-24; Matthew 19:4-6; Ephesians 5:31-33
6 - THE BIBLE
We believe the Bible is the perfect and inspired Word of God. It is our source of all doctrine, instruction and correction. It provides practical guidance for every-day life. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Psalm 119:103
7 - COMMUNION
We believe in communion as a commemoration of Christ’s death and will continue to do it in this memory until He comes again. It is a sign of our relationship with Him. – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Matthew 26:26-29
8 - BAPTISM
We believe baptism is an outward sign of what God has already done in our lives. We follow Christ’s example, and through it identify with Him, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. – Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 16:31, 33
9 - SIN
We believe mankind is enslaved to sin. Jesus Christ came to pay the price for our sin on the cross. By his death, we can be in right-relationship with God. His death makes possible the healing of our body, soul and spirit. – John 8:34; Romans 6:16, 23; Isaiah 53:6
10 - RESURRECTION
We believe in a literal second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and eagerly await the resurrection of those who died in Him. We believe in a literal heaven and hell. Christ, based on their relationship with Him, determines the eternal status for saints and unbelievers. Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 19
Apostolic Sphere Values - Regions Beyond
1 - The Church
As a family of churches, we believe in the centrality of the church in God’s eternal purpose.
We believe that God’s great plan has always been that through local communities of disciples – through our love for one another, our commitment to one another, our service together, our mission together, our lifestyle together, our attitudes, our actions, and our unity together as bodies of believers ……. that: through the church – God’s wisdom – his mercy, his grace, his power, his authority, his patience, his care …
“should be made known.” Eph3:10. In fact we believe…
The one great purpose of God in history, in this age, and in the ages to come is the gathering of the church.
Sometimes we can be tempted to think of our own local church, or even the universal church across the world as something small and irrelevant compared to all the others things around us that effect our lives and demand our attention on a regular basis. In actual fact, according to the Bible, there is nothing more important in this world than the Church – The church across the world and across history. That includes every local church too. There is nothing more important in your town that your church. That has always been the case and it always will be. Everything else is finite – only the Church has an eternal future.
2 - Empowered by the Spirit
We believe that all Christians are born again by the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit at conversion. However, the New Testament speaks of the significance of ongoing post-conversion infillings of the Spirit to empower us to fulfil the callings God has on our lives and our churches. We do not want new Christians to be left without the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit operating in their lives and so should seek to pray for them to be filled with the Spirit as soon as possible after we lead them to Christ.
The primary way we can discern if someone is filled with the Spirit is whether that person is evidencing the biblical signs of being Spirit-filled today. Such signs in the New Testament include boldness for witness; assurance of salvation; using spiritual gifts, such as prophecy, speaking in tongues, and signs & wonders; experiencing joy; and a desire to worship the Lord.
We desire churches where the full range of spiritual gifts we read about in the New Testament are exercised in all our gatherings, and where all people know that they are a valued member of the Body of Christ with something to contribute.
3 - Embracing the Poor
Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom promised to those who love him? (Jas 2:5). For the Apostle James, the answer to this question was self-evident as he looked around the members of the young church. Has God chosen the poor? Of course he has chosen the poor! God is passionate about the poor.
It is with the poor that Jesus humbly identified in His incarnation. Jesus clearly saw His mission as bringing good news to the poor. He began His public ministry by declaring that He has been anointed ‘to preach the good news to the poor’.
We see this truth coming again and again in the gospels and the epistles. Once at the house of a Pharisee, one of those at the table with Jesus who had heard all Jesus’ teachings said to Him, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” In Luke 14 Jesus replies to him with a parable of the great banquet. In it Jesus speaks about the Master who decided to give a great banquet but those whom he invited gave excuses. So he tells his servants ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Again, he says to his servants, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full’.
4 - Enthusiastically servant-hearted
Jesus is the greatest and most humble person who has ever walked the earth. Unlike many leaders, both today and in the ancient Near East, Jesus took the form of a servant, lowering Himself in order to lift us up, even to the point of His own death. Jesus also taught us that it’s through servanthood that true greatness is achieved. Jesus is our model of true servanthood.
Therefore, true followers of Jesus are those who not only say the things Jesus said, but also do the things Jesus did. Jesus instructed us to follow his example and serve those around us, something that can only be made possible when we humble ourselves and seek to put others first.
At Regions Beyond, we believe God wants us to embrace this call to serve and give ourselves to one another. This is one of the values we hold dear.
5 - There for one another's success
This is a phrase which has come to symbolise a very practical outworking of loving one another as a church community. There are occasions when the church has been represented more by jealousy, competition, pretence, and independence, and that’s just among the leaders! That spirit must be challenged if we are to truly be obedient to Jesus’ great commission. Being there for one another’s success is about sacrificing your own time, finance, profile and success in order that others will benefit. It is understanding what our friends are called to by God and making their success one of our priorities.
This is particularly crucial among leaders, as they work out what God has called them to, find peers that can encourage them along the way, build teams that lead churches effectively, and raise up a new generation of leaders that can genuinely go further than the previous generation.
Church leadership has often been characterized by isolation and building one’s own kingdom, rather than this open-hearted, Christ-centred approach which will ultimately see a much greater reward for the kingdom.
As we consider the distinctive values of Regions Beyond, this one may seem to be something that we share universally with other church movements, and as such should be assumed rather than made a distinctive. In practice, we find it’s something that we need to talk about often, tell stories about, search our hearts over, review constantly and champion as something that has hardly been touched on, so that we carry this value into other streams of the worldwide church, and so that future generations will also hold it dear
6 - Faithful to Scripture
In the world today, there are many different and conflicting opinions about God, life, the afterlife and everything in between. With these different opinions, we are living in a day and age which is more uncertain than ever about how to find the truth.
We believe that in the Scriptures, we have something incredible, not simply another opinion, but the very words of God. We have the true perspective on life, humanity, salvation, heaven, hell, and all the big questions of life.
We believe that in the Scriptures find a worldview that is deeply coherent and brings life to those who believe in the God of its pages. Therefore, we take the Bible as our first and final authority, when it comes to matters of doctrine, lifestyle and the formation and flourishing of our churches.
7 - Intentional about Diversity
How do we become more intentional about diversity in the world today, when we are bombarded with division and segregation? How do we turn the tide on mono-culturalism, gender-discrimination, nationalism, tribalism, classism, economic discrimination, Colonialism, Nepotism?
We need the gospel to grip our hearts afresh and enable us to become powerful ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-19). Jesus has broken down in his flesh every dividing wall of hostility, he has abolished the law and created one new man in Christ out of the two, by making peace to reconcile us to God and to one another. We, therefore, have access to the Father by the Spirit, are fellow citizens of Gods kingdom, members of his household and are being built into a temple for the indwelling of His Spirit (Ephesians 2: 11-22).
We , therefore, aspire to be a bridge-building, diverse gathering of believers, that seek to be a prophetic sign to the world of the wisdom and power of the gospel, that brings a vibrant richness in diversity, where each individual is loved and valued and shows the multi-faceted character of God, bringing Him great glory.
8 - Leadership teams
When Jesus called those disciples, the first leaders of his church, he painstakingly took three years teaching them and often at times correcting them so they knew what sort of men they were to be.
He modelled this himself; he is the Good Shepherd, the gate to the sheep pen (John 10 v7ff). He cares and protects his flock from fierce wolves; he laid down his life for them. His treatment of those who came to him in need was always met with grace and mercy. He came to serve not to be served.
Several times he challenged them about their non-serving attitude (Mark 9v33ff). He washed their feet even Judas’s who was to betray him. Peter, he exhorted post-resurrection, feed my sheep. He gave them authority over evil spirits, sickness and to proclaim forgiveness of sins. It’s not surprising therefore when Paul instructs both Timothy and Titus to appoint elders (1 Tim 3v1ff, Titus 1v5ff), the qualifications are concerned with character primarily. Jesus was the Good Shepherd, church leaders are to follow suit.
9 - Motivated by Grace
The foundation of our relationship with God is his grace toward us. In Jesus he has made it possible for wretched sinners to become members of his family. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are brought close, not because we deserve it but because he loved us with an unquenchable love. We don’t boast of what we have accomplished but we boast in the cross of Christ that leads us to grateful service.
God has planned good works for us to do that are to flow out of our knowledge and enjoyment of his amazing grace toward us. We didn’t earn God’s favour by doing anything and we cannot keep God’s favour by doing anything.
Grace comes to the undeserving and stays with us as we serve him in and through our weaknesses. It is an amazing truth that weak and frail humanity can bring glory to God through faithful service.
10 - Shaped by the Prophetic
Of all the spiritual gifts detailed in scripture, it seems that Paul gives the prophetic gift more attention than the any of the other grace gifts. One of the possible reasons for this may have been Paul’s own experience of the great benefit of having recognized prophets around him – men such as Silas, Agabus and others.
Acts 13 gives us an insight into the impact when gifted leaders gathered together in Antioch for a time of prayer and fasting and the prophetic gift birthed mission into Asia Minor – “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. As a result, many new church communities were birthed. This had followed Agabus’ clear word earlier about the oncoming famine all over the Roman world, triggering a great apostolically led response across the churches.
How valuable this must have been to Paul as he developed his church movement. In the same way today, we value the prophetic gift and how it has fuelled and shaped our advance into the regions beyond. We have found that prophetic words are essential in developing a clear vision for our worldwide mission and the growth of the local church.
11 - Devoted to Mission
At the heart of mission lies the mission of God. We were made by Him and for Him, to glorify Him, to worship Him and to delight in Him. He alone is worthy of all glory, honour and praise. He created us His image to represent Him and to reflect Him so that the whole earth would be filled with His glory. At the fall, when man rebelled against God, His image was defiled and in need of restoration and man was in need of redemption.
Throughout the Bible we see God’s redemptive plan at work, leading to the time when people from every tribe, tongue and nation will be gathered around the throne worshipping Him. God’s mission now is to redeem man, to restore His image and to establish His Kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven. Our mission is to join with Him on His mission, seeking His kingdom and making disciples of all nations, for the sake of his glory.