IPC Bombay

History
Our Pastor
We Believe

A small beginning:
It was in the year 1955. Bombay city was an attraction for job seekers, as it is even today. Some believers belonging to the Indian Pentecostal Church of God in Kerala had come to Bombay in search of jobs. Three friends joined together on a Sunday at the residence of Mr. T.M. Abraham (Karamvelil Avarachan) in Building No. 1 of Tilak Nagar, Chembur and formed a small prayer fellowship. The group continued to meet regularly on Sundays at the same place and slowly grew in size bringing to its fold people from various Christian denominations who made personal commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and who believed in the Pentecostal experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The prayer fellowship decided to organize itself as a local church of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God and was helped initially by Pastor Kurien Joseph. The first Pastor who was sent from the Headquarters in Kumbanad to minister in the church was Pastor C.J. Mathew in 1956 who had just completed his Bible training and had a vision for North India. He ministered in the church for two years and moved on to other places.

Growth:
As the membership of the church grew to about 25, it became difficult to continue the worship meeting in the same small room in 1, Tilak Nagar. The service was shifted to a class room of Elizabeth School, Chembur in 1960. The church continued to expand as it became a source of blessing to many young people who came to Bombay to work in offices, factories, hospitals, etc. Many members of the church moved to other parts of the world over the years. (One would be able to meet old members of IPC Chembur in various states of North America and the Gulf countries). At the same time, many more kept coming to its fold, too. The class room became totally inadequate for the purposes of the church as the attendance in the worship meeting exceeded 100. Special meetings had to be held outside the class room in the school compound or in other open grounds. People began earnestly to pray for a new and bigger place of their own.

New premises in Chhedanagar, Chembur:
A whole hearted effort to collect funds for a hall and parsonage began in 1975. Members pledged to contribute at least one month’s salary to the building fund of the church. Appeals for funds were sent to friends in different parts of the world. Encouraged by the generous response a decision was made in faith to buy a hall and a parsonage in the ground floor of Ballena, a proposed building in Chhedanagar, Chembur although the funds were inadequate at that time. The construction process of the building was very much like an “obstacle race”. We could feel God’s intervention in the matter several times. May His name be glorified. Finally the premises of the church was completed in December 1977 and the hall was inaugurated on Sunday, December 11, 1977 with a worship meeting in the morning and an inaugural function in the evening. The hall has a seating capacity for 250 people. A baptistry is constructed at one end of the hall which, with the cover on, serves also as a platform.


	The Bible to be the inspired and only infallible authoritative Word of God.
	That there is one God, eternally existent in three persons:the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
	In the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His humanity, His perfectly sinless life, His substitutionary death as an atonement for our sins, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father and His personal imminent return to the earth for His saints.
	That all human beings are dead in sin and utterly lost and that the only way their sins can be forgiven is through repentance and through faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
	In the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, whereby a person is`born again to be a child of God.
	That justification is by faith in Christ alone.
	In baptism by immersion, after regeneration, in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
	In the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience subsequent to regeneration, the initial external evidence of which is the speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4). We also believe in the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit continually in order to have power to be witnesses for Christ - by life and by word.
	In the blessed hope - the rapture of the Church at Christ's second coming.
	In the resurrection of both the saved and the lost - those who are saved to eternal life and those who are lost to eternal condemnation.

Our Pastor .....
(From May 2018)

Pastor Stanly Alex & Family

Pastor Stanly Alex & Family

Lord's Ministry in Different parts of the India

MINISTRY EXPERIENCE
1. 2003 - 04 - Staff worker in ICPF Pathanapuram Chapter .
2. 2009 - 10 - Asst. pastor of IPC Philadelphia Church, Kottayam.
3. 2009 - 10 - Teacher in Agape Hindi Medium School, Perumbavoor.
4. 2011 - 12 - Adjunct faculty at IPC TSK, Kottayam.
5. 2012 - 13 - Mission co-ordinator under IPC EWS in UP.
6. 2013 - 14 - Faculty in IICM, Chandigarh and co-pastor of IPC Zion Church, Chandigarh.
7. 2015 - 16 - Administrator and faculty member at OIT, Pathanapuram.
8. 2016 - 17 - Ministry co-ordinator of World Mission 360, Songadh, Tapi, Gujarat.
9. 2017 - 2022 - Pastor in IPCNR Masihi Mandir, Balaganj, Lucknow, Uttra Pradesh.

Our former Pastors
1. Pastor C.J. Mathew (1956 - 58) - Gone to be with the Lord
2. Pastor V.M. Chacko (1958 - 59) - Gone to be with the Lord
3. Pastor Mathew Samuel (1959 - 68) - Now in New York
4. Pastor K.V. Kurian (1968 - 74) - Gone to be with the Lord
5. Pastor K.V. Abraham (1974 - 80) - Now in Gujrat
6. Pastor Thomas V. Koshy (1980 - 86) - Now in New York
7. Pastor P. Joy (1986 - 91) - Now in Mumbai
8. Pastor K.M. Varghese (June 1991- Dec. 1991) - Now in Florida

9. Pastor V.J. Thomas (1992 - 1997) - Now in Mumbai
10. Pastor P.J. Samkutty (1998 - 2003) - Now in Mumbai
11. Pastor John Thomas (2003 - 2008) - Now in Kerala
12. Pastor Shibu Joseph (2008 - 2013) - Now in Kerala
13. Pastor O. P. Mathai (2013- 2018) - Now in Kerala
14. Pastor Benny P.U. (2018 - 2022 May) - Now in Sharja

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