Our Story
Purpose, Vision, Mission, Priorities, Family & History
Purpose
To glorify God by fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)
Mission
“To build a generation who loves Jesus Christ and who are ready to impart the same love into the community. To lead people to have a personal relationship with the Triune God, by living authentic Christian lives and preaching the good news of the Gospel. To Disciple new believers to maturity and equip them for ministry and accomplishing the great commissioning of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20)”
Vision
To be a loving and caring family oriented church to impact our world for Jesus Christ
Priorities
Worship
Exalting God’s presence.
Word
Biblical teaching.
Prayer
Standing in the gap for the people.
Fellowship
Embracing God’s family.
Discipleship
Edifying God’s people.
Evangelism
Spread the Good News by words and actions.
Binuraj Thakadiel Karunakaran, Senior Pastor
Pastor Binuraj T K was born in 1977 in Kerala but brought up in Karnataka. From his childhood, he was very passionate to serve the Lord Almighty and God choose him to be a vessel for His glory at a very young age.
His father Late Rev. Immanuel Pillai and mother Susheela served the Lord for almost three decades together till Pastor Pillai was taken to the resting place in 2002 and since then Pastor Binuraj is a full-time pastor. He did his Theological studies from Asian Biblical Seminary. He has also a master degree in English and a Teaching qualification from Auckland University.
Pastor Binuraj served the Lord in Udupi (Karnataka) and different parts of India before he and his family migrated to New Zealand in 2007. He and his wife Ancilla Simon Fernandes pioneered the Lords work in Auckland New Zealand with just two of them but over the period of time, the church has grown heaps and bounds and now caters to many nationalities and different language groups.
Bethel AOG church, Auckland now is one of the finest churches in Auckland with nearly 17 language groups and 7 countries represented. Pastor Binuraj serves the church as the senior pastor of Bethel Assemblies of God church Auckland and he is also the Police chaplain for the Auckland east region.
He is happily married to Ancilla Simon Fernandes since 2005 and as a family is blessed with two boys and one girl Bryan, Brianna and Brendan.
Serving the Lord as a Family
History of Bethel Assemblies of God Auckland
The Story of Bethel Assemblies of God starts with a passion that Pastor Binuraj and his wife had to serve the Lord where ever the Lord led them. Pastor and his wife migrated to Auckland in 2007 and God’s favour was with them. They found like minded people who wanted to worship together and met together for the Friday meetings at a house in Royal Oak (Auckland). The group started meeting regularly. Slowly and steadily the attendance for the Friday meetings grew and it was the Lord who led the group to move into Onehunga Community House, at 83 Selwyn street Auckland for their first ever Sunday worship on 16th September 2007.
The church grew in the perfect plan of God and the community House Onehunga became too small for the crowd. God led the church to one of the elite buildings of Auckland known as Alexandra Park Greenlane and meets there since 2011.
Passionate people to serve the Lord joined hands with pastor Binuraj and today the Church is enormously blessed in different ways. The church leadership team plays a great role in the functioning of the church. As the church has a great desire to fulfill the great commissioning of Jesus Christ, it is focussed on building up men and women who can be trained and be used for the wider Kingdom plan of God.
Bethel Assemblies of God church is humbled by the way the Lord has been leading them since day one and today the church has a blessed worship team with talented and anointed youngsters.
The church caters to a lot of languages even though the main service is in English. Bethel AOG at present has more than 17 language groups and represents 7 countries. The members meet regularly for Cell groups and study the word of God with zeal. There are regional meetings conducted in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Sinhalese.
The Sunday school and Teens meet on every Sunday and they have the Kids church where dedicated teachers invest into the lives of these young people. The youth wing is one of the strength of Bethel AOG and they work together with the pastor and his evangelistic dreams.