AGAPE LIFE INTERNATIONAL CHURCH (ALCI) PROFILE

Definition of terms
Agape – The word “Agape” is a Greek term which means the “God-kind of love” or “God’s unconditional love”.
Life – This term describes the abundant life of the kingdom which God has given us through Jesus Christ.
Church – This word is based on what Jesus Christ declared in Mathew 16:18 that He was going to build His Church. (The word Church) is derived from a Greek term “Eklesia” which means “the called out ones into the assembly”.
International – This means the Agape Life Church is established not only in Malawi but in other countries as well, qualifying it to become an international church.

Background
The Agape Life Church International (ALCI) is a duly registered church in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, with its headquarters in Blantyre, Malawi. The ALCI started on 8th February 1987, with its first church service church held in a house belonging to the late Mrs. Alice Ngwira, a very committed memer and one of the first elders of the church. Apostle Augustine D. Mgala was the first pastor of the church, assisted by his wife Pastor Priscilla L. Mgala. The church started with 15 (fifteen) members.

Prior to the establishment of the church, Apostle Mgala and his wife had a successful interdenominational teaching ministry. They used to meet every Saturday afternoon at Red Cross Hall I Blantyre. Lives were transformed as a result of the effective teaching of the word of God.

Founders
Apostle Augustine D. Mgala and Pastor Mrs. Priscilla L. Mgala are the founders of the Agape Life Church International. It was in 1986 that Apostle A.D. Mgala caught a vision to start a church which would become a teaching center of the uncompromised word of God. The Lord showed him that from the teaching center of the church would go out men and women into other places to spread the word of God, which would set free many who would be spiritually, physically and emotionally bound.

Our Vision
The vision of the Agape Life Church International is “To make every man a disciple of Christ”. We believe that we are called not only to make converts for the Lord, but even more to teach the converts the truth of the word of God to teach them to obey by applying the word in every area of their lives by faith. This will ultimately produce disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Mission
The mission of the Agape Life Church International is “To bring deliverance, discipleship, development and destiny to people of all nations”. We believe it is our duty to help the people who have been delivered from the power of bondage and sin, by taking them through discipleship process in order to get them grounded in Christ and become responsible Christians. After discipleship, we believe we need to empower the people by educating their minds and training them to acquire work skills. We believe in developing the total man – spirit, soul and body. We are also committed to providing relief to affected people during natural or man-made disasters regardless of ethnic, political, religious or grounds. We are committed to helping people discover their purpose for living. This will ultimately lead them into God-given destiny.

Statement of faith
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God and it is His final authority.

We believe in the existence of one eternal God, creator of heaven and earth, revealed in Three Personalities, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, which sometimes is referred to as the “Godhead”. The terms “Trinity and Persons” as related to the Godhead, while not found in the scriptures, are words in harmony with scriptures to bring about our immediate understanding of the doctrine of Christ to others. We may therefore speak with propriety of the Lord our God who is one God as a Trinity or as One Being, or Three Persons and still be absolutely scriptural, He is God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in the Deity and Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His birth through the Virgin Mary, in His sinless life, in His Gospels, in His miracles, in His substitutional death on the cross, in His resurrection, in His ascension to the Right Hand of the Father and His eminent return in power and glory.
We believe in salvation through repentance by faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning blood to cleanse from sin.
We believe in water baptism for the believers by complete immersion in water according to the Gospel of Christ.

We believe in the believers’ baptism in the name of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues and we believe that such baptism is to empower the believer to witness Christ and to direct him in the way of truth.
We believe in the spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost with their manifestations among believers according to scriptures.

We believe in the ministry gifts given by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Body of Christ to perfect the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the edification of the Body of Christ.

We believe in the believers’ personal holiness of life and separation from sin through sanctification by the blood of Jesus Christ and the word of God.
We believe in the divine healing through faith in Jesus, and in proclaiming the Gospel all people of all nations, of the world through missionary work, evangelistic conventions, soul-winning and personal witnessing, crusades and many other means of getting the unreached, the lost, to hear the Gospel with signs and wonders following.
We believe in the guidance and direction by the Holy Spirit in the believer in making decisions for the work of the ministry.

We believe in worshipping the Lord as expressed by singing songs of praise and adoration to Him, clapping of hands, dancing, the use of stringed instruments, piped sound instruments like flute, trumpets, saxophones; and we believe in the lifting up of hands by the believers in prayer and worship as reverence before the Lord God.
We believe in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust. The just to the eternal life with God and the unjust to everlasting punishment.
This is the basic foundation doctrine for the Agape Life Church International.
In order to pursue the fulfillment of the vision, ALCI functions through eight ministries as follows:

Church Ministry (CM)
The church ministry is responsible for the effective running and proper functioning of every establishment (local church branches) of the ALCI. The CM ensures that vision, mission and doctrine of the ALCI are properly adhered to. It is responsible for the setting up of the leadership structure at each local church.

In Malawi, where the church is well established, the church ministry is headed by a National Director Pastor C.O Kasito. The country is divided into four ‘Field Zones’ for proper administration of the church ministry. There is the Northern Field Zone, Central Field Zone, Eastern Field Zone and Southern Field Zone. Currently, Pastor M. Sawali is the Field Zone Representative for the North and is based in Mzuzu, Pator I. Phiri is the Field Zone Representative for the center and is based in Mzuzu, Pastor Y. Chonzi is the Field Zone Representative for the East and is based in Balaka, whereas Pastor P. Kasito is the Field Zone Representative for the South and is based in Mulanje. Each Field Zone has its own committee, which sits to discuss plans in line with the vision, policies and procedures of ALCI for their Field Zone.

Each Field Zone is under the leadership of a Field Zone Representative who oversees all the activities of all the local churches (branches) within his Field Zone. The Field Zone Representative reports to the National Director who is based in Blantyre at the headquarters of the ALCI. Each branch (local church) is headed by a qualified pastor who is responsible for the spiritual and moral care of the members of the church. The pastor reports to the Field Zone Representative of his field.

Every branch of the ALCI has a church board which consists of selected elders with the pastor as its chairperson. The church board sits regularly to monitor the progress of the activities of their local church are in line with the vision of the ALCI and if they are accomplishing their local branch goals. They discuss issues which include plans for their local branch church. The church board is responsible for the establishing departments that assist the local branch in attaining their goals and expectations.

Branches in Malawi
As mentioned before, the ALCI has a total of 45 (forty-five) local church branches in all the four field zones of Malawi. Some of these branches have their own resident pastors while others do not have pastors resident at the branch and they are headed by the elders of those particular churches. The resident pastors nearer to those branches without pastors, do visit them at least once a month.

Pastors in Malawi
The following is the list of the ALCI pastors in Malawi and their branches:

Pastor M. Sawali – Mzuzu, Ekwendeni, Songwe (Karonga)
Pastor I. Phiri – Lilongwe
Pastor S. Lobeni – Area 25, Lilongwe
Pastor Y. Chonzi – Balaka, Chiendausiku, Ntaja, Riviri, Damu
Pastor K. Eruwa – Liwonde
Pastor M.J. Wadi – Mwanza (Liwonde, Lupiya and Njanjama)
Pastor E. Yakobe – Zomba
Pastor A. Mwale – Chirimba
Pastor B.H.C. Mijoya – Blantyre City Center
Pastor P.L. Mgala – Blantyre (Headquarters)
Pastor D. Mkambeni – Ndirande, Machinjiri
Pastor C.O. Kapito – Chiradzulu
Pastor S.N. Kalulu – Chilomoni
Pastor M. Dzinkambani – Bangwe
Pastor S.B. Bulaundi – Madziabango
Pastor I. Nkhoma – Chigumula (Newlands)
Pastor D. Tiyeni – Lutchenza
Pastor P.O. Kasito – Mulanje, Chisitu, Phalombe, Muloza
Pastor R. Mtupa – Bangula, Batisoni, Sorjin, Kaluwa, Ngabu

Relief and development (Read)
The ALCI realizes that its other God-given assignment to the world is to love all people, show mercy and provide acts of kindness to the needy, poor, orphans, the marginalized and suffering people groups.

The ALCI equipped with the love of God is committed to assisting the affected people in time of natural or man-made disasters, regardless of their ethnic origin, political, status, racial or religious background.

So far, we have three feeding centers in Balaka, Madzi abango in Blantyre district and at Bangula in Nsanje district. At these feeding centers, we provide orphans and vulnerable children with porridge in the morning of everyday and a light meal at lunch time before sending them back to their homes until the following day. We provided relief materials during flood disasters in 2006, which included clothes, blankets and utensils to the affected, people from Bartison, Sorjin and Lalanje areas in Nsanje district, and Ngabu village in Chikwawa district.

Currently, the relief and development (Read) of the ALCI is headed by Pastor Priscilla L. Mgala as Director. The ALCI through Read is also committed to developing the total man-spirit, soul and body, realizing that while the spirit of man is being nurtured and empowered, the soul and body of man needs to be developed in all areas. To achieve this, the Read realizes its duty is to provide free education to needy children and youth, development and business skills to many people requiring such assistance so that in turn they can go back and impact their communities. We believe that only an informed people equipped with development, economic and business skills can effectively contribute to the development and success of their communities and thereby improving their living standards. Recently over 50 women from the from the Blantyre city churches underwent a training in income generating activities and thereafter received small loans of K20,000 each to start small businesses. Currently, we are also providing free education to needy orphan children from Masuku village, Madzi abango area in Blantyre district and at Bangula in Nsanje area.

So far we have three feeding centre’s in Balaka, Madzi abango in Blantyre District and at Bangula in Nsanje District. At these canters we provide orphans and vulnerable children with porridge in the morning, daily and a light meal at lunch before sending them back to their respective homes.

In 2006, when the flood disaster occurred, we provided relief materials such as clothes, blankets and utensils to the affected people from bartison, sorjin and lalanje areas in Nsanje district and Ngabu village in chikwawa district.

Recently, in November 2008, the read responded to the fire accident which destroyed the roof of the church building of ALC, forcing the church members to seek temporally meeting place at a nearby primary school, by providing roofing materials such as nails, plastic sheets, poles and a small donation of cash to assist in purchasing grass for the roof. The response was a result of the ALC from Lilongwe, Area 25, Zomba, Chilomoni, Ndirande, Blantyre city centre and chiradzulu.

Read is also committed to assisting people affected directly or indirectly by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The read, conducts HIV/AIDS counseling sessions for those affected encouraging them to take positive stand towards life and to believe that God loves and cares for them either way. It also teaches the youth and the adults to abstain from sex immorality as the best way to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS.
Missions (local and foreign)

The ALC believes in missions as the best means of taking the Gospel to all people of different cultures. It is our conviction that evrey people group must be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are therefore committed to planting churches everywhere where the door opens whether in Malawi or any other nation.

Currently we have missionary work in South Africa in the Gauteng Province. A new missionary is expected to south Africa during the first quarter of 2009. Plans are underway to train local Mozambicans In missions so that they can go back and do missionary work in their country. Mozambique is a vast country with many diverse cultures. It requires great combined efforts to bring the gospel to all parts of this country. Pastor Preston Kasito is the current mission’s director of the ALCIs missions department.

In RSA, we have one branch in Katlehong Township, Gauteng Province. At present, they are meeting in classrooms. However the members in RSA just bought the 200 seat members tent which they intend to pitch in leondale a nearby township in which most members reside.

Commerce initiative (CI)
The ALCI realizes that in order to carry out the ministry work programs, projects and other activities in accomplishing its mission, it can not always depend on the contribution of its church members and donor funding but it needs to diversify and engage in commerce. This will be done by engaging in various business ventures and profits realized from such would be channeled to cater the ministry work, programs, projects and other ALCI activities. It is ALCI intention to also promote business and entrepreneurship culture among church members. It would encourage Christians to use their god given potential using godly principles to do legal trade and be able to succeed in this world of economic competition.

Women ministry (WM)
The ALCI believes that women are equally called by God just like men are to do Christian ministry, development work and business and business enterprises in the community, country and the world.
The ALCI through the women ministry is committed to restoring the dignity and self worth in women by providing theological training to those who have who have a call to serve God. We also empower women with entrepreneurship and development skills so that they in turn can contribute to the development of their communities.
The women ministry is therefore to promote the women living standards especially those that are needy, poor or widowed regardless of their ethnic, religious, political and racial background.

Economic and skills Empowerment (EASE)
The ALCI aims at equipping the communities with economic and development skills. Besides its task of bringing the gospel salvation to the communities so that they become spiritually free, the ALCI through its arm the EASE empowers poor and disadvantaged men, women and youth from the various communities with entrepreneurial and developmental skills. The objective of this is to promote the spirit of self reliance and thereby improve there own lives and the communities. This will be done by conducting seminars, workshops and short term courses facilitated by professionals who would be invited or hired for that purpose.