Earlier this year, Agape Baptist Church made a significant decision. Recognizing the place that we find ourselves in our journey, our congregation decided that it is time for Agape Baptist Church to come to its ending. It was a difficult decision for many reasons, but we knew that it was time.
It would be impossible to make mention of all the ways that God has been good to us. Throughout the church’s journey, God has provided such rich fellowship, such transformative worship and discipleship, and such meaningful opportunities to join in God’s mission of redemption and restoration. For all this and more, we have every reason to say, “Thanks be to God!”
We are confident that the ending of Agape Baptist Church begins the next chapter of God’s ongoing work. Through this process, the people of Agape Baptist Church have been intentional and forward-looking, seeking to create a legacy that will carry on far beyond us. Through collaboration with the Tarrant Baptist Association, good and meaningful work will be able to continue, and other churches will be able to meet in the buildings. In this, we are confident that God will do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
Easter Sunday, April 9, was the final Sunday gathering of Agape Baptist Church (You may watch this service and others on YouTube). We chose this date because we believe that death is not the end of the story. Just as Jesus overcame death in his resurrection, we believe in the power of resurrection in us. We follow the one that knows the way out of the grave, the one that is “the resurrection and the life.” In Jesus, death has been swallowed up in victory. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Just as we closed our final gathering, we offer this benediction to you:
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how high and wide and long and deep is the love of God, that you may know this love that surpasses understanding, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
Now to God, who is able to accomplish immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
