Mission Statement: Agape Restoration Society Inc. is a Christian volunteer ministry that aims to restore orphans, widows, poor and disabled people to fullness of life; to restore this diakonia-ministry to the Body of Christ; and to provide a Christian community for independent living in moderation.
Agape Restoration Society has been functioning since 1998 in the U.S. as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We have worked in Russia for 10 years with disabled children and adults in their homes in the provinces of Russia and in the Moscow area providing rehabilitation, care and equipment. Since 2002 we have also trained hundreds of Americans and Russians to perform the diakonia social ministry that Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church performed to "the poor, lame, maimed and blind" and to "widows and orphans" using the six courses of our one-year online "Social Ministries of the Church" program in English and in Russian. We've also taught this online interactive program on-site in Russian at a Christian university and two seminaries in Moscow.
The ARS concept consists of training a team of workers from local churches to do diakonia social ministry together with evangelism and church planting. The goal is to restore agape-love and community as the basis for new church structures. When our workers demonstrate the agape-love of Christ to a disabled or elderly person, this establishes credibility: they are able to pray and share the Gospel with that person, his or her family, relatives, neighbors and friends, invite them to the church and share with them the next phase:
Building Agape Restoration Communities (ARCs). These communities are self-funding, non-profit "housing cooperatives." We've drawn and re-drawn these plans several times: our latest plan, the ARC #3, is more compact for locations where zoning may require fewer living units per building, to be less expensive to build, and for a closer sense of community. Not all church members must be members of the co-op: most of the church members in a given ARC should be healthy and able to serve. All members of the co-op, however, must also be members in good standing of that church.
Our earlier ARC design was a cross-shaped structure with a 54 ft. x 54x ft. (16.5m. x 16.5m.) chapel on 2.5 acres, but proved to be too large. So now, our ARC #3, where zoning requires fewer living units per building, is about 1/4 the size built on 1/2 acre with 12 living units and a community room/chapel. Not all church members must be members of the co-op: most of the church members in a given ARC should be healthy and able to serve. All members of the co-op, however, must also be members in good standing of that church. To be members of the co-op, they must either 1) be in missions or volunteer [including students] to work at least 3-4 hrs/wk in the community or in local outreach; or 2) have a resident family member including an adopted or foster child who has a disability, or 3) be at least 55 years old. A subsidiary non-profit ARC housing co-op will be created and will sell “shares” giving individuals or families a perpetual right to reside in their living units. “Shares” will be sold on six-year-loans (Deut. 15:2) to minimize interest. The church will own shares for the community room/ chapel: altar area, robes room and sacristy. Below are the new two-story plans for an ARC #3:
The steps toward starting a new Agape Restoration Community are as follows:
- Teach a team of diakonia-workers our 1-yr. program, begin caring for elderly, disabled, widows and orphans.
- While ministering to Christ's target audience and ours, begin inviting their families and friends to church.
- Hold meetings to explain the restoration community and organize an ARS branch, a non-profit housing coop.
- Gather reservations: $500 refundable deposits to determine residents’ priority of home selection.
- With a bank or financial supporters, set up a construction fund escrow account to buy land & finance construction.
- When we have enough reservations, gather subscriptions: $4500 down payment to select size of living unit.
- When construction is completed, subscribers sell or rent out their old homes to pay for shares for their units.
This concept is feasible: we borrowed the above steps of gathering reservations, subscriptions and selling shares from Realife, Inc., which has built over 25 similar housing cooperatives in the U.S. upper Midwest. You can find many other Christian independent living communities in the U.S. by searching on the Internet. At our website www.Agape-Restoration-Society.org/enroll see our Social Ministry courses, and www.Agape-Restoration-Society.org/build.htm for a 12-page PDF with 5 large-scale drawings of the ARCs. Also, get my book The Ministry-Driven Church at www.Agape-Biblia.org/literatura/#ministry as a paperback or free e-book.
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FEEDBACK:
from Samuel, 06/20/2019, 12:14pm:
I am greatly impressed at what this ministry is doing for the disabled and the elderly ones. I have a ministry that is reaching out to the mentally retarded and very interested in discussing how to be able to effectively help them.
Dear Samuel,
Thank you so much for your good comment! If you would like to stay in contact and discuss how to effectively help disabled people, please join our Agape Restoration Email Forum: go to www.agape-restoration-society.org/forum.htm. I hope to see you there!
In Christ, Robert