London Reformed Baptist Seminary - Application Form

SAVE OFFLINE

Metropolitan Tabernacle Elephant & Castle London SE1 6SD [email protected]

Application Form

Full name

Eduardo de Azevedo Pereira

Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) 23/08/1981 Address

Rua dos Corticeiros n.1 R/C – 7520-131 Sines – Portugal

Email address

[email protected]

Detailed testimony of conversion (minimum 300 words)

My parents came from different religious backgrounds – my mother has always been a non-practicing catholic, while my father had been long away from his Seventh-Day Adventist past. I was educated in Catholic schools, but having my father’s “different beliefs” always looming over me. As such, due to his influence, only at 10 years old I was baptized in the Catholic Church – he was adamant that I had to be conscious of my decision. Soon after that I started to look for some real meaning in religion. At first I tried Catholicism – the easiest choice, after years being taught by nuns and attending masses at school. Three times I tried to prepare for First Communion, but something always stopped me. In the last try, I remember seriously questioning some doctrines in which the will of the Catholic Church overstepped the Bible’s authority. I think that was when I quit Catholicism and started to look elsewhere. When I was 14 years old I decided to ask my father for advice on religious matters and doctrines I had encountered. He told me that I could only find answers if I went to church with him. That’s when I started attenting a Seventh-Day Adventist Church – and he returned to it, after over two decades of distance. He never left again, and still is an active member in his church. I studied and was baptized seven months later, getting deeply involved in the local church’s life and several activities – Sabbath School classes, missionary work and literature distribution, Pathfinders Club and so on. At seventeen, supported by the same pastor that baptized me, I was admitted in a four year seminary in 1999. My goal was to become a pastor. But due to several problems – in fact it was the Lord’s mercy,

now I realize – I quit the course in the end of the first year. I went on with my church life in a new city, though heavily affected by some problems and questions I had in the seminary. Once again, I dived in the ecclesiastic service. Now I see it was a failed attempt to find meaning and usefulness. I tried to be zealous in my daily life, but my it lacked real experience with God; as soon as I was away from the temple or its people, it was always like a switched button – my life was hollow again. After several profound internal and external conflicts, I finally left the SDA Church at the age of 24, to avoid at all cost any other religious contact for almost 10 years. Some very strong beliefs remained, though, which summed up to a great deal of repressed spiritual conflict. After being married to my wife who also was away from her religious context, and already being a father, in 2013 I started accompanying my wife to what later became our church (due her growing need to return to the Lord, in order to help her with our toddler and totally against my will). I usually yawned away the whole worship service, and often left the temple in a burst of outrage after hearing about the doctrines of the Grace and so many other teachings that confronted my beliefs at the time. But, inexplicably in a human perspective, I never stopped attending – even when my wife herself told me not to go anymore. We left town during my wife’s second pregnancy and returned after the baby’s birth, to once again attend the church. In 2015 we enrolled in a course for married couples, during which my wife was baptized. I resisted for two more years, but during all this time I was being matured and worked on by the Lord. Those were years of deep confrontation, long months of spiritual battle in prayer, discussions and study. During all this time, my wife and my mother-in-law kept praying for me. The decision point came at the end of the 2017 World Missions Campaign. God’s grace prevailed over my prejudices, doubts and philosophical reasoning, and made me realize I was fighting God Himself, not only ideas and doctrines. I surrendered, and told my pastor “It’s about time I stop playing Jonah”. Finally, I attended preparation classes during the second semester of that year. I felt that a new baptism was necessary, because during those years of distance I came to doubt some essential truths, even forswear my faith in Jesus. Also, I realized my weakness of purpose at the time I was baptized in the SDA Church, a teenager full of misconceptions and empty of a solid faith. My pastor agreed with me, and by God’s supreme Love and Grace I was baptized in the 17th of December 2017. From this day on, my life, character and faith have been constantly polished by the Lord – and the work is far from done. I have come to realize that real experience with God is much more than singing in a choir, working in a church event or entering doctrinal battles against people with different beliefs. It’s daily life itself, joys and sorrows surrendered at God’s feet. As to my doctrinal basis, I can now say that I strongly believe in

God the Father as my Creator, Sustainer and Sovereign above all and everything; Jesus as One with the Father, my Saviour and Lord; and the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity, my Comforter, Teacher and the One Who enables me to learn, grow in faith and work for the Lord. I believe in the Bible as God’s supreme Word and the ultimate, flawless source of knowledge about His character and salvation plan. I believe that only through God’s Grace I am chosen and saved, to glorify Him in my life, faith and works, fulfilling the mission that His Son left for Christians: announcing the Gospel worldwide.

Name of church

Igreja Evangélica de Sines

Church website address

https://igrejaes.wixsite.com/igrejaes https://www.facebook.com/igrejaes/

Doctrinal position and basis of church

Reformed Baptist church

Details of your Christian In Brazil: deacon, secretary of different local departments throughout 4 service activities for the Lord years, voluntary works in the church’s construction and local events, gathering food and clothes donations to support local ministries. In Portugal: Musical renovation, worship service Brief educational background Theology studies (incomplete – 1 year) Incomplete Undergraduate: Hebrew Language and Literature Do you wish to submit assignments? (Y/N)

Yes

Please also submit a letter of recommendation from your church (pastors excepted). (This should be from your pastor or a church officer known to you, and should testify to your character and Christian walk, your membership of the church and Christian service, and your suitability to undertake the LRBS course.)

Please return completed forms and letters of recommendation to the LRBS Administrator as an email attachment([email protected])