About Us
The early days of Bethany Assembly of God were maked by fervent prayer and worship, healings and Pentecostal experiences. During that time, the church experienced tremendous growth. On April 20, 1955 Bethany Pentecostal Church applied fir affiliation with the General Council of Assemblies of God. The official address, then as today is 211 Baltimore Ave. Hillside New Jersey.
By September 6, 1967, through a corporate and cogregational meeting, Bethany Pentecostal Christian Church of Hillside changed its name to Bethany Assembly of God.
In the 1990s, Pastor Aly Khan Armamento, newly certified as a minister by the Assemblies of God through the former Philippines Christian Church, led by Rev. Danilo Quijan in Morristown became the pastor of the Philippine Christian Fellowship.
Pastor Khan worked with his mother-in-law, Sis Cienda Alon and her three young daugthers, to establsh the present-day Bethany Assembly of God. Prior to its founding, they started as a small group of believers, influenced by the Pentecostal revivals, and members began meeting in the home of Pastor Kha, his wife Evangeline, and their two sons to worship together. After a short time, the prayer group formed and became a Bible study group, gathering every Tuesday in the Alon's house in Long Avenue in Hillside.
By 1991, the group, still part of Philippine Christian Church, and attendees at its Sunday worship services, became know as Philip[pine Christian Fellowship, which started to draw mor Filipino believers. As they continued to pray and worship together, their numbers increased, and Bethany Assembly of God developed. The increaseing growth promted Sis Cienda, a dedicated believer, to secure the Bethany premises for Tueaday Bible study. Soon, the group, which was now independent from Philippine Christian Church, change its name to Jesus Tabernacle. In 1995, the Board of Bethany chose Pastor Khan to be its pastor.
He then came to simultaneously shepherd two churches: Bethany in the morning and Jesus Tabernacle in the afternoon. The church was busy with two Sunday services, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and outreach services. Entire familieswere being saved and spirit-filled, and becoming active members of the growing church. By December 2006, Jesus Tabernacle returned to Bethany Assembly of God and has since been holding services at the same location.
Until 2007, Jesus Tabernacle still assumed its name and one part still retains the name-the Jesus Tabernacle Bible Institute, chartered under the International Bible Institute in January 2007. In January 2008, after a joint meeting of the Bethany Board of Elders and the Jesus Tabernacle officers, both agreed to a merge Jesus Tabernacle and Bethany Assembly of God as one church, using the name Bethany Assembly of God. The church is now one body, serving the Lord Jesus Christ as the head.
In recent years, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, Bethany has been a forerunner church by taking viable stepes to become as relevant as possible to the postmodern culture in which we live. Envisioning Bethany Assembly of God church to be a huge diverse church of committed leaders and members form different racial and cultural backgrounds - Americans, Filipinos, Italians, Czechoslovakian, Irish, Haitians, Spanish, Portuguese and others - who work in such diverse fields, with the love and compassion of Jesus and ever willingto commit to serve God as an overflow of their deeper rlationship with our Savior, Lord and Maker, the congregation believes they should be bold and ready to do the Lord's work. They strive to maintain obedience to his corporate calling to worship, prayer and missions in order to keep that blessing flowing, not only to hemselves, but also through them to the lost and to the greater church around the world.