About AGAPE

Dr. Beckwith speaks at all three Sunday Services except when he is away for speaking engagements or at international conferences. Dr. Beckwith selects guest speakers, Agape Ministers or Agape affiliates who are renowned teachers and speakers in their fields of expertise.

Yes, every Sunday Agape’s Youth & Family ministry provides Sunday services and activities for children and teens, as well as a baby nursery, staffed by our volunteers.

Agape is developing many possibilities for individuals and related spiritual communities living outside of Los Angeles to become Agape affiliates, to study with us, and to serve our global family. Current Agape-affiliate communities include:

There are opportunities to study online with Dr. Beckwith as well as attending Agape’s many retreats, workshops and conferences that are offered throughout the year. Please visit our website for upcoming courses, retreats and events.

There are also opportunities to hear Dr. Beckwith speak in your area as he travels for speaking engagements both nationally and internationally. A list of his speaking events can be found at MichaelBernardBeckwith.com

Agape does not require formal affiliation and is accessible to all individuals on equal terms. This applies to taking courses, receiving pastoral care services, volunteering in outreach programs, and so on. The exception applies to those individuals who wish to become an Agape Licensed Spiritual Practitioner or minister, and therefore must fulfill the requirements relative to these licensed ecclesiastical positions.

Generally-speaking, the word “church” is associated with Christian denominations and their houses of worship. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith founded Agape as a trans-denominational spiritual “center” because this terminology best describes the inclusiveness and diversity for which Agape is known and respected.

Agape embraces a Reality that the world’s scriptures and sacred texts endeavor to describe, even as they acknowledge the impossibility of such a task. Some call It God, Great Spirit, Hashem, or Allah, while others simply prefer to leave it nameless. Agape teaches that this ultimate Reality is the ever-present Source of all life and that we are made in its image and likeness, which makes us co-creative participants in the world in which we live.

Through Agape’s teaching of the New Thought-Ageless Wisdom tradition of spirituality, individuals are taught the universal spiritual principles and laws governing the cosmos, and the practices by which one can apply them. Many of these technologies have been practiced by spiritual seekers for thousands of years, teachings which to this present day are practical in meeting humanity’s challenges of 21st century living.

Agape’s teachings point the way to how an individual may cultivate their own unique relationship with this ineffable Presence and live in conscious connection with It. In Agape’s services and courses, we refer to the world’s scriptures and sacred texts, as well as the writings of ancient and contemporary mystics, teachers, sages, philosophers, pundits and scientists.

Generally-speaking, the word “church” is associated with Christian denominations and their houses of worship. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith founded Agape as a trans-denominational spiritual “center” because this terminology best describes the inclusiveness and diversity for which Agape is known and respected.

Agape embraces a Reality that the world’s scriptures and sacred texts endeavor to describe, even as they acknowledge the impossibility of such a task. Some call It God, Great Spirit, Hashem, or Allah, while others simply prefer to leave it nameless. Agape teaches that this ultimate Reality is the ever-present Source of all life and that we are made in its image and likeness, which makes us co-creative participants in the world in which we live.

Through Agape’s teaching of the New Thought-Ageless Wisdom tradition of spirituality, individuals are taught the universal spiritual principles and laws governing the cosmos, and the practices by which one can apply them. Many of these technologies have been practiced by spiritual seekers for thousands of years, teachings which to this present day are practical in meeting humanity’s challenges of 21st century living.

Agape’s teachings point the way to how an individual may cultivate their own unique relationship with this ineffable Presence and live in conscious connection with It. In Agape’s services and courses, we refer to the world’s scriptures and sacred texts, as well as the writings of ancient and contemporary mystics, teachers, sages, philosophers, pundits and scientists.

Agape follows the spiritual wisdom teachings and examples of Jesus the Christ, but it is not Christian in the traditional sense. The New Thought-Ageless Wisdom history that Agape embraces includes the Gnostic teachings of Jesus and the earliest Christian mystical sects including the teachings of Dr. Howard Washington Thurmon, as well as the founders of the uniquely American New Thought Movement including Emmanuel Swedenborg, Thomas Troward, Ernest Holmes, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Myrtle Fillmore, and transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and others.

While the Bible is mainly referenced in Dr. Beckwith’s services and Agape’s courses, the version that is primarily used is a metaphysical, Gnostic-inspired edition translated and interpreted from the original Aramaic, rather than the Greek translation used in traditional Christian churches. Also referenced are scriptures from the world’s wisdom traditions including the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Tao Te Ching, Kabbalah’s Zohar, works by the transcendentalists and more.

Agape teaches that Jesus was not the great exception, but rather the great example. Classically, the New Thought-Ageless Wisdom tradition of spirituality regards Jesus an enlightened being, one who attained cosmic consciousness, or liberation from a sense of separation from the Source of All That Is. Jesus, like Gautama The Buddha, are revered as great teachers, way-showers, as exemplars of unconditional love, selfless service, and self-mastery.