Were it not for the gilded cross that dominates the stage or the Christian references in the lyrics, a casual observer might think the scene was a Persian music festival.

Pastors, some of them women, greet and bless the crowd in Farsi and English. Their faces beam. It's a momentous occasion for the ministry and for Iranian Christianity.

The service possesses all the trappings of modern-day, evangelical Christianity--the television screens, the stage, the plentiful seating. Church officials do not disguise their evangelical intent: Using television, they want to reach across the Atlantic to Iran, where they are finding flocks of converts.

The pastors' mission, however, extends beyond simple evangelism. They also want to expose Iranians to something besides the Christian faith. The pastors want to show Iranians that they have a choice of which religion to follow.

On June 26, officials and parishioners of the Iranian Christian Church dedicated their new, 23,000-square-foot building on E. Arques Avenue in Sunnyvale. The church had its beginnings in a Cupertino living room almost 20 years ago.

Church officials say it's the largest Iranian Christian church in the world.

It is in Sunnyvale rather than Iran because the Iranian government will not allow Christians to practice their faith openly.

At the June 26 service, parishioners wept during prayers, for the freedom of Christians in Iran to practice their religion.

"They realize the people of Iran are oppressed and depressed," says Hormoz Shariat, the Iranian Christian Church's senior pastor and president and founder of International Antioch ministries, the nonprofit organization with which the church is affiliated. "They were once there themselves."

Although several religious scholars say Persians were among the first converts to Christianity in the world, Christians are a minority in the modern-day, theocratic Shiite republic of Iran.

Most Muslims are familiar with Jesus, and he is mentioned several times in the Qur'an. The Islamic tradition holds Jesus as a human prophet sent by God, but not the Son of God, as Christians believe.

Shariat says Armenian and Assyrian Christians--ethnic minorities who live in Iran--are allowed to hold religious services, but only in their native languages, not in Farsi.

According to the Sunnyvale church pastors, Iranian Christians who are not from these ethnic minorities face discrimination, persecution and even death if the government discovers they practice their religion. Publishing and distributing the Bible and Christian literature is forbidden.

Despite the danger facing Iranians who convert from Islam to Christianity, Shariat and other members of International Antioch ministries believe Iran is fertile ground for Christian outreach. The pastors and most parishioners of the Iranian Christian Church are, in fact, former Muslims who converted to Christianity after reaching the United States. They've made reaching out to Iranian residents here and abroad an integral part of their mission.

Armed with a satellite and what the pastors say is a message of non-dogmatic spirituality, members of International Antioch Ministries have waged a quiet, nonviolent battle for the past two years against Iran's religious tyranny. Every evening during prime time, the ministry broadcasts a pastoral call-in show in Farsi to Iran, Canada, Europe and parts of the United States. Although the broadcasts were previously taped in a television studio in San Jose, the new church building is outfitted with equipment, so the ministry is moving production to its own studio. Within the next couple of months, the pastors plan to tape services and eventually broadcast them for 24 hours.

"Forming a church in Iran is risky and illegal," Shariat says. "But many people have satellite dishes and can receive our signal. This is our instrument for reaching out to people."

"We're not political, but spiritual. We're not here to change the president [of Iran]," says the Rev. Kamil Navai. "We want Iranians to have the option of hearing something that could change their lives."

Despite the Iranian government's control, Shariat says the church's evangelical mission is flourishing. In fact, he says the ministry sees more Iranian converts than Iranian American converts.

"[Iranians] have a distorted image of God," Navai says. "They think of God as someone who wants to punish them. In Iran, religion is used to control people."

The pastors say part of their message's appeal to Iranians is their emphasis on a personal relationship with God rather then religious dogma.

"Iranians don't need religion. They need relationships," Navai says.

Although the ministry's mission is to promote Christianity in Iran, Navai emphasizes it is in no way trying to wage war against Islam.

"If you are a Muslim, you are still my brother," he says.

Instead, Navai says he and the other evangelists of this ministry are trying to introduce Iranians to a concept many Americans take for granted--religious freedom.

"It's a privilege here to be free and have the Bible," Navai says. "If I want to, I can worship in the parking lot or street and nobody comes to stop me. It's a freedom. I'm hoping and praying that Iran will give freedom of religion to the people. Let them choose themselves."

But reaching out to Iran comes at a price for the evangelists whose faces grace the television screen.

"If we go back, people under the government regime may assassinate us," Navai says. He adds that the ministers occasionally receive death threats from people in Iran who he says are not affiliated with the government.

Despite the threats, Navai's wife, Nadereh, who is also a pastor, plans to revisit her homeland one day to preach the Gospel directly to the people.

"If God wants us to go, we'll go," she says. "Right now is not the right time. Some day we'll go back. Iranians are receptive to our message [over the airwaves]."

During the broadcasts, pastors field calls from Iran. Even when they are not on television, the pastors say viewers flood them with emails and calls requesting prayers, asking questions and relaying their experiences. Calls from Iran are so prolific that the ministry relies on staff members to answer calls and emails.

Iranians calling the church might talk with Cupertino resident Houri Heydaripour, who became a member of the church six years ago shortly after emigrating from Iran.

"[Answering their emails] is enjoyable," Heydaripour says. "They write about their problems, and I feel sad, but it's fulfilling."

Heydaripour was born Muslim, but says she never felt connected to the religion. Growing up in Iran, she had a few non-practicing Christian friends who told her stories about Jesus.

"I always had in my heart that there was only one person from God: Jesus Christ," she says.

However, religion took a backseat to workaholism as she became a successful businesswoman in Iran, importing chemical materials. When her business went under, Heydaripour became depressed.

She says a friend smuggled her a book about Jesus--which is illegal in Iran.

"I started to read, and I couldn't put it down," she says.

Satisfying her interest in Christianity was impossible as long as Heydaripour remained in Iran.

"You can't find a Bible unless you have a connection," she says.

In 1999, Heydaripour immigrated to the United States. She lived in Los Angeles and then moved to the South Bay. After attending a few Iranian churches, Heydaripour found the Iranian Christian Church.

"From the moment I stepped in, I found a place where I could belong," she says.

However, Heydaripour says her conversion and evangelism make it risky for her to return to Iran.

"[As a practicing Christian,] I would be in danger," she says. "I pray for it. I want to go there and help people. It's not just about religion. It's about educating, as well."

Heydaripour serves as a part-time pastor and hopes to eventually become a full-time pastor. Although female leaders in any religion are relatively rare, she stands a good chance of becoming a minister at the Iranian Christian Church, where two of the five pastors are women.

"It's very nontraditional," Donnell Shariat, Hormoz Shariat's wife, says. "We are breaking barriers by having women pastors. In Iran, women are the most oppressed sector of society. This is a positive message to them."

"The word of God doesn't say man or woman," says Nadereh Navai, who has been a pastor for four years. "We are all equal in God's eyes."

Navai has been involved with the church since it began in the living room of the Shariats' Cupertino home in 1987. One year later, the group moved into a church on Kirk Road in San Jose. When the church's budding membership outgrew the building, officials began looking for a larger facility to house the congregation.

The congregation purchased an industrial warehouse on Arques Avenue in 2003, which they planned to retrofit with a sanctuary, kitchen, fellowship hall, youth facilities and television studio. Construction began in June 2004 and was completed within budget 10 months later.

Before the dedication of the building on June 26, the church held services there for about two months.

Although the dedication ceremony was conducted simultaneously in Farsi and English, the church ordinarily holds separate services for each language.

Shariat says holding services in English is an important component to the church's longevity.

"Immigrant churches only last one generation," he says. "We emphasize reaching our youth."

The Iranian Christian Church, 740 E. Arques Ave., 408.732.7070, www.iranchurch.org.