Our Purpose...

We started this Christian community with a distinctive purpose. Each year our elders meet to confirm and refine that purpose. This purpose becomes a defining standard that we seek to live out personally and collectively. It is our understanding of God's current will for our lives. We are not in competition with any other church. We join them as we contribute what we can uniquely provide the Kingdom of God.

Our Vision

Our Passions

Our Culture, Ethos, Vibe

Every organization has a culture, or atmosphere, in which they fulfill their vision. The culture reflects common values and creates a vibe for the community. HOPE has defined the culture it purposely chooses to operate in. By defining it we can create and recreate it. We hold to our culture as tightly as our vision.

Creativity/Innovation
God is the Creator, the source of creativity. Our imaginations weren't' given to us to be a place of frivolous deception but a place where we can conceive the awesomeness of God. Our imaginations become a place where transcendent truths and our limited experience merge. It is where God can meet you and if you call on Him He will make you creative. Creativity and innovation are a natural result of true spirituality. Dance, music, poetry, story, and visual imagery all share a significant role in the ancient scriptures - the Bible and are important today.

We want to foster an atmosphere that encourages the arts, exploration, and innovation. HOPE wants to grant permission to try new things. You don't have to have it all together either. We welcome challenges and are not afraid to fail. Jesus said only new, flexible wineskins could hold the new wine of the Spirit. "It's not enough for us to be contemporary; we need to be anticipatory, leaning forward, riding the crest of the wave, being part of the exciting "new things" that God is doing — things that we are privileged to be part of." Your contribution is to this journey is important.

Simple Structures
Organization, structure, and boundaries are necessary for a healthy community but should not consume the energy of church life. Structures should empower and release the vitality of a faith community.

We choose to minimize decision making structures deferring as often as possible to those called to lead. We seek to empower those with responsibility of task or ministry. This requires that we each take personal responsibility to be informed. It also calls for the maturity to lead when we are leaders, and follow when we are followers.

Missional
We are not an end in ourselves. Embracing true spirituality and relationship with Jesus quickly turns us away from ourselves and toward those things that are the heart-focus of God. It is the paradox of Christian faith. Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. Francis of Assi said it this way: "It is in giving that we receive."

We are called to negotiate relationships with seekers and those outside of a Christian worldview. We want to be a part of our cities, plant new churches, market our message, and demonstrate God's love practically. We value ministries of compassion and healing, those beautiful demonstrations of God's love.

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
JESUS

Evangelical
Evangelical Christian churches typically believe in the authoritative reliability of the Bible, interpreted simply, and the necessity of a personal decision to follow Jesus that is lived out in a transformed life. In this way HOPE is truly evangelical. We focus with wholehearted commitment on "core Christianity," those essential truths and practices, made clear in the Bible, which Christians across the ages have held in common, and which most effectively nourish spiritual vibrancy.

"Maturity involves growing in the balance, simplicity, humility, and practicality of wisdom, not endless complexity, pride, controversy, and abstraction. " With confidence in the "core Christianity" we freely associate, fellowship, and serve with those that differ with us.

Relevant to Culture
Jesus was refreshingly relevant to the world. His teachings taught a way of life now and for eternity. He was with the common people, understood them, loved them, and made spiritual truth a common reality.

God has not hidden himself in an exclusive language or style. In fact he is fluent in all that mankind has formed. One of the magnificent things about the incarnation of Jesus, is that God took on our form – not so much that he could identify with us, but so that we could identify with Him.

We don't want to be a place to hide from culture, but a place where culture encounters Christ. So we use the language of the people, the music of people, and stories of the people. Being relevant not only establishes how we communicate but also indicates the issues we address. We purpose to bring Christ into the issues that face the everyday lives of people.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." JESUS


Authentic in Life and Relationships
Substance is always more valuable than form. Pretending to be someone or something that you are not only hurts ourselves and others. We seek to wear no religious masks but to remain transparent, authentic, and honest. Holiness will only come when we are authentic before God, others, and ourselves.

Passion and meaning within this life come from finding our true identity. We are guided by ancient Truths that apply to and transcend all cultures. We are called onto a journey of becoming and knowing. We live this journey, on step at a time, within Christian community. Thus we become part of the bigger story of God's love for mankind.

Spiritual formation is not limited to learning but extends into how we "do" life. Thomas Kempis expresses this when he writes, "I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it." In following Christ we follow a "way of life." This is one reason the earliest Christians were called people of the Way.

AT HOPE we want to be with you in the failures as much as the successes of life.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." JESUS

Experiential, Participatory and Invested
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Psa. 34:8 We learn and grow by doing. Discovery should not be limited to intellectual understanding. Each of us takes personal responsibility for following Christ. No matter where we are on the journey we know that personal investment of time, relationship, and resources are necessities to move forward.

We recognize that this world, life and God are all too profound and complex to be reduced to simplistic formulas or to be neatly packed and cataloged in boxes. We embrace the wonder and mystery of all of creation and of the Creator, and seek to celebrate, enjoy, and experience the goodness of God, that far surpasses our understanding. We value spiritual disciplines to help us grow in spiritual vibrancy, including the study of Scripture, prayer, worship, fasting, feasting, fellowship, journaling, silence, and service. In light of the awesome mysteries of our faith, and strengthened through spiritual disciplines, we seek to live "life to the full" in Christ.

 

Multi-generational.  Hope began in 1997 as a church of mostly 20 somethings.  We remember when the oldest person was 40.   As we have grown we have learned the value of being a church that has many generations present.  In America's fast past and customized culture, these has become a huge challenge for the church.   Yet, we are committed to striving - even for the difficult things - when they are important.  We need those older than us and they need those younger than them.  Scripture speaks with a booming affirmation to faith communities and families that experience multiple generations.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full". JESUS

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