Our Beliefs

Hope Church is an Advent Christian Church. We are "Advent" in that we stress the future visible return of Jesus Christ as the ultimate hope of all believers. In Titus 2:13 the Apostle Paul instructed the Church to be "looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." The second coming of Jesus Christ has always been a key theological and biblical component of the Christian faith, and this truth is also reiterated in the Apostles' Creed which states Jesus "is coming to judge the living and the dead."

Key Beliefs

We believe that God is Holy and so we approach Him with the same reverent attitude that Isaiah had when confronted with this truth: “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips…and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)
We believe in the timeless truth of the Bible and we are unapologetic in preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word. We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the reason for our celebration, and you will hear it preached, sung, and prayed as we gather together each week.
We believe both in the traditional, theologically-rich hymns of the faith as well as in contemporary worship choruses which place the God-head and the Gospel as theirfocus and seek to incorporate them into our worship service.
We believe that everything we have comes from God and belongs to God. As such, we believe that the giving of our tithes and offerings is an expression of our love and devotion to God, and so we pass the offering plate so that, each person /family can joyfullygive what theyhave decided in their heart as an act of worship.
We believe that God’s Family consists of both young and old and so we encourage families to worship together during the Sunday morning service. Although we have nursery available, we encourage families to keep their children with them in the service. We love to hear babies and young children in our gathering, because we believe that their presence adds to our “joyful noise” unto the Lord. You will also notice that young and old participate in the worship service by playing instruments and singing. We believe that God calls people of all ages to use their gifts to honor Him.

Theology of the Family of Families

In order for God’s plan for the Family of Families to be properly fulfilled, the local church must be viewed as more than a social institution to be joined; it must be seen as an extended surrogate family (1 Tim. 3:14-15). When an individual comes to faith in Christ, he or she does not solely acquire a new Father – God; he or she also gains a new Family - the Church (Eph. 1:3-6, 2:19).

That being so, the Family of Families functions as a multi-generational gathering of believers that recognizes both young and old as its significant components. As such, members of the local church are to be mutually regarded as fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandfathers, and grandmothers, and esteemed with the same respect and support that one would his own biological family (1 Tim. 5:1-16). Older women are to assist younger women in establishing godly homes: loving their husbands and children, responding to the headship of their husbands, and managing their home in a way that pleases God (Titus 2:3-5). Older men, likewise, are to train younger men to be temperate, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, and endurance and to love their wives and children as Christ has commanded (Titus 2:2,6; Ephesians 5:25-33, 6:4).

As part of the Family of Families, believers are instructed to use their gifts for the universal benefit of its members and to make the regular meeting together for encouragement and instruction its standard of practice (1 Cor. 12:7; Heb. 10:25). Further, the local church must be characterized by its concern for the local community through acts of service and charity (Gal. 6:10; Phil. 2:4) and by its commitment to local and foreign missions (Acts 1:8). Functioning as it should, the Family of Families will serve as a powerful testimony to a dark and hurting world which so desperately needs the Light of Christ (John 13:35; Titus 2: 5, 8,10).

We adhere to the five "Solas" of the Protestant Reformation:

Sola Scriptura - The Bible alone is God's written revelation which possesses absolute authority over the believer's life and conscience.
Sola Fide - The believer is justified (acquitted, declared not guilty) by means of faith alone.
Solus Christus - Jesus Christ is the only Mediator, Savior and Redeemer of the lost.
Sola Gratia - It is solely by God's grace that any are redeemed.
Soli Deo Gloria - To God alone be all glory.