Hey People of Hope,A fun surprise to this season of change at Hope Church is how often our new location opens the door to another new community connection! I love meeting new people, especially those who are looking for a community like ours.I'd like to make it easy for YOU to offer connections and invitations, too. We are going to offer THREE great chances back-to-back:March 31st Easter SundayThu...  Read More

Dear Hope Friends, (I'm not sure why this copied red!)It's been a BIG week.Mary Harsh and I spent the first part of this week in St. Louis at the Beyond Conference, learning with other progressive and invitational churches. Many of them are also United Methodist, and yes, they had heard of us (thanks to our dear Ms. Penny!) What's fun is crowd thinks of us as role models! It was so nice to worship...  Read More

Dear Friends,Each week there are situations around the world which we need to offer our thoughts and prayers - including Syria, Gaza, and Ukraine daily for a multitude of autrocities. Sometimes there are particular ways we can move to thoughts, prayers, AND actions (beyond social media). This week in Owasso, OK a 16 year old nonbinary teen named Nex Benedict was assaulted in a high school bathroom...  Read More

Dear Hope Church,The season of Lent began on Wednesday. It is 40 Days of Spiritual Preparation for Easter. Whereas the spiritual preparation of Advent leading to Christmas gets intertwined with all the parties and celebrations of that season, Lent has remained largely a religious observance. It's a chance to say: "What do I want my spiritual life to be like?" "What spiritual practices will I start...  Read More

It's our 10th anniversary as a congregation. I have to take a deep breath as I type that. I am immensely grateful for the ability to type that -- to God, to of all you, to Ryan & the kids, to friends and family around the country who believed in us, and more.Tomorrow we're going to consider 5 characteristics of our congregation that served us well but we need to let go AND 5 characteristics to car...  Read More

Dear Hope Church Friends,For the first time in three years, we are not in a pandemic or recovering from closure or reacting to a looming eviction. No, we are planning for a Grand Opening! Our Grand Opening will be Sunday, April 7th -- the Sunday after Easter.This gives us two months to prepare - there is still painting to do and rooms to organize. You can join me in showing appreciation for the cr...  Read More

I am still thrilled at all we accomplished in the final months of last year, all leading to our Christmas Eve services. On 12/24, we welcomed over 200 people to worship! It will still be several months before our building is ready for a grand opening, and likely that long to get our program and ministries fully running. Still we have opened the doors for good!We have a space to gather and worship ...  Read More

I hope you enjoy this post of lists as much I enjoyed creating it! Remember we are online-only tomorrow (honoring all those volunteers hours required to have Christmas Eve worship).However, feel free to join the EBs at the ISU Women's Basketball Game as they take on the Bradley Braves today (Saturday) at 4pm at Redbird Arena! JennieTimes for Stuff on January 7(kind of an advertisement list)1. Hope...  Read More

Dear Friends,Last Friday our contractor got to a point that we could get in and work - saving thousands of dollars in labor! There were about 30 different Hope people who totalled about 225 hours of work (probably more)! In addition, our local IBEW donated the hours with 20 electricians and apprentices on Thursday, and plan to finish on Tuesday night!Why in the world are we doing all this voluntee...  Read More

Dear Hope Friends and Family,Today we start the season of Advent. It is the four weeks leading to Christmas, and also the start of the Christian year. This year we turn to the wisdom of Dr. Kate Bowler, who teaches us how to bless our actual lives - the good, the bad, the ugly.Not only will we be talking about this in our online-worship (livestream at 11am, on demand any time), but I am inviting y...  Read More

Dear Hope Church,Earlier today I heard my junior higher talking to a friend about about traditions leading up to Christmas. In his friend's house, they have a moving elf that brings them little gifts every day leading up to the big day. My son said, "Bruh, at my house an angel flies around and brings a Scripture to read everyday, and then we get a piece of chocolate from the Advent calendar."He's ...  Read More

Dear Friends,We're in the in-between, but we are so close! The anticipation of all-that-is-to-come is building! As we hear timelines from the contractors, we hesistate to put any hard and fast dates out there. However, as soon as we can determine volunteer availability (form below), we can get a sense of when we'll be ready to start Preview Services.Preview Services allow us to figure out our rhyt...  Read More