It's not difficult to see how religion has been used and abused to cause harm and wars and "my side is right" thinking. We all know that Scripture taken out of context can justify almost anything.So, how can we allow our faith to inform our understanding of culture in a way that is helpful?Over the next few weeks, Hope Church is going to take a stab at this question. We'll lean heavily into our va...  Read More

What a Great Week for HopeAfter celebrating Resurrection last Sunday, we are taking a moment to give thanks to community and to God for Hope's new start in Bloomington-Normal!First of all, I was blown away by the participation in our ribbon cutting on Thursday - thanks for everyone who came! Knowing that 4:30 in the afternoon is still the work day for many people, I was expecting about 35 people. ...  Read More

Tomorrow at 9:30 and 11:00 Hope Church will gather online and in-person for Easter Sunday. Hope Kids will take place during both 9:30 and 11:00, too. Welcome your friends to join us or those curious to check online here or YouTube @BeHopeChurchBloNoour app found at BeHopeChurchor Roku, AppleTV, or GoogleTV!A Story of Our Greatest Failure...And YetYesterday a memory popped up from 11 years ago adve...  Read More

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