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Transforming Lives through God's Word
A place where you can find hope, purpose, and restoration through Jesus Christ.
Who We Are
About Us
Our Beliefs
Our Focus
In this world today there is currently a tremendous need for an optimistic sense of hope, close supportive friendships, spiritual strength, and a life that has purpose. We are attempting to meet those needs through House Churches that meet weekly for worship through an interactive sermon, music, a time of sharing about what we have been
In this world today there is currently a tremendous need for an optimistic sense of hope, close supportive friendships, spiritual strength, and a life that has purpose. We are attempting to meet those needs through House Churches that meet weekly for worship through an interactive sermon, music, a time of sharing about what we have been learning through our individual time spent in the Bible during the week using a Bible reading plan Hope Bible Church has put together, and a time of prayer. The vast majority of ministry and caring at Hope Bible Church takes place in the House Church.
Ephesians 4:12 tells us that the Pastor is to equip God's people to minister to others. Pastor Morris studies God's Word in depth and puts together interactive Bible studies that he does with his House Church and gives these studies to other House Church Leaders for them to do with their House Churches. The House Church Leaders encourage, care for and pray for those in their House Church. The House Church also provides a comfortable and natural way to reach out and invite friends. Those not interested in being House Church Leaders are encouraged to grown in their faith and share their faith by following a biblically based equipping track which the House Church Leaders are also doing. It begins with Godquest followed by: The Three Books in the New Testament That Tell us What We Must Do To Go To Heaven; Baptism - Is Your Understanding of Baptism All Wet; The Lord's Supper - Separating Fact From Fiction, etc. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy in II Timothy 2:2, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."
Meeting in homes for ministry is nothing new. It is what the early church did. Consider the following passages: I Corinthians 16:19, "Aquilla and Priscilla greet you warmly...so does the church that meets at their house." Romans 16:5, "Gree the church that meets at their house." Colossians 4:15, "Give my greetings...to Nympha and the church that meets in her home." Philemon 2, "To our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow solder, and to the church that meets in their house."
When the early church made the home the center of its ministry, it unleashed and leveraged the power of relationships for both caring and outreach.
Once a year in December all of the House Churches meet together over a meal and have a church service where we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Acts 2:46 and Acts 5:42 tell us that this is what the early Christian church did: Acts 2:46 says, "Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad an sincere hearts." Acts 5:42 says, "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah."
The early church soared for roughly 300 years. During those years these relationship-based churches met in homes which provided the opportunity for people to build deep and caring friendships. This changed in A.D. 312 when Constantine made Christianity legal and Christians stopped meeting in homes and met only in large groups in special buildings. With this change the church became, for all practical purpose, and audience. While the Reformation caused a theological change that brought us back to the Bible, it did not bring a structural change. The format Hope Bible Church is following is a "back to the Bible" structural change.
Our Focus
Our Beliefs
Our Focus
The Bible has a strategy to reach the eight billion people that will be living in the next generation. This strategy is found in two related passages in the New Testament. The first is Matthew 18:19-20. It has been called the Great Commission and contains some of Jesus' last words. Matthew 28:19-20 says, "Therefore go and make disciples o
The Bible has a strategy to reach the eight billion people that will be living in the next generation. This strategy is found in two related passages in the New Testament. The first is Matthew 18:19-20. It has been called the Great Commission and contains some of Jesus' last words. Matthew 28:19-20 says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The Great Commission tells us we are to focus our attention on making disciples.
The second passage that gives us a strategy for reaching the world is II Timothy 2;2, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." Because of this we believe that the most effective way to make disciples is one on one personal follow up. Billy Graham said, "If every believer followed the pattern of II Timothy 2:2 the church could reach the world with the Gospel in one generation. Mass crusades in which I believe and to which I have committed my life will never finish the Great Commission, but a one-on-one ministry of discipleship will." (The Holy Spirit, Waco, Texas: Word, 1978, p. 147)
If you were to reach and disciple one person for Christ a year, at the end of that year there would be the two of you. Then if both of you reached one person each and discipled them, at the end of year two there would be four growing reproducing Christians. If that continued the following would be the result:
4 years = 16 people reached and trained
6 years = 64 people reached and trained
8 years = 256 people reached and trained
10 years = 1,024 people reached and trained
12 years = 4,096 people reached and trained
13 years = 8,192 people reached and trained
20 years = 1,048,576 people reached & trained
30 years = 1,073,741,824 people reached & trained
33 years = 8,589,934,592 people reached & trained
(This is more than the current world population.)
Jesus discipled twelve men for three years. When He died His church numbered one hundred and twenty. By today's standards it would not be a mega church or even a large church. However, its impact was huge! Jesus was unimpressed with the momentary applause that comes with a large church. Instead, He reproduced His life in a few chosen men who carried His work on after He was gone. Keep in mind, He was omniscient. He knew everything. If there were a more effective way, He would have done it. The results speak for themselves. Today, two thousand years later, Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Thirty-two percent of the world's population claim to be followers of Christ. This is twice as big as its nearest rival.
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Our Beliefs
Our Beliefs
Our Beliefs
THE BIBLE
We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testament are the verbally inspired Word of God
(II Timothy 3:16). The Holy Spirit revealed God's truth to the minds of the human writers, so that using their own individual personalities they composed and recorded God's perfect revelation to man (II Peter 1:21; I Corinthians 2:10-1
THE BIBLE
We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testament are the verbally inspired Word of God
(II Timothy 3:16). The Holy Spirit revealed God's truth to the minds of the human writers, so that using their own individual personalities they composed and recorded God's perfect revelation to man (II Peter 1:21; I Corinthians 2:10-13). We believe that with the passing of the apostles the Bible was completed and that direct and divine revelation is not being given today (Acts 1:20-25; Ephesians 2:20; II Peter 1:21; I Thessalonians 2:13; Revelation 22:18-19). We further maintain that God has supernaturally preserved His revelation so that it is the infallible Word of God (Matthew 5:17-18; Psalm 119:160)
THE TRUINE GOD
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each eternal in being, identical in nature, equal in power and glory and having the same divine attributes (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 9:14)
GOD THE FATHER
We believe God the Father is perfect in holiness, boundless in love, infinite in wisdom and measureless in power (Isaiah 6:3; I John 3:6; Psalm 147:5; Revelation 19:6) We believe that God the Father orders and disposes all things according to His own purposes (Psalm 145:8-9). He has decreed, for His own glory, all things that come to pass yet He is neither the author nor approver of sin (Ephesians 1:11; Habakkuk 1:13). We believe that in eternity past God planned for the provision of Christ's redemptive work (Ephesians 1:3-5; I Peter 1:18-20). We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, and that God is Father to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all people (I John 3:1, Acts 17:24-29)
GOD THE SON
We believe Jesus Christ, God the Son, eternally existed with the Father, but in His incarnation was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (John 1:1-2, 14; Matthew 1:18-25). As the God/Man, the Lord Jesus became perfect humanity and undiminished deity united in one person forever (Philippians 2:5-8). The Lord Jesus was sinless in His nature and life, making full payment for the sins of the world by His substitutionary death on the cross (I Peter 2:22; Romans 5:8). We believe in His bodily resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28; John 20 and 21), His ascension into Heaven *Acts 1:9-11). His present intercession for His people at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34) and His literal premillennial return to earth (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).