All Resources
How to: Identify & Ask New Co-Leaders
Why Hope Community Church utilizes the structure of Co-leaders What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in...
How to Care for Hurting or Grieving People
At Hope, we value all people, regardless of their life or faith condition. As small group leaders, you have a unique role in that you will be on the “frontlines” with people who are experiencing varying life and faith situations. Specifically, you will find that...
Small Group Open Chair Model
Whenever possible and healthy for the group, we encourage groups to maintain an “open chair.” This means that the group fosters an attitude of openness to newcomers and maintains an environment that would make a newcomer feel welcome. The group does not need to be...
Who Should I Date?
In this episode, the LDI Crew tells you exactly who you should date! NOT. Instead the team discusses all things dating, including wisdom in how we think about dating,...
Cutting Into the Onion of Moralism
This article originally appeared on redtreegrace.com. Red Tree is a multi-church ministry effort started by Hope Community Church in order to connect the clarity of God's grace to our otherwise confusing lives and attempts at reading the Bible. When I was growing up,...
Planting a Small Group
Why plant a new small group from your existing group? Before we continue, we would like to be very clear: Hope does not desire numerical growth of the small group ministry just for the sake of having a large ministry. We only hope for numerical growth if it reflects...
“Rules of the Sandbox” for Small Group
Remember when you used to play in sandboxes as a kid? There were some unwritten rules that everyone was expected to abide by: No Throwing Sand, No Eating the Sand, No Hitting, Play Kindly with Others, etc. The same goes for Small Groups. We thought it would be...
Gender Roles
The conversation surrounding gender roles in the church has been an interesting one for me to consider because of the tension I’ve wrestled with regarding this topic, especially as a wife and also a woman who works in ministry full time. Until this year, I didn’t...
Cancelling Good News
Cancel culture, a phrase now popular enough to make its way into the dictionary, is defined as the practice of withdrawing support (or cancelling) public figures after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. In terms of ways to...
Good News Causes Heartburn
The end of Luke’s gospel tells the story of the first ever Easter Sunday. Before the springtime pastels, traditions, and egg-wars (not complaining, I’m very good at these). This is a big day. And where do we find the main character? The last time we see him, in the...
Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect
In the sixth grade, my basketball coach pulled me aside after the first week of practice for a substantial correction: “you need to learn to shoot the ball with a dominant arm.” This may seem obvious to anyone who has played or even watched the game of basketball but...
Facilitating a Small Group Bible Discussion
Facilitating a Small Group Bible Discussion We believe in life-on-life ministry, meaning that people are truly and significantly changed only as others come alongside them in authentic community. Therefore, Hope values small groups as an opportunity to interact with...