All Resources
Silence and Solitude
I don’t think anyone in the western world would argue with the following statement: “We live in a time of tremendous and immediate access to knowledge, comfort, and entertainment.” For those of us that are followers of Jesus, the following statement is also true: “We...
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...
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...
How Can I Break a Shame Narrative?
In this episode, the team discusses the definition of a shame narrative and walks through ways to break them by talking through some of their own current shame narratives...
What is Shame and Why is it Stealing My Joy?
In this episode, the team welcomes their Sound Engineer, Austin Sego to the microphone to discuss shame and its corrosive effect on joy. Join the LDI Crew for an honest...
Cultural Clashes, Air Fryers, and How to Celebrate the Beauty of God’s People
In the trailer of Crazy Rich Asians, the two leading co-stars, Rachel and Nick, have been dating and are about to travel to Singapore to meet Nick’s family. When they get to the airport, Rachel is surprised by the first-class treatment and is shocked to find out that...
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...
Is it Okay to Sleep Together if We Really Love Each Other?
Is it okay to sleep together if we really love each other? To answer, there are several considerations. Do you have a relationship with Christ? If not, then I would encourage you to first respond to Christ. His life, death, and resurrection demand a response, either...
Breaking Shame Narratives
Shame. It’s a heavy word. One, when spoken out loud you can feel that “shame-like” feeling wash over you. It’s a feeling many have experienced and wish they hadn’t. Shame is a feeling that we, as God’s image bearers, weren’t meant to experience. Yet, because of the...
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...