All Resources
What Do We Do With Toxic Relationships?
In this episode, the team discusses relationships and why they are worth having. While truly toxic relationships do exist, we now live in a culture quick to label...
The Importance of Friendships: Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Logically and biblically, we might know the call of friendship and community that the Bible has for us. We know all the metaphors for the Church. We have seen the realities that the Church IS a body. It has different functions and designs, but all working together as...
Creating & Maintaining Community in Small Groups
Creating a comfortable and welcoming environment for a small group is vital to the success of the group in general. The reasoning is pretty simple - people return to environments where they feel welcome and accepted. People also feel freer to be themselves in a...
Both & Neither
As a mixed race person, my experience with understanding my own racial identity has forced me to uncomfortably exist between two sides. When interacting with either side of my heritage, it’s hard to not feel like an illegitimate misfit. Even now as I write this...
Common Misconceptions About Friendship & How Jesus Shows Us a Better Way
This is an article addressing what I've learned from 25 years of friendship...or, put differently, it breaks down common misconceptions concerning the nature of deep friendships. Misconception #1: It is someone else's responsibility to come and be my friend. We might...
What is Your Name and How Do You Pronounce It?
Being Asian American in the United States, I often get asked these questions: “Where are you from?”, “Are you Chinese?”, and “What is your name and how do you pronounce it?” My usual reply is that I am ethnically Hmong while being born and raised in Milwaukee,...
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,...
What Makes Hope, Hope?
A great part of my job is taking people out for a cup of coffee and hearing their stories. It also gives me a chance to hear people’s impressions of Hope. What brought them here? What keeps them coming back? If I had to boil it down to a couple comments that people...
Wonderful Counselor
The following is the first in a four part series on preparing your heart for the Christmas Season. It has been adapted from a sermon called “Preparing Your Heart for the Christmas Season” delivered at Hope Community Church by Steve Treichler on November 30, 2003. This...
The Asian American Identity
Identity is something I have struggled with my entire life. I am a Japanese-American born in the United States to immigrant parents. My first language is not English and growing up I considered Japan my second home. I have had the opportunity to spend portions of...
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...