Pastor's Corner
Welcome to New Hope Baptist Church online, where you are loved, accepted and appreciated. This is more than just a slogan; it is a way of life to the New Hope family. Every Sunday people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds walk through the doors of our building. Our fellowship and worshp are designed to make every person; young and old, churched and unchurched, member or nonmember alike, feel at home
If you are looking for a place where you can know that you are loved, a place where you know you are important then come and visit with us this Sunday. We will be looking for you.
The Discovery Project has entered it's second year. When we began this project we estimated that 25 of our folks would get involved but God had other plans with 42 signing up the first year. It appears that the interest has not diminished this year. Be watching in the coming months as there will be some new classes added and some changes made.
There may still be some questions about why westarted
the Discovery
Project. Let me go over the two main reasons:
First, as your pastor and youth pastor Rob and I have been
give to this church for the purpose of “…perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians
4:12). The word perfecting there means to complete of furnish. We understand that to mean we are to give you
the tools needed for you to not only walk and live a good, moral, Christian
life but we also are to equip you with the knowledge needed to take your faith
to your lost family, into the work place, and your neighborhood so you can make
an impact for Christ. Peter tells all of
us that we are to “…be ready always
to give an answer to every
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you…” To do that effectively requires all of us to
be in a constant state of learning. So,
we created the Discovery Project so we could better do our job so you could
better do yours. We take our responsibility
to equip you very seriously and believe anything we can do to improve and
expand the knowledge you have now is important.
Secondly, every Christian is expected to “…grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 3:18) and therefore every Christian is
expected to continue to grow not only spiritually but intellectually as
well. In Acts Luke tells us that Paul,
on his return trip during his first missionary journey would stop by the
churches he had planted and he would exhort them, “…to continue in the faith…” (Acts
14:22). He also said to the Colossians
that they should “…ontinue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of
the gospel…” (Col. 1:23). In
both cases the idea is that we should always been learning and therefore
growing in our knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior and the Grace
of God.
We are doing our part and I pray that each and everyone of
you will do your part by signing up to take part in at least one or two of the
opportunities we have provided for you to grow. Sign-up deadlines will be published in your weekly bulletin so keep watching for the start of each new year.
Pastor
