New Hope Community Church is serious about missions! When Jesus began His ministry, Matthew tells us He went throughout the region of Galilee preaching the message of the Kingdom: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". He was the first "Apostler"-- a play on the word "apostle" which merely means "sent one". Jesus was sent from heaven to bear witness of the truth, share the Good News of His plan of redemption, and change the world one soul at a time. He sent out His "Apostles" to do the same thing, to proclaim the message of the Kingdom and to show the love of Christ through mercy ministries.
Through His teaching and through key passages like the "Great Commission", Jesus has passed this same calling down to His church. In a sense, we are all called to be "apostlers". Don't take this wrong. We believe the Apostolic age and its special miracles came to a close in the first century. But we are all "sent ones", to do what Jesus and the true Apostles did-- to share the Good News of the Kingdom and share the love of Christ through mercy ministries. We who have received so much mercy as to be saved from condemnation must likewise show that mercy to others with a deep, Christ-like compassion.
At New Hope, we take this commission seriously and have therefore modeled our church after the little church at Philadelphia, which we see for various reasons as a missionary church. It stood at the gateway to the east with a door that "no one could shut". It was one of only two churches of the seven in Revelation that Jesus had nothing but good things to say about. Jesus wants His disciples to be deeply involved with this vital work of the Kingdom and so we are serious about our calling to missions.
It is our intent to both support full time missionaries and raise up missionaries from within our own congregation. The following pages are designed to help you realize some of the ways we are accomplishing this task.