In 1998 God gave Dan a dream of starting a church in the Lehigh Valley that will connect with people who are disconnected from church and/or spiritually unresolved. The dream wasn’t about the size of the church as much as a particular kind of culture. It was about a community where the primary value is relationships. It was about a place where anyone can come and find unconditional acceptance and love. A place where people can connect in an authentic relationship with God and be encouraged to pursue their God-destiny. A place where people will be encouraged to dream, believe and become!
Inspired by that dream, born out of the heart and life practice of Jesus (Luke 15 and Luke 19:1-10) and the first New Testament church (Acts 2:42-47), Dan & Cathy along with their daughter Elly moved to the Lehigh Valley and began building a team to launch this new church. Because they wanted the name to reflect the DNA and the dream, they chose “HOPE” from Jeremiah 29:11—“I know the plans I have for you,”declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Hope and a future always go together. That’s what we want people to think about as they experience HOPE church.
On Sunday, September 24, 2000 Hope was launched in the Lehigh Valley Mall Cinema—a new church for the new millennium! After two years of growth in that location, HOPE relocated to our present site in a commercial building across from the Lehigh Valley International Airport.
The most important thing to us at HOPE is people. As we continue to grow, we work hard at keeping our church relational. (Matthew 22:34-40) This is what we believe keeps us relevant and authentic as a growing and open community.
Luke 15 and 19 have a common setting: the religious people were grumbling to themselves and upset with Jesus because he was hanging out with irreligious people. He was making friends with “sinners.” In Luke 15 Jesus responds to their “righteous indignation” by telling three stories back-to-back-to-back to drive home one point: lost people are God’s priority. Lost doesn’t mean bad. Lost means unable to find the way—to have wandered off the path—to have misguided directions. Lost means to no longer be in possession of or to have misplaced spirit. Jesus is simply saying that the priority of his ministry is to help lost people find their way back home to God.
To read these stories click here.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus, a wealthy chief tax collector (not well-liked, as you can imagine) whom we find out is somewhat of a rip-off artist. In the midst of the tremendous crowds, Jesus stops, looks at Zacchaeus and says, “Let’s have dinner together.” The religious people are beside themselves because Jesus, a religious person is going to be the guest of a “sinner”! (de ja vu!) We don’t know what happened at dinner, but by the time it’s over Zacchaeus is a changed man. He goes from being a miserly cheat to a big-spirited, generous man.
To read the Zacchaeus story click here.
What happened to Zacchaeus to change his life over the course of dinner? There’s only one way to answer that question. There is something about Jesus that when people are introduced to him and experience him personally that radically transforms them. His way with people was accepting and forgiving. He connected people with their purpose in life and gave them the power to become who they were created to be.
These two chapters in Luke are foundational to our approach as a church.
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