Our History

Our History

Hope Church emerged as the fruit of a pastor's desire to plant churches in the greater Cincinnati area. This vision was shared and cultivated by a group of about 40 people meeting in a Sunday school class at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Milford, Ohio in early 1989. After much prayer and discussion the group made a commitment to begin a church and soon created a pastoral search committee.

Milestones

– Jonathan Burnham became Hope’s first Senior Pastor.

– Hope held services at Kings Mills Elementary School and then at the Village Church in Mason, Ohio.

– Hope acquired our current location (20 acres) from a Hope family who years earlier had felt led to purchase the property for some  special purpose.

– Sunday services were moved to Mason High School.

– Having purchased an additional ten acres, Hope celebrated the opening of our new building in Mason.

– Pastor Burnham left Hope Church to become a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida.

– Dr. Michael Moriarty became Hope’s Senior Pastor. After nearly three years of serving Hope, God led Pastor Michael in a new direction: giving leadership to Intervarsity.

– Pastor Stephen Kirk became Hope’s third Senior Pastor. He has been serving in this capacity to the present.

Pastor Stephen’s book, MULTIPLY, which communicates the vision of Hope, is published.

The first “Love Mason Plus” takes place as our Hope Family meets tangible needs throughout our greater community on that Sunday morning.

Hope’s vision is further refined and clarified by the sermon series, MORE, which results in naming it, This is the LIFE.

A Leadership Team from the Congregation, Staff, and Elder board is selected to develop a new facilities improvement project, called InsideOut; Renewing HOPE for All

Hope members voted overwhelmingly to launch InsideOut.

InsideOut Groundbreaking Celebration as construction begins.

The new Gathering opens for our Gathering worship services.

Our new Commons opens, giving a new life to the Hope Church campus.

Looking Ahead

We believe the Lord has blessed us in many tangible ways, and we are very grateful. With Pastor Stephen's leadership, a strong united leadership team and staff, it is with great anticipation that we look forward to what God will do among us as we serve Jesus together and add new and exciting pages to our history. Hope Church has always been blessed by committed believers who have been equipped to do the work of the ministry. Whether it is serving our children, students, or adults, or leading in the many other areas of ministry, the people of Hope Church have been faithful in carrying the Gospel forward.

Our Affiliation

We are associated with and support the mission of the Evangelical Free Church of America, which exists to glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among all people. The growing ministry of the EFCA—1,300+ churches—currently extends to 45 countries. Our connection is based on our mutual commitment to serve our Lord Jesus Christ with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and obedience to the word of God. It does not, however, control our ability to lead, make decisions, or structure our governance to reflect the individuality of our church. The term “Evangelical” refers to our commitment to the proclamation of the gospel and to the central authority of Scripture. The term “Free” refers to our form of church government, which is an elder led congregational structure.

Learn More about the EFCA
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