Our Mission & Statement of Faith

Hope Christian Church is a community of evangelical Christians meeting in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Our Mission

Our mission is “to glorify God by developing a community of committed disciples of Jesus Christ which has an impact for Christ locally and around the world.” Committed disciples are those who have a mature personal walk with the Lord which leads them to intentionally help others become disciples, use their gifts to build the body of Christ and actively minister to others.

1 Corinthians 10:31; Matthew 28:18-20; John 17:3; Acts 1:8

In order to accomplish our mission, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, we are committed to developing our community with excellence in the following aspects of church life.

Teaching

We are committed to teaching and applying complete biblical truth - through excellent Bible teaching, Sunday school, personal/group Bible study, and one-on-one disciplemaking - in order to equip us to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20; Joshua 1:8; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Titus 2:15; James 1:22; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Proverbs 22:6

We are committed to helping our members develop the skills and habits necessary for a lifetime of personal Bible reading, study, and memorization. Our Children are our heritage and are on loan to us from God. It is our commitment to help our children develop convictions, courage, and the ability to deal biblically with the issues they face as they grow up.

Community

We are working to build deep personal relationships in a loving community - through sharing our lives, meeting each other's needs, praying for each other, and enjoying fun activities - because of our personal commitment to each other through Jesus Christ.

John 13:34,35; Acts 2:41-47; Ephesians 4:1-16; 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12:3-8

Worship

We desire to worship God - through prayer, praise, music, the Lord's supper, our offerings, and using our spiritual gifts - in order to exalt the living God.

Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15; Ephesians 5:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Proverbs 3:9

Prayer

We will devote ourselves to communicating with God by His Spirit - through praise, confession, thanksgiving, and expressing our needs ... among the whole church family, in small groups, and individually - in order to enjoy fellowship with God and to trust Him to act on our behalf.

Luke 18:1-8; Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2; James 5:16; 1 Peter 4:7; Hebrews 11:6

We will meet regularly to pray for each other and for the mission and ministries of Hope Christian Church as well as for others around the world.

Outreach

We will work to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ where we live and work and around the world - through personal evangelism, evangelism events, preaching, supporting missions, and the testimony of our loving relationships - so that Christ will become known and more people will follow Him as disciples.

Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; John 15:16

Since Jesus Christ is the only hope for the salvation of mankind from the consequences of sin and because of what He has done for us, we pledge our lives and our resources to help reach the entire world with the gospel.

We will equip all those who are a part of our community to lead non-Christians to faith in Jesus Christ and to help these new believers become committed followers of Jesus Christ.

Because the Bible strongly emphasizes the importance of spreading the good news about Jesus Christ to all the world, Hope Christian Church will consistently strive to provide substantial resources for missions efforts. As stewards of God's resources, we will be a "Missions Church" actively extending our outreach beyond our local ministries by developing members active in missions and by building a team of missionaries whom we support as a church. Our significant commitment to missions will be reflected in our regular prayer for our missionaries, in the ongoing education of our church family, and in our substantial financial giving.

We will also equip ourselves to be a voice for biblical truth in the public arena - through stressing the biblical teaching on the issues of our day and supporting ministries that are leading in these areas - so that we can help encourage and challenge our culture to adopt biblical values.

Matthew 5:13-16; Matthew 25:31-46; Ephesians 5:3-16

Our society needs a beacon of hope and a hand of restraint or it cannot long endure. The Lord Jesus called us "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." We will engage our culture on the issues of the day while conducting ourselves in love and without hypocrisy.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to care for the needy and the helpless. We will work with others in the body of Christ to assist the unfortunate, the downtrodden, and the outcast.

Statement of Faith

1. We believe in one God: holy, sovereign, infinitely perfect, eternally existing in three persons—the everlasting Father, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, the giver of life; and we believe that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing by his spoken word, and for His own glory.
2. We believe that God has revealed Himself and His truth in the created order, in the Scriptures, and supremely in Jesus Christ; and that the Bible, containing the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, is the Word of God, verbally and plenarily inspired by God; and that the Bible is fully trustworthy and of supreme and final authority in all that it teaches.
3. We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, was true God and true man, existing in one person and without sin; and we believe He was crucified, died and rose bodily from the dead. We believe He ascended into heaven, and in His present life is there for us as Lord of all, High Priest, and Advocate.
4. We believe that God created the historical parents of the entire human race, Adam and Eve; and that they were created in His own image and for His glory, distinct from all other living creatures, and in an original state of innocence.
5. We believe that our first parents sinned by rebelling against God's revealed will and thereby incurred both physical and spiritual death, and that as a result all human beings are born with a sinful nature that leads them to sin in thought, word and deed.
6. We believe in the existence of Satan, sin and evil powers, and that all these have been defeated by God in the cross of Christ. Satan actively continues his work in the world as the prince of the power of the air.
7. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, triumphing over all evil and that all who believe in Him are justified by His shed blood and forgiven of all their sins.
8. We believe that all who receive the gift of eternal salvation provided only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit, are made children of God, and as members of His body, the Church, are enabled to offer spiritual worship acceptable to God.
9. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and gives life to believers, enables them to understand the Scriptures, empowers and fills them for godly living, and equips them for ministry.
10. We believe that the church is the body of Christ and is composed of all those who trust in Jesus Christ. The Church's task in this world is to be God's redeemed community, proclaiming the gospel of God's redemptive love through our Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by both word and deed.
11. We believe in the blessed hope that Jesus Christ will return to this earth, personally, visibly, and imminently, in power and great glory, to gather His elect, to raise the dead, to judge the nations and to bring His kingdom to fulfillment.
12. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all mankind: for those who reject God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, there is everlasting punishment. And for those who repent and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, the sole provision for the forgiveness of their sins, there is everlasting life and fellowship with God.