Adoring Jesus, Loving People & Equipping the Church
About Us
New Hope Community Church is a nondenominational church. There is a wide range of members from Protestant and Roman Catholic backgrounds. It is not our intention for New Hope to be an exclusive place for Christians. We understand there are Christians in different churches all across the globe.
New Hope helps individuals who come out of any kind of background to appreciate those things that have brought them closer to Christ. It is a place where we focus on the primary essentials of the Christian faith, and give liberty to secondary issues of the faith. Within this context we believe we can all grow and experience different aspects from our various backgrounds.
It is a place where we can worship Christ in openness and honesty. Emphasis will not be placed on everyone believing exactly alike, but all who attend understanding what and why they believe what they do.
The church should be more concerned about building people up than hurling arrows at their failures. New hope is a place of caring, forgiveness and redemption. It emphasizes a right relationship between God and man, man and man, and man with himself.
The church will emphasize the worship of God through Jesus Christ. Thus in all aspects of church life we will attempt to become more Christ like in all we do. Worship services are relevant, with the intent of reaching both mind and body. Worship revolves around God and all aspects, which can draw us near to Him. Thus we use music, dance, drama, media, the Word of God and the spoken word to reach those who attend. Worship is blended with old and new aspects. The old can be the tradition of the sacraments of baptism and the Lords supper. The new could be the hymns and choruses that have just been written in the last year.
The Sacraments in our church follow the Protestant tradition which two are included. The Roman Catholic tradition has seven. It is important to understand some of the difference between protestant and catholic issues of faith. In Catholic thought salvation is found through participation of taking the sacraments in the church itself. Christ is found in the sacraments and worship through the church. In Catholic practice the Mass is the central focus of worship and the preaching of the Word of God is secondary. So in actual church architecture Catholic churches have the altar for Mass in the center of the front and the pulpit on the side of the front. In Protestant churches salvation is not found in participating in the sacraments, but found by hearing the word of God proclaimed and then received by faith. So in Protestant churches the pulpit is in the center of the church because salvation comes not through participating in the sacraments, but by believing by faith in Jesus Christ by hearing the word of God.
The word sacrament means that Christ is present. At New Hope we hold to the traditional Protestant view of two sacraments. In Protestant churches we call the Roman Catholic Mass, the Lord's Supper or Communion. We hold different views but both traditions hold that they were instituted by the Lord as a remembrance of his sacrificial death and believers have the responsibility and the privilege of every believer to partake thereof. Communion does not have any power in itself to save us that alone is found through faith in Christ. However, it is a sign to the world and to unbelievers that we believe the body of Christ was broken for us and that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins and for our salvation. We hold that anyone who believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is welcome to participate and worship with us through the Lord's Supper.
The other sacrament is water baptism. Baptism by immersion best represents the believer's identification with the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord is commanded by His example and by the teaching of the word of God. We view baptism in itself has no power to save us. Like the Lord's Supper it is a sign to the world and to unbelievers that Christ has forgiven and changed the direction of a persons life. Baptism is simply the declaration of an outward act to show a divine inward act of faith. We encourage all to be baptized, however we accept the baptism that you have received from your Christian background.
Membership at New Hope is defined as any person who has been publicly received into the church and whose name has been placed on the membership roll. Membership in a local church fellowship is proper and offers fellowship with other believers united to promote the good news of Jesus Christ. Membership with any church or with New Hope should not in anyway be confused with an act of salvation. At New Hope we have several newcomer classes a year, which introduce you to New Hope, its vision and statement of faith. We ask all who desire membership to attend the classes.
The name of the church is New Hope Community Church, Inc. of Brentwood, Tennessee. The Church was organized and registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State as a chartered non-profit corporation on June 7, 1977. The Pastor of the Church serves as its registered agent with the Secretary of State.
The government of the church is the responsibility of a group of spiritual men known as the Elders and members of the church known as Deacons. The Elders are responsible for the spiritual vision and direction of the church and the Deacons focus on financial overseeing and administration. The Pastor and all other Pastors work in conjunction with the Elders and Deacons.
Missions are important to New Hope as our vision statement has a goal of giving 25% of our budget to missions. We support several local mission groups as well as missions in all of these countries at one time or another Africa, India, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Honduras, and Haiti. There are opportunities to support and travel to some of these areas on mission trips.
If you would like information concerning any of these things contact the church office at 615-373-1590.