Our Vision, Values and Goals

We want to see Christianity expressed in a fresh and relevant way and to help transform lives and communities through the message of Christ.

We believe that what’s on offer in the Christian faith is so dynamic and meaningful that it must be communicated, so that people can understand the message and not get put off by the trappings that so often surround it.

With this in mind the first thing to strike anyone attending Hope Church Nottingham will be our open and friendly atmosphere. We want to connect with people where they’re at and we are working hard at building a Church that’s accessible.

What’s on offer at Hope Church Nottingham is not a religious way of life, but an introduction to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A relationship made possible not through hard work or human effort but God’s kindness and mercy as presented through his good news.

We welcome people on the basis of the Christian invitation to forgiveness, acceptance and belonging. We openly acknowledge that for many people life is a search for meaning, acceptance and identity and for people who are on that journey, the Church is an exciting place to be.

All the time people try and understand why they exist and seek answers to what life is about, and the Church must recognise its role to assist people in that quest. Church is not a place for people who have all the answers, but for those who want to ask the questions. We believe that the Church should be a safe and welcoming environment in which people can raise their questions, air their doubts and learn to overcome their fears. It should be a safe haven in an unstable world.

The Hope Church vision is born out of this passion, to make faith accessible to all. To remove the dark veil that leaves people cold and disinterested and ignite a flame of interest that enables them to explore and discover for themselves the purpose of life.

For through grace we see the nature of God’s love towards his world, how that is expressed in his Son, Jesus Christ and how we can receive that love through his favour and generosity.

It all starts and finishes with grace.

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Our Values

At Hope Church Nottingham we have two main aims; to share the good news of God’s grace and to see people grow in this grace. To enable this we have four core values which we try and keep central to everything we do. We spent some time thinking about what this might mean in practice and this is what we came up with…

Looking up through Worship

We believe that through worship we are responding to the words of Jesus who said, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

  • We believe that all our worship should be God centred.
  • We believe that worship should be accessible to all and as such, we endeavour to use a creative and contemporary approach to our worship with variety in the programme.
  • We aim to make our worship both inspirational and uplifting. Our desire is that people should both enjoy and participate in worship.
  • We recognise that all Christians are called to worship and that the local church should provide the platform for such worship.

Looking in through Discipleship

We recognise that discipleship is a process that we enter and the church encourages and nurtures of which Christ likeness is the goal. We also recognise that as disciples we all grow at a different pace and therefore encourage people to discover their own pace within the church’s life. Christian’s are called to a life of freedom and we believe that discipleship is the context in which that freedom should be expressed.

  • We believe that Christian discipleship is the pursuit of Christ likeness in our attitudes, actions and lifestyles.
  • We believe that true Christian discipleship is based in a growing understanding of God as our heavenly Father.
  • We believe that Christian discipleship is achieved through an openness to the Spirit led life.
  • We believe that discipleship is based in relationship. We will therefore encourage the development of small group discipleship and mentoring.
  • We believe that the fruit of discipleship will be seen through positive life goals, strong relationships, contributing citizens, conscientious employer/employees, honourable stewardship, balanced families and healthy churches.

Looking out through Community

We believe that Christian care should be foundational to the church community and that love and compassion are the hallmarks of true Christian work. As part of our caring philosophy we have defined that our Christian care should be offered on the following basis:

  • We believe that practical Christian care is a demonstration of God’s eternal love. As such, we recognise that the church is called to the ministry of caring.
  • We will love all our neighbours and care for people regardless of background, belief, race, sexuality, age etc. We believe that every person should be given an equal opportunity to experience God’s love through the church.
  • We should have no ulterior motive through our care. We believe that God’s love is unconditional and that in light of this our care should be offered without conditions.
  • We will endeavour to create opportunities to care and where appropriate put into place the necessary structures to enable the caring process.
  • We recognise that our care should operate both inside and outside the Christian community. Therefore we will endeavour to see our care demonstrated to the wider community through both our words and deeds.

Looking beyond in Mission

The church exists primarily for the purpose of mission, which is why we have been mandated to take the good news of the gospel to the world. We aim to do this through the development of an effective mission’s programme that targets both our own locality and city and opens our eyes to the wider issue of Christian Mission abroad.

  • We believe that the Great Commission should be the guiding commission in the life of our local church.
  • We aim to develop a church that is missionary rather than pastorally based. Our emphasis will always be on looking out.
  • We are committed to declaring the Christian gospel through sign, word and deed. Our spiritual message must have a practical outcome.
  • We believe that we should enable people to connect with Christianity in a way that is both accessible and purposeful to everyday life.
  • We believe that every person, both child and adult should have the opportunity to hear the Christian story in a way that they can understand. Therefore we will endeavour to communicate our message with creativity in a relevant and meaningful way.

Our Goals

Each year we establish goals that we aim to reach as a Church. Our main goals for 2017 are:

  • See the congregation grow numerically to over 150 people including adults and children
  • Successfully build on our small group ministries
  • Give over £10,000 to the missions project we support at home and abroad
  • Run three seasons of Prayer and Fasting at Hope
  • Build and recruit the team of people to take Hope into the future
  • Continue to establish the Hope Centre as a community hub in the heart of Clifton
  • Engage key partners to help provide tailored outreach to community groups
  • Grow the Hope Cafe to a point of Sustainability
  • Consolidate and enhance further our four Hope Charity Shops
  • Develop and launch our five year strategic plan for Hope and the Hope Centre

Want to know more?

If you would like to know more about our vision for the church and what is important to us, then please click below.

The Church I see