About Us
Everyone is Welcome!
This church is especially a home of the young, the outsider, and the lonely. It is not a museum of saints, but a refuge for sinners. We come from diverse ethnic, political, religious and social backgrounds, but we all are broken people, powerless to save ourselves.
We believe God creates all people and puts His divine image in every soul. While we seek happiness in many wrong places, God is actually not far from each one of us, for "In him we live and move and have our being.” With each individual that enters our church, we recognize sons and daughters of God, infinitely valuable, beloved, and rich with potential. If this church is part of God’s family, then everyone is welcome home here! The Good News is that God loves us, and came to this world to reconcile all things. He died to forgive for our sins, and rose again. Jesus is looking for true worshippers. He is our Good Shepherd and we love to praise His kingdom of mercy. We want to share His love and joy with you.
Welcome to Hope!
Hope Evangelical Free Church is a family-
-people who believe in the Living God and His eternal redemption in Jesus Christ. As a part of the world Christian movement, our mission and worship are rooted in the historic, orthodox Christian Gospel, celebrating the glory of the Triune God, the reforming truth of Scripture and love for all people. Because Jesus came to save sinners, we make disciples who make disciples of this good news!
Leaders
Our leaders care for the flock by making regular contact to know how each household is doing spiritually, emotionally and physically. We want to hear your needs, prayer requests, concerns or questions.
Treasurer: Marge Rydberg, Financial Secretary: Jackie Eike,
Secretary: Aimee Kampbell
Ushers: Al Slight, Anthony Jaramillo
Deacons: Marcos & Laura Jaramillo (Christian Education), Scott Eike and Al Slight (Building & Grounds).
Elders: Gary Dahl, Bryan Kampbell and James Roland
Hope EFC is a church whose not-for-profit status is registered in the State of Iowa under no. 42-1126620. This church is autonomous in government and affiliated for care and accountability with the Evangelical Free Church of America, Central District, Superintendent Mike Shields mshields@efcacentral.org, www.cd.efca.org.
Learn more about the Evangelical Free Church of America, www.efca.org.
What to Expect
In our worship service
When you enter the building for a Sunday morning service, you will be greeted by a friendly person who will introduce themselves and take a few minutes to get to know you. Families are always welcome to sit together during the service, but if you have children who would like to visit the nursery, they will introduce you there and answer questions. They will also give you a printed program of the Order of Service and help you find a place to settle. Many people arrive before or after the starting time, so no worries!
Our services are a unique blend of mild liturgy and Spirit-led charisma, drawing from various ancient and modern traditions. Our contemporary songs and hymns, confessions and readings are focused on the Scripture text being preached that particular Sunday. During the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter, services follow the church calendar with traditional lectionary readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). During “Ordinary Time,” the rest of the year, services follow whole books of the Bible, alternating between the Old and New Testaments. Learn more about our practice of Expositional Preaching.
Like other churches, ours follows a pattern or form of movements, which always flex while repeating a general order. Overall, the Bible tells the dramatic story of history through the movements of (1) Creation for God’s glory, (2) Man’s Fall into sin, and (3) God’s Redemption in Christ, for the Restoration of all things. Our worship service reflects these actions through the respective cycles of (1) Approach & Praise, (2) Renewal, (3) Commitment and Hope.
How to Follow the Order of Service
In the printed program, the arrows pointing upward↑, downward↓, and side to side ↔ represent the conversational nature of our worship. That is, God speaks to us and we reflect and respond by speaking to Him and then by speaking to one another. The circular arrow represents internal reflection. Words in italics indicate when the congregation is to respond.
Each service begins with a responsive Call to Worship from a Psalm, followed by a Worship Focus, Invocation, Old Testament reading, singing, Gospel Reading, Confession of Sin, Assurance of Mercy, Prayer, Sermon, closing song, Offering and Benediction. We observe the Lord’s Supper at least once a month. Testimonies and prayer requests, as well as special musical offerings frequently compliment our worship.
Immediately after the service, we will welcome everyone for refreshments in the Fellowship Hall.
Staff
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
Jackie has been Administrative Secretary for Hope for more than 25 years and has been involved with our Wednesday night children’s program for 30 years. She has been married for 40 years to her husband Scott and they have one daughter.
Pastor James Roland
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
James Roland has been a Pastor at Hope Church since 2009. He lives with his wife Heidi on a small farm (Little Field Abbey) near Storm Lake. Together, they have four grown children. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Northwestern (St. Paul) and an M.A. in Christian Thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He serve
James Roland has been a Pastor at Hope Church since 2009. He lives with his wife Heidi on a small farm (Little Field Abbey) near Storm Lake. Together, they have four grown children. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Northwestern (St. Paul) and an M.A. in Christian Thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He served as Acting Principal of Pan African School of Theology in Nyahururu, Kenya (2006-2008) and continues to travel internationally, training pastors and church leaders. He enjoys reading classic literature with his family, writing, sailing, north woods camping, art, medieval architecture, working on vintage motorcycles and fixing things. His life interest is to glorify God by drawing from the ‘storiness’ of art and literature for the enchantment of real life.
Jackie Eike, Administrative Assistant
What We Believe
EFCA Statement of Faith
Adopted by the Conference on June 26, 2008. The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions:
- God: We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
- The Bible: We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
- The Human Condition: We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
- Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus-Israel’s promised Messiah-was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
- The Work of Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
- The Holy Spirit: We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
- The Church: We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
- Christian Living: We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
- Christ’s Return: We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
- Response and Eternal Destiny: We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.
Expositional Preaching
Additional Information
We believe that the preacher’s task is:
- To display Christ as beautiful and supreme as He really is.
- To display sin as ugly and deadly as it really is.
- To show how these truths apply to the congregation.
- To move affections toward God’s heart: to hate only what He hates and love only what He loves.
To this end, we practice “expositional preaching,” which aims to “expose” the meaning of the Bible text. In this way, the point of the sermon should be the point of the text. We believe this can best be done by preaching through whole books of the Bible, alternating between the Old and New Testaments.
This may be contrasted to “Idea Preaching” in the following table.
“Idea” Preaching
Centers on what is in my mind at a given moment and places my idea over the text and sermon
More common (e.g. popular preachers)
Requires less study and reliance upon God in prayer
Preacher and congregation gain nothing new from God (recycles what I already know)
Opens the message to non-biblical influences (marketing, entertainment, etc.)
Deductive Approach: Advocate/attorney starts with a conclusion and tries to prove it (e.g. not guilty)
Attracts crowds with multi-media and entertaining scripts and visuals
Features the Preacher as a ‘Chef’
Expositional Preaching
“Exposes” God’s message in the text and gets me out of the way
Rare these days, but God’s classic method
Requires much study, observation and prayer. Hard on the preacher (spiritually, emotionally, intellectually)
Uses critical thinking skills to discover new things about God with each new text
Safeguards the Gospel from non-biblical influences
Inductive Approach: Doctor first examines symptoms and makes tests to finally arrive at a diagnosis/conclusion
Draws strength from the text. Life and death depends on sound preaching!
Humbles the Preacher as a table ‘waiter’