Our Beliefs
At Hope Fellowship, we preach
God’s Word in its truth & purity.
The Bible tells how a compassionate and righteous God has repaired the broken relationship between himself and his corrupted human creation. As a Christian church, our basic mission is to set forth this truth plainly without adding nor subtracting from it. (See 2 Corinthians 4:2.)
For a complete statement of our beliefs, and the beliefs of our church body, visit the WELS.
Read some frequently asked questions below &
then reach out so we can chat about it over coffee.
Who is God?
What a foundational question for anyone interested in faith!
God is the Author of all creation including you and me.
He is the Supreme Being who made everything, owns everything and cares deeply
about everything and everyone in the universe. He made people in his image and wants them all to be like him, perfect in love. But no human is! Our failures make him sad for many reasons; one big one is that he is just. In justice he must deal with our sins.
God is also our Redeemer.
The Bible presents God to us in three ways: a Father who made us, a Son (Jesus) who paid for our sins to save us from his justice, and a Holy Spirit who reaches into our lives to teach us about the Father and the Son.
So, who is God?
He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God and three persons. Does that sound crazy? It baffles us, too. We like to think of God as transcendent, not crazy. It’s beyond human reason, but that doesn’t make it false. God is not so small to fit into our boxes. We are happy to talk more about who God is in person. Just let us know and we will be right there.
What is the Bible?
Simply put, the Bible is a collection of writings that started with the Jews in ancient times and ended with Jewish/Christian writings about 2000 years ago. It took over 1500 years to write it from start to finish and traces the history of the world from its beginning to the very end yet to come. Over 50 different people wrote the Bible. They all agree on its factuality and message. That’s incredible.
The goal of the Bible is to reveal God’s love in Jesus Christ and how he saved all of humanity from his own justice by putting his Son on the cross. The Bible makes many bold claims. The most comforting is that if we put our faith in Jesus as our Savior, God will let us into eternal heaven forever when we die. That gives us lasting hope. He did it all for us and we trust him. We would love to tell you more about the Bible in person if you will let us. There is also a good book you can get on Amazon called, “Bible Basics: Finding Tools to Read and Interpret Scripture” by our pastor, Donald Patterson.
What is the church?
In the New Testament the word “church” never refers to a building. It doesn’t refer to an organization with legal status either. It always refers to the people who have come to faith in God’s love through his Son, Jesus Christ. The church is the people called out of a hopeless life in the world to live in faith, hope, and love.
So, just like the New Testament folks, we at Hope Fellowship, are a community of people with the same faith, the same Lord, and the same mission in life. Do we have distinct teachings as Christians? Yes. Do we have a building in which we worship? Yes. Are we organized? Absolutely. But most of all, we are a band of friends who love and support one another as comrades in faith.
Maybe you could come be “the church” with us. Just let us know if you want to look into it and we will meet up.
What is the Gospel?
The word gospel simply means “good news.” It translates a New Testament word that meant a “good message.” When Christians talk about the gospel, we mean the greatest news in history: about two thousand years ago, God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to remove the just wrath that we, by our sins, had brought upon ourselves. Most people admit that we sin or make mistakes. But many don’t think our sins are all that serious. God, however, makes it clear that sin is deadly serious. Over and over again, he tells us that he is holy and that he hates sin in every form. If we had to stand before him on our own, we would have every reason to tremble.
But here is the good news: God is not only just—he is also love. In love, he satisfied his own justice. He paid the debt we owed. That’s what the cross of Jesus is all about. On the cross, Jesus took our punishment and satisfied God’s justice. It was terrible for him in that moment, but from eternity it was his joy to rescue us. By doing this, he won us back for his Father.
The gospel assures us that we are not lost forever. If we believe this good news, we are restored. If we reject it, we remain wandering and lost. But Easter morning changes everything—Jesus rose from the dead to prove our sins were paid for, and to show us that through faith in him, death will not have the final word. On the last day, our bodies will be raised and reunited with our souls to live with God forever.
That is the gospel. That is the good news. And it matters most when death touches us or those we love. We’d love to share this good news with you personally—it’s always better face to face. Let us know, and we’ll bring it to you.