A Typical Sunday Morning at New Hope...

We gather at 8:30 am. for worship. Some people come earlier, just to have more time to visit with each other.

New Hope . . . where you can come as you are.

Our worship service involves the sharing of concerns about people who are sick or in need, prayer and singing, a scripture reading from the Bible, and to hear a sermon message from pastor Mike Will. Typical attendance is 40 to 50 people...small enough to truly be a church family, where almost everyone knows everyone else.

You might call ours a traditional worship service but you wouldn't call it dull or boring or stuffy. As a community of people who care about each other's lives our worship services include you, they don't "talk at" you.

There must be a reason why people would give
up their Sunday mornings to be in church
. . . come visit us and find out why!

We have refreshments between the worship service and Sunday School, so if you are someone who doesn't eat breakfast you can snack on coffee, cookies, chips, juice, etc., to "keep you going", especially if you stay for Sunday School. Of course, along with the snacking there's a lot of conversation:  hey, we are a church family, and what family doesn't stay connected by sharing food, conversation, and laughter?

Sunday School begins at 10:00 am., with classes for all ages. In case you're not familiar with it, Sunday School is where we split up into classes to study and learn about God and to discuss our relationship to God in our daily lives.

How do you tell whether a church is a vibrant church family? See how long people stay after church to visit with each other! At New Hope there's no big rush to leave; some of us are usually still here twenty minutes afterward. Staying connected with each other's lives is part of what holds any family together, and that goes for this church family as well.

Communion

We serve communion on the first Sunday of each month during the worship service, and at other special times such as our Christmas Eve service. You do not need to be a member of New Hope or even a United Methodist to receive communion here. Everyone is welcome.

On communion Sundays some members bring canned food for donation to local food pantries (not a requirement, just a free-will offering from those who want to donate).

Not sure about God?

Do you have questions and doubts about how the God who created the universe could care about even the smallest details of your life? Or maybe you've heard of Jesus Christ but you wonder how Christians could trust in him to reconcile us with God regardless of our personal failures, broken relationships, and even terrible things we may have done in the past?

Come and visit us, listen and ask questions, and get answers. You won't get any pressure from us, just honest answers from people who have discovered the value and worth of our lives in our relationship with God, and with Jesus Christ his son.

More about Sunday School

We have Sunday School classes for all ages.
  • Children's classes teach basic ideas about God, Christ, and the Bible stores that undergird a life of understanding about how God wants us to live. They also involve a lot of crafts, coloring, and activities.
     
  • Youth classes often relate Biblical lessons to the things that are going on young people's lives.
     
  • Adult classes delve more deeply into our personal relationships with God and Christ, our responsibility to God and toward our fellow man, and sometimes Biblical history. We have two adult classes right now, each with a different style of teaching and class discussion.

If you've never been to Sunday School don't let the "school" in Sunday School scare you...there's no homework! Basically, Sunday School boils down to study and discussion of God's word (the Bible) so we can add more meaning to our lives through a better understanding of how God wants us to live and to serve others in the community and the world around us.

One way our Sunday School is like school though, is that sometimes the discussion or laughter gets too loud and we have to quiet down so we don't disturb other classes. (For some reason this is only a problem with the adult classes...the children's classes are much better behaved!)
 

Is "Sunday" All We Do Here? . . . No Way!

As a Christian community of faith, service and fellowship with each other and the world are important parts of our mission:  packaging food for distribution from the Sturgeon and Moberly food pantries, serving meals at the Community Kitchen in Moberly, sending our youth to Methodist summer camps for fun experiences in a Christian environment, raising money to help fight malaria in Africa, and a lot more.

Visit the Things we Do and Gallery pages for a glimpse at some of New Hope's activities, and contact us if you want to know more.