Hunger for God
Hope For People
Our Team
Matt and Lou MacDiarmid
Matt is Hope’s lead elder. He is passionate about reaching the last, the least and the lost with God’s message of hope through Jesus. Lou works in HR administration, but loves to get alongside those who are struggling and has a real heart for new mums. Together, they love watching TV in their PJs and they have a wonderful little boy called Isaac.
Phil and Lyn Edwards
Phil retired from Project Management to put his feet up, but found that God had other ideas. He is one of the elders of Hope and is also responsible for overseeing The King’s Centre and The Lighthouse Day Nursery. Lyn heads up safeguarding and has a heart for church to be accessible for those with additional needs. Between them, they have four grown-up children, t here cats, and three chickens.
Mike and Sue Pearce
Mike is passionate about worship and seeing the gifts of the Holy Spirit released in people. He leads the worship team and Making Room for the Holy Spirit meetings. Sue runs the administrative side of the church and likes nothing better than being surrounded by a list and a spreadsheet. Together Mike & Sue head up social action and mission at Hope, and run a support group for their friends and mission partners serving in Bolivia. They have two lovely lively children, Rebekah and Luke.
Phill and Mel Beynon
Phill is one of Hope’s elders and worship leaders, who has a natural gift of blending praise through worship, with moving in the prophetic gifts of the spirit. For a quiet chap, we can definitely hear him on the drums! Mel has a heart to counsel and support those who are struggling and teaches in one of our Sunday school groups. They have two lovely children Joseph and Molly and are known to be regularly dogsitting someone’s pup!
Ian Powell
Ian is one of the elders of Hope. He used to be a teacher, and continues to use these skills to teach us all about the truth of scripture through preaching and Bible study. He is keen to integrate the Word of God with the outward working of the Holy Spirit. Ian originates from Wales, but we can understand everything he says, even when he gets excited because wales are winning at rugby.
Our Heart
Here at Hope Community Church, we believe the message about Jesus is a message of hope for all people. So we want to give everyone in Wigston the opportunity to hear about this.
Because of this, we want to be:
An authentic community…
The gospel shows us that all of us have flaws, failings and faults yet, in Jesus we can find healing, restoration and a new way to live. Therefore we believe church should be a place where we don’t have to pretend to be perfect! Instead, we come as we are, accept people as they are, use the gifts he has given us, and we work together on the slow journey of becoming more like Jesus, whoever we are and wherever we come from.
…of extravagant worshippers…
We believe in a God who has given to us extravagantly, and so we want our response to be extravagant. We believe worship is a lifestyle of devotion to God, and so we want to live every day with an attitude of worship to God. And when we do get together to sing, we want to do so in a way that reflects all that God has done for us.
…shaped by the Word…
We believe that when the Bible speaks, God speaks. Therefore, we want to be a people utterly devoted to mining the truths found in scripture, both personally, in small groups and as a church family. We want to be a people transformed as we see the glory of Christ revealed through God’s precious Word.
…moving in the Spirit…
We want to be a people open to whatever the Spirit has for us. We believe that God empowers his church for mission and service through the Holy Spirit as he gives the full range of gifts described in scripture. And when we meet as a church family, we expect to encounter the Holy Spirit in life-changing ways.
…driven by prayer…
We want to be a people whose first instinct is always to pray because we know that, without prayer, we are helpless, through prayer, all things are possible. We believe that prayer is the fundamental expression of our dependence on God, and that God loves to answer our prayers with a Father’s heart.
…serving our community.
We long to see God’s kingdom come in greater measure in Wigston. We believe God’s Word calls us to bring blessing and hope to the last, the least and the lost both physically and spiritually. So we will continually seek ways to share the love of Christ practically with our community, and will take every opportunity to proclaim him as we do that.
Our Beliefs
We believe the scriptures, both Old and New Testament are the inspired word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of mankind, and the final authority for all Christian life and faith.
We believe that there is one true and living God who exists eternally in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and these being one God, are equal in deity, power and glory. We believe that God not only created the world but also now upholds, sustains, governs and providentially directs all that exists.
We believe that Adam, as the representative man, was made in the image of God, to live in perfect relationship with God and to establish the rule of the kingdom of God on earth. We also believe that Adam chose to wilfully reject the Lordship and glory of God, through temptation by God’s enemy, Satan. This was sin, and resulted in the universal sinfulness and guilt of humankind since the fall, rendering humankind subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
We believe that God did not abandon His creation to death and destruction. He so loved the world that he sent Jesus Christ His one and only Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, to redeem humankind from the guilt, penalty and power of sin. Fully God and fully man in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and offered himself as a substitutionary sacrifice for us, as sinners. By the blood of his cross he satisfied the wrath of God, obtaining for us an eternal redemption, the forgiveness of sins, spiritual adoption as sons and daughters, life everlasting and defeated the powers of darkness. He was raised bodily on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father, there to make intercession for the saints.
We believe that the gospel is the good news of what God has accomplished for sinners, through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. We believe we are saved solely by the grace of God through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ who died for our sins.
We believe in the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, grant them repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as the sole means of justification. The indwelling Spirit continues to work in every believer sanctifying, illuminating, leading and graciously empowering them for Godly living and service. Subsequent to conversion the Spirit desires to fill, empower and anoint believers for ministry and witness.
We believe that the ministry of the Spirit in signs and wonders continues today as it did in the early Church. We believe that the biblical gifts of the Spirit are central to spiritual growth and effective ministry and that they are to be eagerly desired, faithfully developed and lovingly exercised according to biblical guidelines.
We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the universal church, in which all who put their faith in Jesus Christ are united as members of one body, of which Christ is the head. The church exists to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ and bring glory to the Father.
We believe that God has called the Church to preach the gospel to all nations, and to especially remember the poor and to minister to their needs through sacrificial giving and practical service. We also believe in the priesthood of all believers and the importance of every Christian being joined with and actively involved in a local community of the saints.
We believe that water baptism for believers and the Lord’s supper are the two ordinances of the Church to be observed until the time of Christ’s return. They are not a means of salvation but are sacramental channels of God’s grace and blessing.
We believe in the ever increasing government of God on earth, and the personal and glorious return of The Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. There will be a bodily resurrection and judgement of all humankind, those who have been saved to glorification and eternal life, living forever in blissful fellowship with their great Triune God. Those who do not believe will be punished with eternal separation from the presence of God.
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