Our Church Has A Name

Naming a church is an odd process. It’s both extremely important and not important at all at the same time. Does it really matter what the church is called? Yes, it does. But, seriously, does it? Well, no.

When I planted Ember Church, I had the name picked out years before we actually even started taking the planting process seriously. The name was tied to the idea, even defining it. I could not have planted a church by any other name. But Ember’s time has passed, and now God has a new church for me to have a hand in leading. And that church has a name, too.

Hope Church.*

Christianity speaks to each of the core longings of human beings: the need to be known, the need to be loved, the need to belong, the need to be forgiven, and the need to have a hope that transcends death. The hope we have as Christians is unique in this world because it is not of this world, though it is for this world. Our hope is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that hope not only rescues us from the fear of death, but gives us confidence to live each day with faith and love.

We instinctively believe that this life isn’t all there is, and we have come to realize that, even when we have the best this world has to offer, our hearts remain restless. There must be something more – a fuller experience of reality, a purer way of existence.  This is precisely what we are given in the resurrection of Jesus. An invitation to experience life more fully today, tomorrow, and for eternity. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, he gives us hope for our own resurrection and the glorious life we will enjoy with him in God’s new creation.

This hope is what sustained Breena and me through the darkest period of our lives – losing our son Ezekiel to Batten Disease. We breathed this hope like oxygen. Every day we clung to the resurrection of Jesus as a promise that, when this awful disease would take our son from us, he would be entering a greater and fuller existence in the presence of the risen and living Christ. His death would not be the final moment of a short and meaningless life, but the first moment of a new and glorious dawn in the presence of God where his body was remade and renewed. He would discard all disease and suffering, entering maximal and eternal life the way God had always intended it to be lived. This is the hope that Ezekiel has realized, and the hope to which we cling for ourselves.

I don’t know how anyone can get through life without the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How can you endure suffering without a hope found in the man who conquered death? How can you thrive in a merciless and soul-crushing world without the belief that one day God will raise you from the dead, too, and set everything right? My desire, now, is to share this hope with everyone, because I don’t know how anyone can live without it.

If you live in the Columbus, OH area and have any interest in hearing more about Hope Church, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would love to get together with you and share more about what God is doing through us to spread the Gospel of hope in central Ohio.

*The image above is not the church logo; it’s just some word art that I experimented with.