Encounter God
We believe the spiritual journey begins with a fresh encounter with God where He provides a glimpse of His glory and grace. God’s glory confronts us with our sin and initially causes us to retreat from Him. However, God intervenes with His mercy and His grace. Seeing God’s incredible heart of love reaching out to us in spite of our utter unworthiness awakes within us our deepest desire for intimacy with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The focus of worship must therefore be unveiling the Glory of God. Worship, praise and the teaching of God’s word must revolve around God, not around man. God is not “useful” for us. He is Holy and must be adored, honored and sought after. The goal of every service at New Hope is to allow God to be God and to escort His people into His presence to know Him and be known by Him.
Experience True Community
We believe that God is a relational, three in one God who invites us to join His community.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have lived together through all eternity in a perfect
community. Man was created in the image of God. Therefore, man is also a relational being who longs for true
community. True community, however, requires transparency in an environment of grace. It is only where you
know you are loved and accepted unconditionally that you can be totally honest with who you really are.
Our belief is that God designed the Church to be the safest place on earth where everyone, regardless of
sin, their shame or their position in life, experiences true love and acceptance. Together, as fellow pilgrims,
we journey through life, trusting the Spirit to constantly draw us into greater intimacy with God and with one
another.
We believe that transformation requires community. The deceitfulness of our fallen hearts has blinded each of
us from seeing ourselves clearly. In order to open the secret places of our hearts to the light of God, we need
other believers who are guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak into our hearts words of life, truth,
insight and hope. Therefore, the goal of our community is the formation of safe, intimate relationships
that constantly point one another to deeper dependence on God as the only answer for the real issues of life.
We believe that Jesus came to establish a "New Covenant" between
God and man. We believe that God supernaturally gives everyone who surrenders his or her life to Jesus Christ
a new heart through the person of the Holy Spirit. (See Ezekiel 36:24-27, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Acts 2:38-39).
We believe that the Spiritual Journey is the process of releasing this new heart. True change does not take
place by fixing our externals, but by releasing the new heart from within. This release requires us to face
honestly the death grip our old nature has on making this life work through our own strength. The journey begins
with the descent of seeing our rebellion and sin against a Holy God. The journey of ascent begins as we
experience God's incredible mercy and grace in the depths of our brokenness. We begin to soar when we see that
even at our lowest points God embraces us as His dearly loved children because He sees us through the blood of
His Son, Jesus Christ. The redemptive work of the Son grants us the privilege of adoption and allows us to enter
the presence of the Father who receives us with great joy. We believe the spiritual journey is a continual process of descending and
ascending. Each time we encounter God we see our sin more clearly and must choose between denial and brokenness.
When we choose denial, we retreat into the darkness and isolation of religion. When we choose brokenness, the
Spirit escorts us into the light of Christ and into fellowship with one another. This journey leads to healing,
transformation and, most importantly, greater intimacy with God and others. The Journey is the same for each one of us. I encounter Jesus Christ. I catch a glimpse of His holiness and it forces me to see my sin, my shame and I pull away. Then I experience His embrace, he loves me, he accepts me right where I am, so I join him in the dance. He sweeps me off my feet and
I realize for the moment that it isn’t up to
me. I can rest in His grace. I can trust in
His cleansing. And oh, it is so good. . . .
But then it’s gone.
No, He doesn"t leave me. He
doesn't stop dancing, but I become distracted
by the things of our
world: my relationships, my career,
my superficial desires and the pain of my life
and I attempt
to move by my energy and my strength
rather than by His Spirit.
The next thing I know, I have crashed again. Only
this time, the depth of my fall seems
even greater than the first. After all, how
could I have
danced with God, how could I have
accepted His love and grace and still crashed?
"O, what a
wretched man I am, who will save
me?" Then, once again, I hear his
music playing softly in
the background. Once again I stop
trying to fix myself and allow Him
to embrace me with
His love. Suddenly, I am dancing
again. Only this time, I dance higher
and faster and more
gracefully than ever. I become intoxicated by his
love. Nothing else compares. But then, once
again, I lose
focus. This time I become so absorbed
in watching my
own dance
that I step outside myself and
look in awe at the beauty of my movements,
forgetting who is
in the lead. Immediately I begin
to stumble so I work harder and
yet stumble
more. Frantically I attempt to regain
my beauty, but the harder I try, the more I
fail.
The harder I try the uglier it
gets. Finally, my failure
is obvious, not merely to myself,
but to everyone and the pain
overwhelms me. How could I have
failed so miserably? All I
had to do was follow His lead. All I
had to do was to flow with His
movement and His Spirit.
Then, while I’m on the floor
kicking myself, I stop
my blubbering just long enough
to hear the music still playing softly. When
I look up, to my utter amazement, I see His
hand reaching for me, inviting me to dance again. "But, Jesus, I failed so miserably.
I’m afraid I’ll fail again."
He answers: "My blood covers
your failure, so why do you fear failure?"
Then, He holds out his hand
and we resume the dance.
Such is the Spiritual Journey.
Can you relate? Can you hope this is really
true?
Do you long for such acceptance
and grace. Then Join us in the dance.
Join us in
the
journey!
Embrace The Spiritual Journey
The Dance