Church Update

WE FINALLY HAVE A NEW CHURCH BUILDING! What a fun and exciting topic to write about, but also

a bittersweet emotion as we close out the chapter of our church meeting in our home. We know that one day we'll look back at this season and cherish the sweet memories. But man, can I just say it has been so wonderful not having to host each week anymore? I know that sounds terrible to say, and honestly, I still would do it all over again, even if I were given the chance not to start in our home. But both Nick and I have realized how strenuous it has been to host church in our home the past couple of years. The workload each weekend to clean and set up, the chaos with two young children, the hospitality, the time, money, and effort that went into it was a lot on us. For the past month, we have been meeting in a temporary space above our new space, and weekends have taken on a whole new feel for us.

We are grateful for the opportunity to host even with the challenges, but we are also thankful that we are done with this chapter and get to move to the next in our new space.

It has been an arduous process to find a church building. As a recap: A couple of months after starting to meet in our home, back in the fall of 2023, our neighbor was not happy. He did not appreciate us inviting strangers (“criminals” in his words) to our quiet cul-de-sac every week. For the next few months, he contacted the city many times, sending complaints about the traffic, parking, etc., expressing that our meeting was bothersome to the neighborhood. He claimed to be speaking for all the neighbors; however, the rest of the neighbors have continued to be friendly and kind to us, so we assume the complaint was a solo mission. Long story short, Nick and his dad met with the city to explain and talk over everything, agreeing that we were not doing anything wrong since we were more of a bible study meeting in our home versus a church business. We agreed to be out of our home in 60 days, which put us at the end of July 2024. In order for us to receive the proper city permits and business licenses that we needed to lease a new building, we had to start a very long process with our denomination. But as God would have it, although it set us back about 6 months more, we are now considered a covenant church under the Foursquare Denomination, which essentially gives us different benefits and opportunities as we move forward. Once we finalized all the necessary paperwork, we could officially rent space for a business. However, then the process of finding a building began, which took an additional few months of searching. Even after finding a space we liked, the process to move in has been a bit of a fiasco. 

This building owner has given us the runaround. The process of finding and claiming this building was not easy. Not only was it difficult to find a space that would be big enough to grow in, but also small enough that we could afford it. Praise the Lord for Dale. Without him, none of this would have ever happened. Nick continues to take his role very seriously as he deeply studies the things of God to graciously guide this church to Truth. Stephanie continues to beautifully lead our women’s study and shepherd and mentor all the women. In each role, there are challenges and personal lessons learned, but that is for them to share, not me. However, what I can say is we have all grown in our love, intimacy, and understanding of our Lord.

I had the privilege (and burden) of shopping and decorating our new building. My goal through the process was to create a beautiful space that would make people feel comfortable and welcomed to Hope Northwest! Man, this was a stressful process. It is difficult to make decisions with other people's money in a way that honors the Lord. Decor is subjective, and you will never be able to please everyone. I hope that a clean, modern space will aid in the process of our church growing, but never be a distraction or a hindrance to why someone may choose not to come back. I have to be honest that I struggled with making these decisions and allowed the whole process to take over my thoughts and emotions. Although my heart was in the right place, I just didn’t know how to accomplish it. But through many conversations, lots of prayer, surrender, and patience, we are done and pleased with what God brought to us to decorate and set up our new building.

It is so nice after two years to visually see that if we all work in the giftings that the Lord has given us, we can create a wonderful united front to help manage and build Hope Northwest Church.

So after 5 months of working on this building, we got our keys on June 1st with many perks and benefits from the owner. However, there are still some timeline setbacks due to the previous tenant, and we are not able to move into our new space for another week or so.

As we look back at this whole church planting process, we are reminded all across scripture that we will face persecution and suffering as Christians. Life will not always be easy because we live in a fallen world. 

We have faced a lot of opposition about moving here. God’s timing on the move not ours, moving alone and struggle through that the past two years with just a team of 4, not having a place to live 2 weeks before moving up here, the moving truck taking forever to get here, Zion having 3 surgeries, Nick’s broken foot, starting and running a church, our neighbor hating us, the city issues and not being allowed to invite people to church because of that, the issues with the denomination and the headache of lots of paperwork, and then the leasing of this new property.

But in all of that, God has been SO faithful. If we wanted to, we could have looked at allllllll of those circumstances as “closed doors” and said this probably isn’t a good fit, we shouldn’t move, or we should stop trying to start this church. We have to believe in the promises of God. And I can confidently tell you that when pushing through all the opposition, you come to a beautiful place where you really see and grasp the sovereignty of God and how He blesses those who are faithful.

We are excited to embark on this new journey to watch God grow His church. We KNOW there will continue to be opposition, but we also know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) He will continue to refine and redeem His Church for His Kingdom and glory.

“...upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

Matthew 16:18

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Jess T.

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Prayer Requests

• Love and trust God more

• God would add to our church

• That we would be salt and light in our community