Hope Community Church Moorestown is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
The Rev. Andrew Bonaventura, lead pastor at Hope Community Church in Moorestown, said sometimes something must die for something new to come life. Ten years ago, attendance at Moorestown Bible Church was dwindling, the pastor had left and the remaining leaders in place decided it was time for a new direction.
“There were people here who believed the church needed a bigger vision for what it means for a church to be reaching its community,” Bonaventura said.
In 2007, Hope Community Church, a community-reaching church based on the principles of the Christian faith, took shape, and the church is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month.
Bonaventura said that 10 years ago the church wanted to become a “reaching-style” church where it encouraged community members to join it as opposed to being a self-contained “holy huddle.” For that reason, church leaders took to the streets of Moorestown with a list of potential new names for the church.
He said they asked residents which names resonated the most with them, and the response was overwhelming — “hope.” Bonaventura said there was no conflict that spurred the decision. He said at the time, church leaders were just looking for a new way of doing things.
“The church pretty much died off, and a new one sprang up to life,” Bonaventura said.
Bonaventura said what’s distinctive about Hope as compared to some of the other churches in the area is it is not stuck in ritual, ceremony or tradition. He said the church’s guiding principle is that people find “real, true abundant life in a relationship with Jesus.”
Bonaventura, who joined Hope seven years ago, said Hope is a “come as you are” church. He said they use phrases such as “no perfect people allowed” and “ordinary people finding extraordinary life” to promote an air of inclusivity.
The majority of Hope’s members come from Moorestown and the surrounding area, with around 200 total in the congregation. Bonaventura said he thinks Hope’s message ties in well with the Moorestown community.
He said every day people have a choice to define themselves in terms of their career, socio-economic status or other identifiers, but when a person dies, all of those physical things are gone. He said the community of Moorestown is smart, affluent and upwardly mobile, and his goal is to show people to enjoy the physical aspects of this world but not to let your life be defined by them.
“We want to share the message of eternal, lasting hope so that people are not placing their hope in things of this world,” Bonaventura said.
Bonaventura said the key to Hope’s growth over the last decade has been giving people steps into the church and making it approachable for people. He said the church utilizes a variety of small, short-term groups as an entry point for people. He said they can meet people and discuss topics over the course of a couple of months, and if they enjoy the experience after it ends, they can join larger “grow groups” and continue to meet outside of the church in their free time.
“We want to get people out of rows and into circles,” Bonaventura said.
On Sunday, Oct. 8, at 10:30 a.m. Hope planned to celebrate its anniversary with a worship service, food and games. Bonaventura said the message he plans to preach that day will be remembering gratitude for the last 10 years. The following Sunday, Oct. 15, the message will be what’s ahead.
Looking forward, Bonaventura said his goal isn’t necessarily to grow Hope into a large church. Rather, it’s about creating followers of Jesus who are deployed out into the world.
“HOPE is about what we want for people, not what we want from people,” Bonaventura said.
To learn more about Hope Community Church Moorestown, visit http://www.hope-ccm.org.
