Our Beginning
In 2004, Hope Church began its ministry on the Arizona State University campus. The original team held our first church service in August 2004. Since then, we’ve trained over 200 staff and interns and developed a leadership team of over 375 students and graduates. Each Sunday, we welcome hundreds of students, parents and community guests to our Sunday service. Hope is an active member of the Grace Association, which also includes Living Streams Church, Pure Heart Church and Evident Life.
Please get to know our staff and pastoral leaders here.
Our Mission
According to a recent Harvard study, 7% of the world's population hold college degrees. Today's college students are the future leaders of America and these leaders hunger for influence, not just mere status quo. Research shows that 84% of students say that making a difference in the world is more important than professional recognition, and 61% of students are worried about the state of the world and feel personally responsible to make a difference.
While most students are passionate to lead, they're also reluctant. It can be a daunting task, wanting to make a difference, yet not knowing how. Students need a place to learn leadership skills. With this in mind, we reach college students with the Gospel so that they're equipped to change the world and fulfill their God-given destiny. Our community of leaders mentor students to help them reach their fullest potential. We host a weekly Sunday church service year-round, as well as weekly Connect Groups during the academic year and an annual spring break outreach trip. We also hold small groups for students, city members and married couples.
We believe our church is called to fulfill the Great Commission on college campuses and their surrounding cities. Over the past 20 years, the staff and leadership team - made up of students and city members - at Hope has engaged over 365,000 people and had over 45,000 students attend our events. We’ve sent over 2,300 students on 70 different campus outreach trips to nearby states, and we’ve led over 2,970 people to repent and surrender their lives to Jesus.
collegiate-focused church planting movement
With all that God has done in our ministry, local pastors and ministry leaders in the Body of Christ agreed: this needed to be reproduced on other campuses and in other cities. Since July 2019, we’ve been sending teams to other cities to launch new Hope sites. So far, we’ve sent teams to reach: the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona. We plan to start 7 more new Hope sites by 2030.
As students are reached with the Gospel, they’re discipled and grow in their faith. Then, they begin to reach their peers. They take this faith with them after graduation and start to impact their city. At the same time, many of the students who graduate remain in our church and serve on our leadership team to help us reach the next generation.
We’re focused on reaching college students, and everyone is welcome to attend because we believe it takes all generations to reach the next generation. If you have a heart for college students, you’re welcome to go through Growth Track to learn more about our church and how you can be a member.
campus missionaries
To reach 24 campuses and continue to plant more sites, we need a lot of dedicated staff. All of our full-time campus missionaries develop financial partnership teams that enable them to do campus ministry.
IMPACT EVENTS
In addition to our church activities, Hope developed the following impact events to empower students to lead in their giftings, develop their leadership skills and break the stigma on college campuses.
Outlaw Comedy
In 2006, Pastor Brian did something untraditional: he enrolled in comedy school. Through that experience, he had a vision to bring people together to connect through comedy. In 2007, Outlaw Comedy was founded to bring clean comedy to students for free, and it produced its first shows in the residence halls. To date, we've produced shows for over 20,000 college students across 10 different college campuses.
Our church’s love for comedy, having fun and laughing is one of the reasons a core value of ours is fun-loving. So at the beginning of the school year, we bring in a comedian to perform during one of our church services since we believe laughter helps people lower their walls and connect on a deeper level.
BE Beautiful
Wendy Smith, Hope Church’s Director of Women’s Ministry started Be Beautiful. It’s evolved over the years, but in 2010 she had a vision to inspire women to reveal self-worth through personal style because every woman belongs in beautiful. We believe in doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it (1 Tim. 2:9-10 MSG)!
We've hosted fashion events, coached young women to learn their personal style and, most recently, created a video series to help freshmen transition their wardrobe from high school to college.
Our signature event is Pink to Purpose where college women get an unfiltered look at what it means to “have it all” from a former Victoria’s Secret Angel, Kylie Bisutti. Kylie shares the true story behind the fame, fortune and photoshop, and why she left the runway behind for a life of purpose.
SURVIVOR WEEKEND
College students want to have fun and make friends fast, so we host a trip called Survivor Weekend. Students across the Southwest form tribes and experience a weekend of music, camping, and head-to-head competition.
The Future
We've always believed that if you change the campus, you can change the world. Now, more than ever, our nation needs young leaders who know how to follow Jesus, the greatest leader of all time. As students graduate, they will be able to influence others and fulfill their God-given destiny. Each student has been uniquely created with specific giftings and abilities - they only need to be developed. In the coming years, we hope to plant local churches on other college campuses across the nation to continue to reach more leaders in the next generation.
Please contact us at info@hopechurchmovement.com with any questions.