History, Mission, Theme

Our congregation started in the summer of 1980, when five families with Covenant backgrounds began meeting in each other’s homes for Sunday evening Bible study; they felt the Lord calling them to begin public worship services as a Covenant church. The group formed a new church plant, with support from the leadership of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Our original vision included a passion to plant churches around the Indianapolis area. Hope was the first of those planted.

Public worship services began in 1981. Office space was rented at the Indiana Interchurch Center, while Hope Covenant worshipped at Brebeuf High School. The construction of the church building began in 1988.

We have been blessed to be a continued part of the ministry in the city ever since!

The covenant denomination traces its roots through all of church history: while the Covenant was founded in 1885 in America, it was an off-shoot of a pietist movement to reform the 300-year-old Swedish Lutheran Church that had been founded in Sweden less than 30 years after Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Before this, of course, we go all the way back to the first century and the church founded by Jesus and his apostles.

 

We adopted this Mission statement early in our founding, and it holds true today:

“Hope Evangelical Covenant Church exists to declare and demonstrate the transforming power of life in Jesus Christ. The expected result of this mission is to build up Christians in their faith and to introduce the Good News of Christ to those who do not know Him. In doing so, we expect this church to grow spiritually and numerically, in order to better minister to those both inside and outside of the church.”

We also remember Hebrews 6:19 as a foundational theme verse:

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”