Good Things Are Happening at Hope!

This has been a very special year in the history of Hope Church, and I am so grateful that you are a part of our family. We have been blessed to have a year full of baptisms, impacting our community, and seeing God’s handiwork all around us. As a church, we believe that God has called us to go deep in our faith and wide in our influence – by diligently following Christ, growing together, serving our neighbors, and proclaiming God’s love. In this report, I want to celebrate what God has done, and I want to invite you to continue to play an important part in what God is doing at Hope Church. 

One of the most exciting things to celebrate at Hope this year is the way that God has been changing lives. We participated in 23 baptisms so far this year, and we are expecting even more before the end of 2025. During those baptisms, we heard awesome stories of lives changed by the love of Christ. Through the ministries of Hope Church, we had at least 35 individuals make professions of faith. 

As we strive to grow deep in our faith together, we celebrate our growing number of community groups, where many of us are blessed to share life together, serve together, and grow together. Over the last year, our Men’s ministry breakfasts have doubled in attendance, and we have seen men grow together, build authentic relationships, serve together, and grow in their relationship with Christ together. Our Women’s ministry continued to provide a number of special worship opportunities, groups, and bible studies that have helped women connect together and grow deeper in their faith.

One way we are growing our capacity to go wide in our community is through the Hope Cares Pantry. With generous support from our church family, we have reached many individuals in our community with the love of Christ. We also continue to provide English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to offer assistance, express the love of Christ, and make connections with those who are learning English in our community. We are grateful for the new Kids Hope USA leadership of Janet O’Connor and Katie Kutcel. The mentor relationships provided through Kids Hope have had a significant impact on the lives of many children at Applewood Elementary School. We also celebrate our Snow Much Fun! outreach event in February, which drew an estimated 300 people into our church to enjoy pizza, inflatables, and more. It was such a joy to see our church family and ministry partners invite family, friends, and neighbors to come and enjoy the evening together. 

God has been doing some especially exciting things in our Hope Kids ministry. This year we celebrated 3 of our Hope Kids being baptized and one family publicly dedicating their 3 girls to the Lord. Plus, at the end of our BOTR summer camp, 14 campers rang the bell and publicly declared Jesus as their Savior. On Sunday mornings, Hope Kids has added a special time of worship and celebration, and it is something  kids of all ages look forward to each week. God has been busy in the hearts of our kids! 

God is helping us ignite a fire of faith in the hearts of young people through our Ignite youth ministry. We join Pastor Josiah in celebrating three teenagers making professions of faith and two teens being baptized. Through the generosity of our Hope Church family, 21 of our teens were able to attend the LIFE Conference, where they deepened their faith and were encouraged to live on mission. Our teens grew deep in their faith through a new prayer group, and wide in their influence through opportunities to serve and opportunities to invite friends to Ignite activities.

The Lord has continued to raise up gifted and faithful servant leaders at Hope. I am extremely grateful for the staff team of leaders who serve our church family. l deeply appreciate the “dream team” that I get to serve with, and I am grateful this team continues to grow. I am thankful that Stephen Campanella is stepping into a special volunteer leadership role as Director of Operations. He is using his gifts of leadership, management, and experience as a producer to help us steward our resources well. We are also very grateful for Pastor Kevin Kutcel as he serves in a volunteer leadership role as our Pastor of Outreach and Missions, and oversees our community groups. His passion for making Jesus known inside and outside of Hope is a wonderful blessing to  our church family. 

Our ministry teams – including the Worship Team, Tech Team, Security Team, and Welcome Team – have grown, and many individuals like you serve faithfully on these teams to help the church family grow deep in our faith and wide in our influence. This year we launched a new Sunday morning Prayer Team, and many of us have been impacted by their willingness to intercede for the needs of our church family.

I had a very special watch given to me many years ago by a friend. It was handmade in Switzerland,  and it was beautiful. It did not require a battery because all of the tiny watch parts were designed to harness the wearer's wrist movement to automatically wind the spring. I am told this particular watch has over 200 individual parts designed to work together to help the watch keep time. I think this is a picture of what God has done this year through and in our Hope Church family. It is made up of a wonderful group of people, who are working hard to help bless our community and represent Jesus to Brunswick and beyond. I feel like this year we worked together in a special way, and the results have been encouraging. 

Through a year of baptisms, lives surrendered to Christ, dedications, special worship services, and many other exciting things, it is impossible to look back on 2025 and not feel blessed by what God has accomplished in and through Hope Church. I invite you to read the full annual report (click here) as it shares in more detail the ways God has been at work here. 

Together, we look forward to the great things He will do in the next chapter of our Hope Church story. 

Expectantly, 

Shawn Brennan 

P.S. Please join me in praying for Mary Beth Pana, whose mother graduated to heaven early this morning.

P.P.S. I hope you are able to join us this Sunday, when we will take some time to honor the many veterans who are a part of our Hope Church family.