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About Us

Our passion at Hope Baptist Church is to show that Christ gives hope and changes lives by the preaching and teaching of His Word, the Bible. We are committed to fulfilling the Great Commission of making disciples of Jesus Christ, by preaching the Gospel, by the public acknowledgement of a person's acceptance of Jesus Christ as His Savior by baptism, and teaching everyone how they can have a fruitful relationship with God.

  • Our Values +
    • Motto: Christ Gives Hope and Changes Lives!
    • Mission: To make disciples of Jesus Christ by the power of God and for the glory of God.
    • Ministry Focus: The Nicholtown Neighborhood is our primary focus with the Greenville Area, and our world-wide missionary partnerships as our seconday focus
    • Core Values
      • Preaching and Teaching: explaining the actual words of Scriptre and showing how it changes our lives
        • God's Word the Bible: submitting to its authority, committed to its teaching, its sufficiency, and practical meaning for our lives
        • Good News of Jesus Christ (Gospel): believing and testifying to the wonderful message that sinful humans can be accepted before God through faith in Christ alone
        • Evangelism: carrying out our mission regularly, faithfully, and passionately in ways that truly serve the people of the Nicholtown neighborhood and beyond
        • Missions: supporting faithful men, women, and families as they carry the Gospel throughout the whole world
      • Worship: offering truthful and heart-felt praise to God, teaching spiritual truth to each other, engaging in worship that is orderly and culturally relevant while shunning the appearance of the sinful worldly culture
        • Prayer: engaging God regularly, praising Him for His goodness, showing our dependence on Him, and begging for His mercy
        • Giving: sacrificially supporting the work of HBC, the work of missionaries, and the genuine needs of fellow believers
      • Living for Christ and others: recognizing that the believers lifestyle should match his or profession of faith in Jesus Christ
        • Love: reflecting the self-sacrificial love of Christ toward God and all people
        • Fellowship: helping and supporting our brothers and sisters in Christ, regularly encouraging each other to growin Christlikeness, and spending quality and enjoyable time together
        • Purity: living lives of continual submission to God's commands and of constant battle against personal sin and temptation
        • Families: upholding the biblical model of the family as the God-ordained way or sexual expression child-bearing, and child-rearing while embracing any and all who have struggled in the area of godly relationships
  • Our Beliefs +

    Statement of Faith

    Section A.  The Scriptures: We believe that the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is God’s inspired Word.  Since the original autographs are God-breathed, inspiration extends to the very words of the entire Bible so that the entire Bible, and only the Bible, is the Word of God.  Scripture is infallible and inerrant because of the work of the Holy Spirit as He moved each man to record the words of God.  We believe the Bible outlines for the believer his only hope for true faith and practice (Ps. 119:160; Matt. 5:18; John 10:35; II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:21; Rev. 22:18-19).
    Section B.  God: We believe in one Triune God existing as one in His essence yet three in His persons.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, and co-equal in power and glory, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. (Deut. 6:4; Ps. 90:2; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:19, 20; I Cor. 8:6; II Cor. 13:14). 

    1. God the Father: He is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and unchanging.  He is the Creator and Preserver of all things, the sovereign God of the entire universe.  He is perfect in His characteristics and has by His grace and mercy sent His only Son to die in the place of people.  He seeks to have fellowship with us (I Ch. 29:11; Ps. 65:2; 139:1-24; John 1:12; 3:16; Rom. 11:36; Eph. 1:3-9).
    2. Jesus Christ: He is the eternal Son of God.  He is one Person, with both a divine nature (fully God) and a human nature (fully man).  He took on human flesh when He was born of the virgin, being conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He lived a sinless life and freely gave Himself on the cross for the sins of people, offering Himself as the perfect substitutionary atonement.  He physically rose from the tomb on the third day, ascended to the Father, and will return to earth one day as the Judge and King (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 25:31; John 1:1-3, 18; 5:22-23; 20:28, 31; Rom. 9:5; I Cor. 15:3-4; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15-20; Heb. 1:3, 6, 8; I John 2:2; Rev. 19:11-20:6).
    3. Holy Spirit: He is a divine Person and not an impersonal force.  He proceeds from the Father and the Son and is fully God.  He worked in creation and calls people to salvation through Jesus Christ.  He dwells in the hearts of every believer from the moment of salvation, sealing each one unto the day of redemption.  He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and makes intercession on behalf of believers.  We do not ascribe to the modern charismatic movement and its doctrine regarding the use of tongues as a gift of the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Matt. 28:19; John 3:5, 6; 15:26; 16:7-14; Rom. 8:9-16, 26; I Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 14:1-40; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; Tit. 3:5; I Pet. 1:2).

    Section C.  Creation: We believe the Genesis account of creation as being a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate, creative acts of God, in six, consecutive twenty-four hour days, without any evolutionary process; that man, spirit and body, was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms of life; and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race (Gen. 1, 2; Isa. 45:18; Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16, 17).

    Section D.  Mankind: We believe that man was created in the image of God and is, therefore, unique among all God’s creation; that in Adam man willfully sinned against God, thus forfeiting his original innocence and alienating the entire race from God and eternal life; that every man from Adam’s fall onward is a sinner by birth and by choice, utterly incapable apart from God of escaping his sinful condition or its rightful eternal punishment (Gen. 1:26; 2:7; 3:1-19; 9:6; Ecc. 7:20; Ps. 51:5; 58:3; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:10-23; 5:12, 17-19; I Cor. 15:21-22; Jas. 3:9).

    Section E.  Satan: We believe that Satan is a literal supernatural being, a fallen angel, the author of sin, and was instrumental in the Fall; that he is the “god of this world,” the “prince of the power of the air,” and the open and declared enemy of God and man.  His final destiny is eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Job 1:6-9; Eze. 28:1-19; Matt. 4:1-11; Jn. 8:44; II Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Rev. 20:10).

    Section F.  Salvation: We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly by grace through faith alone in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and that all who receive Him as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and become children of God (Eph. 2:8-9; Jn. 1:29; I Jn. 2:2; Isa. 53:4-12).

    1. Regeneration: When an individual responds in faith to the Gospel, repents of his sin and turns to Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit causes a spiritual change in which he is freed from the guilt of his inherently sinful nature, receives the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, and thus is born again into God’s family.  Regeneration involves an illumination of the mind, a change in the will, and a renewed nature (Jn. 1:12; 3:3-7, 16; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 3:22-28; I Pet. 1:23; Tit. 3:5; Acts 2:38; 17:30).
    2. Justification: The act of God whereby He declares the sinner to be righteous in His sight.  On the basis of the work of Christ, God does not impute sin to the individual, imputing instead the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:22-28; 4:1-8; 5:1-2; Gal. 2:16).
    3. Sanctification: Whereas regeneration is a one-time event in the life of the believer, sanctification is a continuing process by which God gradually transforms him into the image of Christ.  This process will be completed when believers join Christ in heaven, perfected in holiness (Jn. 17:17; II Cor. 3:18; Eph. 5:26; I Jn. 3:2; Acts 20:32).
    4. Preservation: Since salvation is based solely upon the grace of God and not on the merit of the individual, everyone who truly accepts Christ as Savior is eternally secure in his salvation and is kept by God’s power.  Scripture, however, gives a solemn warning to those who profess salvation but whose lives give no evidence of change because of the willful, continual practice of sin (Jn. 6:37, 39; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:38-39; I Pet. 1:5; II Pet. 1:10; I Jn. 3:7-10; Jas. 2:14-26).  

    Section G.  The Church: We believe that the church, composed of all who have trusted Christ as Savior since Pentecost, is the body of Christ.  Christ Himself is the Head of the Church.  This spiritual organism is the universal aspect of the church (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:23).

    1. Organization: The local church is an organized assembly of baptized believers who voluntarily associated together in the faith in order to exalt the Lord in worship, evangelize the lost through witness, and edify the saints through teaching, fellowship, and service.  The local church has the absolute right of self-government and should be free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations, religious or governmental.  We believe that local churches, while maintaining their autonomy, should fellowship and work together with true churches obedient to the Scriptures as needs and opportunities arise (Acts 11:22; II Cor. 8; 9; Eph. 4:11-16; Col. 1:15-20; III Jn. 10).   
    2. Ordinances: Christ instructed the church to observe two ordinances, both of which are symbolical.
      1. Baptism: Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost with the authority of the local church. It is a picture designed to show our     identification with the crucified, buried, resurrected Savior, with its effect on our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 6:4,5).
      2. The Lord’s Supper: We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance designed to remember and show forth the Lord’s death till He comes; that the Lord’s table should be open to all regenerated people living in fellowship with and obedience to the Lord Jesus; and that the elements representing the body and blood of Christ are symbolic and render in themselves no means of grace.  We will observe the Lord’s Supper at least once a quarter. (Lk. 22:14-20; I Cor. 11:25-32).
    3. Separation: We believe that Scripture commands God’s people to be holy and separate from all polluting influences, including sin, false teachers, and disobedient brethren.
      1. Personal: Individual believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit and so must be pure from sin.  They are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers nor found to be friends of the world (II Cor. 6:14-7:1; I Jn. 2:15-17; Jas. 4:4).
      2. Ecclesiastical: The church as a whole must separate from those who teach false doctrine and attempt to subvert the saints.  We will not associate with churches that promote or have fellowship with those churches with heretical doctrine (Rom. 16:17; II Cor. 6:14-18; II Thes. 3:6-15; II Jn. 9-11).

    Section H.  Last Things: We believe in the pretribulational rapture of the saints.  We believe in the personal, bodily, premillennial return of Jesus Christ; His literal physical reign on earth for a thousand years; the eternal punishment of unbelievers in a literal hell; and the eternal blessings for believers in heaven (Matt. 25:1-13; I Cor. 15:24-28; I Thes. 4:14-18; Rev. 19:11-20:15; 21-22).

    Section I. Civil Government.  We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions:  1) the home, 2) the church, and 3) the state.  Every person is subject to these authorities, but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by His Word.  God has given each institution specific Biblical responsibilities and balanced those responsibilities with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other.  The home, the church, and the state are equal and sovereign in their respective Biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God.  (Rom. 13:1-7; Eph. 5:22-24; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 2:13-14)

    Section J.  Human Sexuality: We believe the Bible speaks clear about His moral standards for mankind.

    1. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.  We believe any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of physical relations.  We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one’s gender by surgery or appearance (Gen. 2:24; 19:5, 13; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom. 1:26-29; I Cor. 5:1; 6:9; I Thes. 4:1-8; Heb. 13:4).
    2. We believe that the only legitimate form of marriage is the joining of one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24; Rom. 7:2; I Cor. 7:10; Eph. 5:22-23).

    Section K: Love.  We believe that we should demonstrate love for others, not only toward fellow believers, but also toward both those who are not believers and those who oppose us. We are to deal with those who oppose us graciously, gently, patiently, and humbly.  God forbids the stirring up of strife, the taking of revenge, or the threat or the use of violence as a means of resolving personal conflict or obtaining personal justice. Although God commands us to abhor sinful actions, we are to love and pray for any person who engages in such sinful actions. (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 5:44-48; Luke 6:31; John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:9-10; 17-21; 13:8-10; Phil. 2:2-4; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; Titus 3:2; 1 John 3:17-18)

    Section L: Lawsuits Between Believers.  We believe that Christians are prohibited from bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or the church to resolve personal disputes.  We believe the church possesses all the resources necessary to resolve personal disputes between members.  (1 Cor. 6:1-8; Eph.  4:31-32)

  • Our Ministries +

    Sunday Ministries

    • Morning and Afternoon Services
    • Sunday School
    • Kids Ministry

    Wednesday Ministries

    • Adult Prayer and Bible Study
    • Kids Ministry
    • Teen Ministry

    Outreach Ministries

    • Visitation and Evangelism
    • Annual Vacation Bible School
    • Seasonal Programs

    Fellowship Opportunities

    • Sunday Fellowship Meals
    • Seasonal Fellowships
    • Annual Church Picnic

    Other

    • College Ministry
    • Ministry Internships
  • Our Leadership +

    Senior Pastor

    pastor ben

    Pastor Benjamin Gordon was born and raised in Springfield, IL. He is the second eldest of six boys. He is deeply grateful to the Lord for his faithful single Mother who taught him the importance of a stubborn trust in God under all circumstances. Pastor Ben trusted Christ as his Savior through the ministry of a faithful gospel preaching church in Springfield, IL. He was greatly influenced and discipled by his youth pastor which contributed to Pastor Ben's burden for local church ministry. Pastor Ben surrendered to the call of God to preach midway through his undergraduate years in college. Pastor Ben has a significant burden for passionate expository preaching, evangelism, and discipleship in the inner-city context. Pastor Ben received a BA in Humanities and an MA in Theology and will pursue a Master of Divinity degree.

    Pastor Ben married his lovely wife TraCelia Gordon in May 2013. They have been blessed with three children including two daughters named Mya and Ava and a son named Coby. Outside of spending time with his family and local church ministry, Pastor Ben is a huge sports fan and enjoys playing and watching of basketball and football.

    Pastor Ben's favorite verse is Galatians 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

    Assistant Pastor

    pastorwade2

    Pastor Wade Kuhlewind Jr. was born in a small-town area in southwestern Pennsylvania. Growing up as the son of a pastor, he was introduced to conservative evangelical Christianity from the very beginning. From setting up tables for a funeral meal to teaching junior church, he was involved in many of the details of church ministry. Sitting through thousands of sermons and Sunday school classes further provided him with an extensive knowledge of Bible stories and a basic understanding of Bible doctrines.

    Spiritually, however, he wavered between times of assurance and doubt concerning the certainty of God’s saving work in his life. Sometimes, he would frequently call out to God for salvation just in case his previous prayers did not work. Though he had attended a Christian school from K5 through 12th grade and had enrolled in a Christian college to study for the pastorate, his struggles with salvation and doubt had not disappeared. His many years of knowing spiritual truth without having had assurance of his salvation make it impossible for him to know the exact day, time, and place of God’s saving act in his life, but if you ask him whether he knows that Christ has saved him from his sin, you will hear a definite, “yes!” Not because he has the date written in his Bible but because the Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved!” (Acts 16:31).

    May 19, 2007 ushered in a new phase of Wade’s life when Aida Maria Gil-Ramirez accepted his hand in marriage. She is not only a wonderful wife, she is also his best friend and most faithful partner in ministry. She has introduced him to the culture of Latin America through her Venezuelan & Guatemalan heritage and has provided opportunities for him to learn more of the Spanish language. They trust that the Lord will continue to open doors of ministry for them in the country of Venezuela.

    The Lord has burdened Wade for inner-city church ministry, for church planting, for pastoring teens and adults, and for seminary/Bible institute teaching both in the U.S. and abroad. Without a doubt, the Lord has used Hope Baptist Church as a proving ground for learning more about ministry but also for growing closer to Christ. He looks forward to seeing what the Lord will continue to do in him through His work in H.B.C.! His favorite verse is Hosea 6:3, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (ESV).

  • Our Neighborhood +

    Hope Baptist Church (HBC) has the amazing privilege of ministering in the Nicholtown neighborhood of Greenville, SC. While the beginnings of the neighborhood can be traced to a plantation that was subdivided, it soon became known as a thriving and prestigious African-American neighborhood. Nicholtown was the home of a great many of Greenville's African-American professions, and it enjoyed the status of being a completely self-sustaining neighborhood containing every local business that was necessary for everyday life.

    While the passing years have witnessed many changes for Nicholtown, some of them difficult, the neighborhood has been enjoying a steady resurgence for several years. A significant amount of criminal activity that had been present for many years has been removed by the faithful partnship of the neighborhood residents with city law enforcement. For example, the land directly across the street from HBC is now a flourishing community garden after once being a center for criminal activity. This land is also the location of the newly-constructed Nicholtown memorial sign and patio. Housing companies have invested in the neighborhood as well by utilizing available funds to construct new dwellings for the betterment of the neighborhood.

    Nicholtown has many valuable amenities including Sterling Elementary School, a highly productive community center, and its time-honored and highly involved neighborhood association. Nearby is easy access to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, Cleveland Park, Greenville's bustling downtown, and major roads. Truly, the highest honor enjoyed by the Neighborhood is the large number of residents who "go way back" and beyond. The engraved bricks at the Nicholtown memorial sign and patio testify to the richness of the neighborhood's history and the dedication of its residents.

  • Our Church History +

    In 2001, several Christians were discussing the condition of a crime-ridden area in Greenville, SC. During that discussions someone suggested there needed to be a good, "Bible-believing and Bible-preaching church in the Nicholtown community of Greenville." For the next year, weekly prayer meetings were conducted about starting church in Nicholtown. The Lord saw fit to answer their prayers and in January 2003, Hope Baptist Church conducted its first service under the leadership of Pastor Alan Findley.

    Over the next couple years, HBC met in the Nicholtown Community Center while the church renovated an old night club building which HBC purchased in 2003. Different individuals and ministraties poured over $120,000 into the building for the necessary renovations. In 2006, HBC moved into its building at 101 Rebecca Street. The Lord has blessed HBC with a solid building at a great location to do an amazing work in Nicholtown, and we are looking forward to seeing what God will continue to do for His glory!