By Pastor Edwin H. Binder
Welcome to New Hope Lutheran Church
On behalf of the members and friends of New Hope Lutheran Church, welcome
to our website. It is our sincere desire that you find this site helpful
and informative. New Hope is the biggest little church in your neighborhood.
As pastor of New Hope Lutheran Church, I began as most pastors begin.
I wanted to see the congregation grow, I wanted to have a church building to
make our visible statement to the community, and I wanted to preach better than
any other pastor could preach. I soon realized that God didn’t call me
to build the church—He called me to preach His Word and preach to all who will
listen. As one of my wise members pointed out one day, our church is not
constrained walls. Our church is the entire world; we don’t know how far
it reaches. As our congregation remains small in number, it reaches at
least nine states, it reaches at least two countries outside the United States,
and it reaches many places we didn’t know we sent it.
Our Ministry
We were chartered as an independent congregation in September 1996.
There were six charter members, and three remain members today. The 75
mile drive each way to attend church became too much for the other three members,
and they left the congregation after five years. Our attendance is generally
between 9 and 12 for Sunday worship. We also have a nursing home ministry
at Coliseum Park Nursing Home in Hampton, Virginia. Attendance at our
nursing home Wednesday evening Bible study is usually between 20 and 40 residents
and sometimes includes family members of the residents. The congregation’s
involvement in the nursing home ministry is nothing short of total commitment.
On most Wednesdays every regular attendee of New Hope Lutheran Church comes
to the nursing home to help set up speakers and equipment, to help move residents
into the meeting area and return the residents to their rooms, to help residents
turn pages during the lesson, and to return the equipment to the church’s cargo
trailer. We all enjoy the fellowship and the opportunity to serve.
In the year of Pastor Binder’s ordination, 1998, the congregation began to send
tapes of the worship service to several Lutherans who could not travel to attend
on Sundays. This ministry began to grow, and has become a ministry in
and of itself. The congregation has invested thousands of dollars into
sound and recording equipment to maintain and improve our recorded worship services.
Today we no longer offer cassette tapes, but we offer to mail free CDs to anyone
who needs them. Recipients include those without a church, those housebound
(sick, amputees, etc.), and those who cannot find a source of the Word in their
local area. Our website has been designed to make our message available
to all visitors, and there is a sign up area to send CDs to a friend or relative
who might benefit. Downloading in audio or print is also available.