Hope Now Bible Church

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth | Dispensational

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday | Bible Study and Fellowship | Contact DispensationalTimes@pm.me, for location and details.

Wednesday | Online Bible Study | Every Wednesday morning 6:00 AM (PST)

A home church may seem out of the norm in the twenty-first century, yet in the first century believers in Jesus Christ met in a pastor’s or a church member’s home, and sometimes house-to-house. Consider the passages of Scripture below. There was not a large gathering to be found. With the advent of the mega-church, believers are longing for a smaller church environment where the Word of God is taught, rightly divided (2 Timothy 2:15). Hope Now Bible Church fulfills that desire and need. We hope you will join us. For the location and/or more details, call or text the number above, or email: ContactHNBC@protonmail.com.

Where Did The New Testament Believers Meet?

• Acts 2:46 “House to house.”
• Acts 5:42 “House to house.”
• Acts 8:3 “House after house.”
• Acts 10:22 “Cornelius’ house.”
• Acts 12:12 “Mary’s house.”
• Acts 16:32 “Jailer’s house.”
• Acts 16:40 “Lydia’s house.”
• Acts 18:7 “Titius Justus’ house.”
• Acts 20:20 “House to house.”
• Romans 16:5 “Prisca’s and Aquila’s house.”
• 1 Corinthians 16:19 “Prisca’s and Aqulia’s house.”
• Colossians 4:15 “Nympha’s house.”
• Philemon 1:2 “Philemon’s house.”

ABOUT OUR CHURCH

1. How long is the service? Our Sunday service meets in a home and all who come feel welcome. We gather for our church service and Bible study at 5 PM with food and fellowship to follow. Churches began in Jewish synagogues, but very quickly began meeting in homes (see above).
2. What about children? We don’t have childcare, but children are welcome and can learn to sit with adults during Bible study.
3. What’s the service like? Our service consists of some singing, mostly hymns, yet we are not driven by music, but by the teaching of the Word. We have a time of fellowship, announcements and prayer requests. The pastor will open the Bible and teach.
4. How large is the church? We are a small, welcoming, house church with anywhere from 8 to 20 in attendance.
5. Will I be welcome? Yes. We try not to complicate church so you will feel welcome. We just want to be believers in Jesus Christ–loving each other, growing in the Lord, and being a light in our community.
6. Does the church promote a social gospel? No. We don’t think we can “advance the Kingdom.” We are not building the Kingdom. We believe the literal Kingdom of God will come when the literal King comes. In the meantime, our job is to be faithful to the message of grace.
7. Is the church controlling? No. We don’t have a long list of “do not,” because a grocery list of “thou shalt not” doesn’t lead one to spiritual growth. We just teach the Bible, as written and let it be our only guide for living. We are not legalistic.
8. Will I be asked to give money? No. Like any church or organization, we have expenses, but we do not take an offering. An offering box is available for those who would like to help cover some of the minor costs we incur. If we have a financial need the pastor will make it known to the church and those who desire can give accordingly. We don’t talk about money unless the Biblical passage we are teaching is about money.
9. How do people normally dress? Casual. Come as you are.
10. Do I need to bring a Bible? If you have a Bible, bring one. It’s always good to have a Bible of your own you can highlight and mark with notes. We also have Bibles available for those who do not have one, to use during the service. Our pastor teaches from the King James Version because of its preciseness and accuracy and its underlying Greek text, but we are not KJV only. Many use the New King James Version of the Bible, and some use other English translations.
11. What about gender issues? There are two genders. We believe God created Man in His own image. Male and Female, he created them.
12. Do you teach Calvinist or Reformed Theology? No. In fact, we reject all forms of it. We believe whosoever will may come to believe in Jesus Christ; any man, woman, boy, or girl. We believe only Israel is God’s chosen people. All people today have free will to choose to believe.
13. We believe in the various dispensations throughout Scripture. That just means we believe God has related to mankind through the course of human history in unique ways. Each of these unique historical relationships between God and people is called a dispensation. If you believe this Biblical teaching, and you should, you are dispensational.
14. We rightly divide the Word of Truth. Rightly dividing is a phrase many today do not know. It has been removed from all modern translations. It is found in 2 Timothy 2:15, where Paul instructs Timothy to be a workman who needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. All modern versions use the phrase correctly handling, or something similar. We certainly want to correctly handle God’s word, but that is not what Paul told Timothy to do; he said to “divide” or “cut.” The Greek word for divide is orthotomeo. It is a compound word that means to “straightly cut,” ortho = straight, and tomeo=cut. We divide God’s word by separating that which is for Israel and that which is for the body of Christ. Most disputes about the Bible would be resolved if people would rightly divide the Word. We do not believe the Church has replaced Israel.

Our Pastor

Roger has been the pastor of Hope Now Bible Church since 2005. He loves studying the Bible, gardening, and woodworking. He graduated with High Honors from Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biblical Studies, and he received a certificate in Strategic Planning and Management in Retailing from Babson College.

He began full time Christian ministry in the 1970’s as a Junior High School youth pastor, and later Single adults pastor at a large church in Southern California. In the 1980’s he entered the business world while still being actively involved in his local Church. In 2000 he became president of a national chain of Christian bookstores, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. After working for the company for twenty five years, in 2004, he stepped down as president to assume the role of executive director of Hope Now For Youth, a ministry to gang members located in Fresno, California. He left that position in 2018 to focus full time on the church and the Cambodia ministry (A ministry he founded in 2010 that helps men who have been deported from the United States to Cambodia to know and understand God’s Word).

While serving in large churches for decades and enjoying many of the benefits that came from those ministries, Roger believes that a small house church is a wonderful Biblical model to follow.

Roger and Carol were married in 1975 and have two married daughters and eight grandchildren (Six grandsons and two granddaughters).

He teaches a weekly Bible class online. His approach to Scripture is to teach, not preach. Find his current online series in the book of Acts, here.

Find notes from HNBC house church services, here.