Newhope church

newhope church is a Wesleyan church founded by Pastor Benji Kelley, it is currently one of the fastest growing churches in the United States, and has campuses around the globe including North Carolina, South Carolina, and Kenya. [1][2][3]

newhope church
LocationCarolina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kenya
DenominationWesleyan
Weekly attendance5000
History
Founder(s)Pastor Benji Kelley Amy Lynn Kelley

History

newhope church was founded in 2002 by Benji Kelley, and his wife Amy Lynn Kelley. In 2001, Jim Garlow was working as a senior pastor at the Skyline Wesleyan Church in Southern California. Garlow learned of a recent graduate Pastor Benji Kelley, who had founded a church in Chapel Hill. His congregation was growing rapidly, and he hoped to expand into the Wesleyan denomination. Garlow contacted the Durham Wesleyan District Office about the new church, and along with Pastor Kelley, the two then worked with Chapel Hill District Superintendent, Leon Thompson, to help secure financing for their new church.

On January 2002 newhope church held its first service at East Chapel Hill High School. There were more than 600 in attendance. Soon newhope moved into its own location. Within six years the church had outgrown its original location as well as three others. In 2010, newhope church sold its original location and used the funds to purchase 36 acres of land that became the church's central campus.

With the creation of a sprawling central campus, as well as other satellite campus', newhope church created a vacation bible school as an alternative to bible study,[4] multiple pre-school programs[5] and both a web video and television studio to broadcast sermons held by Pastor Benji Kelley.

Today, newhope church continues to be one of the fastest growing churches in North America[2] with over 5,000 in attendance each week (their 2017 Easter celebration had over 10,000 attendance). Their newest campus in North Durham had also seen attendance from 80 to 160 in one week and is merging with the Hillsborough campus this week.

Charity Work

newhope church actively encourages members to serve. On ministry fair Sundays, patrons can sign up for service directly after a sermon. The church offers financial counseling to families looking to get back on track with debts, and “Community for Hope Mission” has begun an annual food drive and candy-filled Easter Egg helicopter drop beginning in 2016.[6][7] Pastor Benji Kelley also spoke at Mother Emanuel African Methodist after the shooting that took place there in June 2015. [8]

The church also hosts an annual leadership conference known as "InCite", which brings together more than 700 ministry and marketplace professionals to network. The purpose of this conference is to teach pastors how to grow their respective churches through grassroots outreach. A portion of the fees from InCite is used to fund the Global Leadership Conference to be held in Kenya. [9]

References
  1. "2013 Outreach 100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America". Outreach Magazine. Retrieved 2017-05-25.
  2. Kind, Kerry. "Three Wesleyan churches make U.S. 100 fastest-growing list". The Wesleyan Church. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  3. "The Outreach 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches". docshawn. 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  4. WRAL (2011-05-17). "Churches gearing up for Vacation Bible School, camps :: WRAL.com". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  5. WRAL (2011-04-21). "New preschool to open at Garner church this fall :: WRAL.com". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  6. "Helicopter Easter egg drop held in Garner". ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. 2016-03-20. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  7. Taylor, Shawn. "Churches hope egg hunts inspire faith". Sanford Herald. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  8. Ravitz, Jessica. "Emanuel AME Church in Charleston starts new chapter". CNN. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  9. "newhope Church Fourth Annual Leadership Conference | Hollywood Heat - Celebrity, Entertainment & Music News". Retrieved 2017-05-23.

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