Many of you have heard about Local Hope’s new online tool and many others have already signed up (thank you!). We are hearing stories about how it’s easier and much more manageable to meet needs within our community … as an individual, as a family or even serving together as a home group.

So what can you do with the new online tool that you couldn’t before?
Now you can easily search for specific needs based on your availability as well as your areas of interest. Say you have some extra furniture to donate or even just a few hours to spare next Saturday. Simply visit gethope.net/local-hope, register or login, select what you’re interested in doing (such as donating furniture) and/or the date you’re available. From there a list of opportunities will populate and you’re instantly connected to local needs.

Find additional login and search details in our Pastor of Adult Learning, Chase Gardner’s, video below.

Stories from Local Hope volunteers
After serving with her small group at Ship of Zion, Laurie C. said, This Christmas I had the privilege of serving alongside my small group family at the Sir Walter Apartments in downtown Raleigh. We attended and served holiday meals at their annual Christmas party. Working the buffet line, we had the opportunity to speak to each resident as they filled their plate. Some were all smiles, some were quiet, some came dressed in their holiday best, but each and every person that passed through the line was so appreciative. It was definitely a blessing to see first hand how our church has reached out to the Sir Walter community. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to serve the residents that night and I feel blessed to have a wonderful group of friends to share the experience with! Looking forward to the next opportunity!

In response to Raleigh Rescue Mission’s request for blankets, Kim B. said, My daughter and her friend had a blanket drive in West Oaks and Ballentine subdivision in FV. They collected 38 blankets and I delivered them to the Raleigh Rescue mission yesterday.

After meeting a need at the Newbern House Elsie T. said, It was a great display of team work. It is the first time I had seen so much food there and there were no leftovers. Amazing! We feed over 200 people in 2 hours. Thanks to Mandy, Ben, Nicole and other volunteers! May God bless the volunteers and those who visit the program.

As many of you know, the mission of Hope Community Church is to love people where they are and encourage them to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

How can you be a part of this mission?

1. Live what you learn.
2. Serve where your gifted.
3. Connect with others.
4. Give from your resources.
5. Share what Jesus has done for you.

It all starts with one church. And you. Thank you for helping to reach the Triangle and change the world.

This past weekend I traveled with Hope College Fellowship to Urban Hope Training Center in the W. Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. I witnessed and experienced amazing things and want to share a few of them with you over the next couple of days.

Leadership Development
I’ve been going to Urban Hope 2-3 times a year for the past eight years. Perhaps the most powerful thing that I’m seeing is the young people taking on leadership at the church and training center. This weekend, it was inspiring to see Hector and Luis stepping up and leading training sessions and providing spiritual guidance.

Read more of Local Hope Director Byron McMillan’s blog post: And the Young Shall Lead!

There is a buzz going around the office about a certain movie. This movie is apparently the most powerful thing that some of our staffers have ever seen. It has the potential to change lives and certainly aligns with our mission of reaching the Triangle to change the world.

Our Director of Local Hope, Byron McMillan, is one of the few that’s had the opportunity to prescreen Unconditional and he feels passionately about making sure the movie hits local theaters. Check out his blog for more on Unconditional and how you can help bring it to our area.

Watch the trailer below.

“Unconditional” Movie Teaser Trailer from Harbinger Media Partners on Vimeo.

Local Hope partners with the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), whose mission is to inspire, train, and connect Christians who seek to bear witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities. Last week, our Local Hope team (below) had the opportunity to travel to Indianapolis for the 2011 CCDA National Conference.

The Local Hope team (James Johnson, Byron McMillan and Ashley Lee) spends time with CCDA Founder Dr. Perkins.

Here’s an excerpt from Local Hope Director Byron McMillan’s blog details what he took away from the conference. As always, we encourage you to visit An Ordinary Radical to read the entire post.

… We are all to be engaged in this ministry of reconciliation, reconciling all things to God through Christ; all the broken things fixed, all the missing things in their place, all the hurting people healed. This is the mission of the Church, His Bride. We are to bring beauty from ashes, heaven to earth, we are to usher in the kingdom that is coming and is already here.

We are to do this in the ghettos of the inner city, where material resources are scarce and social systems and relationships are broken. We are also supposed to do this in the sprawling suburbs where there is an abundance of stuff and highly efficient social systems, but no shortage of strained and broken relationships. No matter where we find ourselves, we are surrounded by a broken and hurting humanity who need to know the love of Jesus.

I am thankful for CCDA calling us to innovation and discipleship especially in the context of the local church. At the end of the day, the local church is still, and will always be, the hope of the world. If we fail to understand this, we become irrelevant and miss out on what we are called to be. The Bride is beautiful, and everyone stands and looks in awe at her. Are we worth the gazes of the people? Are we, individually and collectively as a local congregation, the Bride or are we something else? … [read the rest of Byron's post here]