The Vision Night Journey

In the fall of 2025, Hope Church came together as an entire body to participate in a series of Vision Nights together. The first focused on Our Present — an honest and encouraging look at where we are as a church. The second focused on Our Future, where we dreamed together about what God might have ahead for us.

After those nights, our elders and staff gathered all of your feedback, shared their own hearts, prayed together for unity and direction, and worked through our first-ever strategic planning process. Vision Night 3 was the culmination of that journey — the night we brought the plan back to you.


What We Heard From You

The most important takeaway from the first two Vision Nights: Hope Church is healthy in the ways that matter most — theologically, missionally, and relationally. These are hard things to build and even harder to repair when they’re broken. We are grateful.


What’s Working

  • Spirit-led Worship and Teaching

    • Consistent appreciation for authentic, Scripture-based teaching and Spirit-filled worship

  • Strong Community Bonds

    • Community groups, family Sundays, and shared meals foster deep belonging and care

  • Humble and Accessible Leadership

    • Leadership marked by vulnerability, humility, and openness to feedback

  • Missional Engagement

    • Outreach efforts and partnerships reflect a genuine heart for service and restoration


The feedback we heard wasn’t primarily a desire for something new — it was a desire to go deeper. More community. More formation. More serving. Oh, and more organization and communication, too. The plan you’ll read below reflects exactly that. This is not a shift from what we’ve been doing but rather a more full embrace of what the Lord is already doing here at Hope. 

Our 10-Year Vision (2035)

Hope Church Vision 2035

Ten years from now, Hope Church will be a thriving community marked by humility, authenticity, spirit-filled worship, and the ancient rhythms of the Christian faith. We will apprentice Jesus through intentional spiritual formation and service for the glory of God and the sake of others, and we will develop leaders who serve as creative cultivators of God’s Kingdom within the church and in the community.As an interdenominational church, the congregation will be an authentic expression of the local community that brings hope to hurting, marginalized people outside the church and invites them in to experience God’s love with us. The result will be lives restored, families strengthened, and our city awakened to the presence of God.Our church will remain relationally close and missionally expansive — growing only to a healthy size so that we can plant new churches and extend the work of renewal beyond our walls. Financially healthy and missionally generous, we will measure success not by size or status but by transformed lives and a Nashville that looks more like Heaven.

We want to stress: this vision is not a shift in direction — it’s an articulation of who God has made us to be and a commitment to keep becoming that, together. As churches grow, drift is a real risk. This vision keeps us anchored.

Our Mission & Core Values

Mission

Hope Church exists to bring hope to our community by practicing the way of Jesus until it is in Nashville as it is in Heaven.


Core Values — We live like…

  • The Bible Is True — Scripture defines our reality and centers our faith on timeless truth and wisdom.

  • The Gospel Changes Us — True personal transformation is the result of faith in Jesus and apprenticeship to Him.

  • Community Is Essential — Truly knowing and being known by others is essential to a flourishing life.

  • Culture Matters — Our church culture should compel those around us to want to know Jesus.

  • The World Needs Hope — As apprentices of Jesus, we share the good news of the Kingdom with the world.


Three-Year Strategic Priorities

These five priorities will guide our next three years as we grow in faithfulness, depth, and mission. They exist to help us become a clearer, healthier, and increasingly outward-focused church.

1) Level Up Communications & Organization

Provide clarity so everyone can participate with confidence

2) Strengthen Spiritual Formation

Form people deeply in the way of Jesus

3) Build & Deepen Church Community

Love one another and invite others into that love

4) Reach & Serve the City

Turn faith outward with tangible, kingdom love

5) Plan for Growth & Church Planting

Stay relational and prepare for healthy multiplication


Year 1 Plans for Each Priority

The three-year priorities are the big vision. Here’s what we’re actually doing this first year.

1) Level Up Communications & Organization

We will level up communications and organization to provide clarity and empower people to participate in making Nashville more like Heaven. This will help the congregation engage with spiritual formation, community, and serving, and create a sense of ownership and expectation.

Year 1 Focus: Clarity & Foundation

1.1 Establish and organize Google Workspace for internal communications and administration

  • Backend software will be cleaned up, integrated, and used consistently across the team

1.2 Create internal planning processes, timelines, and standard operating procedures

  • Internal planning becomes rhythmic, reliable, and repeatable

1.3 Re-imagine external communications channels and rhythms

  • New email rhythms, improved website clarity, and more ways to stay informed

Your Role

Interested in joining the communications task force? Sign up to share your experience and help shape how we communicate as a church. 


2) Strengthen Spiritual Formation

We will strengthen spiritual formation so that we can all seek to be apprentices who truly embody the way of Jesus at a heart level. By doing so, we will equip the saints for the work of ministry and encourage them toward spiritual maturity. This creates a community capable of sustaining spiritual renewal.

Year 1 Focus: Foundational Formation

2.1 Develop and articulate a model for apprenticeship

  • People will be able to say clearly what spiritual formation means at Hope

2.2 Lead the congregation to engage in personal discipleship/apprenticeship

  • More people personally engaged in formation practices outside of Sundays

2.3 Re-establish Teaching Team Approach

  • The teaching team establishes a new collaborative rhythm, led by the lead pastor

Your Role

Sign up to go deeper in spiritual formation and/or If you have spiritual formation leadership experience, we’d love to hear from you


3) Build & Deepen Church Community

We love because Christ loved us. We are committed to a continued culture of knowing and loving one another and inviting others to join us in His love. It is through these real relationships that we live out the love of Christ, engage in spiritual formation, and serve in the city.

Year 1 Focus: Community Groups

3.1 Add more community groups

  • New groups in more locations to accommodate more people across the city

3.2 Strengthen community groups

  • Clearer leader expectations, better discussion guides, bi-monthly leader gatherings

3.3 Encourage congregation-led connection

  • Community is owned by the people, not just programmed by staff — think old-school bulletin board

Your Role

Interested in joining a community group?

Interested in leading a community group?

Interested in serving at church?

Sign up!


4) Reach & Serve the City

Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom and reach those on the margins, so we do too. This turns faith outward toward tangible love and reveals God’s Kingdom in everyday places. This is a central part of how we make Nashville more like Heaven.

Year 1 Focus: Deepening Involvement

4.1 Increase the number of people serving with ministry partners

  • Regular on-ramps for every partner, quarterly partner lunches, partner stories during worship

4.2 Put on a recovery conference — November 4–6

  • Education, training and connection for people in recovery, their loved ones and ministry leaders

Your Role

Sign up to learn about serving with one of our ministry partners

Interested in helping plan the conference?

Interested in serving on the ground at the conference?

5) Plan for Growth & Church Planting

Because community is essential and the world needs hope, our church will remain relationally close and missionally expansive — growing only to a healthy size so that we can plant new churches and extend the work of spiritual renewal beyond our walls.

Year 1 Focus: Building Capacity

5.1 Complete and open the balcony

  • We want our systems ready before growth demands them — balcony Phase 1 opens on Easter

5.2 Develop more leaders

  • Identify emerging leaders and create clear pathways for growth (Community Group → Deacon → Elder)

Your Role

  • Interested in joining the balcony renewal team?


A Word About Growth

Growth is not our goal — faithfulness is. But we want to be ready when God brings it. Here’s our thinking:

  • Our realistic maximum capacity is around 400 people.

  • We’ll open the balcony when average Sunday attendance reaches 200.

  • We’ll begin exploring church planting when average Sunday attendance reaches 250.

  • Church plants would be autonomous, with seed funding and a missional network connection.

  • We’d love to eventually plant in the four corners of Nashville — north, south, east, and west.

Staying relational as we grow is non-negotiable. We will not grow beyond a size where we can all gather in the sanctuary together. When we reach that ceiling, it’s time to multiply — not just expand.


What’s Next for You?

Everyone has a role to play. As a priesthood of believers, none of us are bystanders in the Kingdom of God. If you’d like to get involved in any of the priorities above, reach out to a staff member or elder — we’d love to connect you.

We’d love to hear from you.

If you have questions about Vision Night 3, the strategic plan, or how to get involved, please reach out to any of the elders or staff. This plan belongs to all of us.