Focus
The focus of Hope’s Mercy Ministry is to bring glory to God by non-verbally proclaiming the heart of God by becoming a community of people characterized by selfless service and bold engagement. Our desire is to eradicate poverty and injustice within our church and alleviate poverty and injustice in the city of Charlotte and around the globe. To that end, we direct 7% of our weekly giving to mercy needs both within and without the church. Our Mercy Team is led by our Deacons. This team is charged with discerning the needs of our neighbors, equipping the congregation to meet those needs, and mobilizing us to do so. We also partner with other organizations within the city as we seek to address the needs of our city.
Our Philosophy
Foster a culture at Hope that proclaims the heart of God in acts of selfless service.
God’s heart is passionate about both mercy and justice for those oppressed by sin and its consequences. When rightly understood the Gospel naturally produces a desire to show to others the same mercy and deliverance that you have received from God in Christ Jesus (Galatians 2:10). The first job of the Mercy ministry of the church is to facilitate and develop this desire in the congregation of Hope Community Church.
We want people to feel God’s grace when they ask us for mercy. So no matter how much they’ve screwed up we want their first encounter with us to be a mixture of truth and grace. We’ll try to address how they got into their current situation but then we will give them more than they deserve.
God’s grace transforms those it touches. In expressing this grace we’re going to focus more on long-term solutions than we are on short-term fixes. We’re going to want to facilitate life changes in the persons we’re ministering to.
Foster a culture at Hope that proclaims the heart of God in acts of bold engagement.
God is clearly passionate about justice for the oppressed. He is not only opposed to individual sin and its consequences. He is also deeply concerned about corporate sin and its consequences. In the book of James God makes it clear that a true understanding of the Gospel always results in a compassionate defense of victims of injustice (James 1:27).
On an individual level we want to care for and restore to wholeness victims of injustice. On a corporate level we want to function as salt and light in the city by actively opposing corporate systems of injustice and defending the least of these in the city of Charlotte (Matthew 25:40).
Our Goals
The eradication of poverty and injustice within Hope Community Church.
Acts 4:32-35 teaches that the normal response of Christian community to the Gospel is the eradication of poverty in each particular congregation through the sharing of property and distribution of wealth within the body of Christ.
The alleviation of poverty and injustice within the extended family of faith.
Galatians 6:10 teaches that the needs of believer take priority over the needs of non-believers. So whenever there is a financial need within our community of churches it will take priority over an external mercy opportunity.
The alleviation of poverty and injustice amongst our Charlotte neighbors.
The great commandment calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Christ taught that the question who is my neighbor is actually missing the point. Jesus modeled being a neighbor for us by leaving heaven and entering our misery to rescue us. We are to non-verbally proclaim this in our city by meeting our neighbor’s needs in a self-sacrificial fashion.
Galatians 2:10 teaches that God doesn’t just want us to take care of our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also wants us to take care of the poor in general. We are called to love our neighbors with both word and deed ministry. The Mercy Ministry of Hope will seek to provide the members of Hope with opportunities to build relationship with their neighbors in Charlotte and around the globe who struggle financially. Corporately we will participate financially and as volunteers with organizations that take up the cause of the poor in Charlotte and around the world.