Stories & Series

 

Check out these Stories featuring Church of Hope

Always Reforming means always deconstructing. The Church is called to be constantly reforming, and the first step of re-forming is un-forming, breaking down what has been before trying new ways of putting it all back together. It is what Richard Rohr calls the universal pattern—the order, disorder, and reorder that we see in the changing of the seasons, the life and crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and in the literal and metaphorical experiences all around us of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Pastor Darla reflects on Church of Hope’s experience of deconstruction and renewal in this piece from August 2023.

Living Lutheran Magazine featured Church of Hope’s partnership with El Centro de la Raza and Northwest Washington Synod to build affordable housing HERE.

Manifest Destiny Jesus is a documentary with a twist. What starts as a story of Seattle gentrification quickly evolves into a humanistic exploration of the connections between narratives of American “discovery” and conquest, structural racism, modern inequality, and yes, Jesus Christ. Shot exclusively in Seattle in 2018, this is the documentary film debut of Josh Aaseng, Daemond Arrindell, and T. Geronimo Johnson. The film had its premiere at the DC Black Film Festival in August 2021 and West Coast premiere at Northwest Film Forum's Local Sightings Film Festival in September 2021. For more info including how to schedule a screening, visit manifestdestinyjesus.com.

What to do about the White Jesus stained glass window? Changing a window isn’t a solution to the problem of systemic racism in the church and beyond. But iconography is a start. Click here to read the story of how and why we changed our stained glass window of White Jesus. Big thank yous to Sam Luikens, Naomi Cooper, Chasity Jones, Darla DeFrance, Fourth Wave Revolution, and the Christian Century magazine for sharing this story!

 

Series

We often frame our liturgies around themes and organize them into different series. Here are some we’ve presented in the past:

spring Cleaning of the Soul - Lent 2023

An open and honest exploration of the changing landscapes of our own faith: hard questions, most embarrassing beliefs, holding contradictions, and living with uncertainty. In this series we re-examine some of the beliefs we've inherited and strive to make peace with our younger selves. If you've struggled to reconcile the various things you've been taught about God, join us for the open and honest exploration of the changing landscapes of our own faith.

Hard Questions About Money - February 2022

How do we talk about money in church? How do we talk about money in general? Not just about why/how/when to give to the church, but all the ways money shapes us, torments us, frees us, eludes us, confounds us, etc. Money has so much power in the world, yet it’s often the last thing we talk about openly and explicitly, even with people we trust. In this series, we step back to reflect on bigger questions about money. You can find recordings from this series on our Sermon Archive.

Revolutionary Church Series - Spring 2021

The Church of Hope Racial Justice Team, in partnership with Fourth Wave Revolution, presented a Revolutionary Church series, starting on the April 11th 2021. We spent the six Sundays after Easter exploring ways and what it means to BE a revolutionary Church. The team was guided in this series by ELCA Pastor Lenny Duncan’s book Dear Church and by the founder of Fourth Wave Revolution, Chasity Jones Selenga (who gave a brilliant sermon at COH in early March -- check out our Sermon Recordings to listen to that!), and we are forever grateful for her voice and expertise through this process.

(Learn more about the work of Fourth Wave Revolution on their Patreon.) 


Our reflections used a text from the Book of Acts as a jumping off point to explore revolutionary ways to be church. Some of those ways look like:

  • Sunday 4/11: The Crucified Peoples of History
    Reflection by Chasity Jones Selenga
    Re-watch this reflection: Crucified Peoples of History
    Uplifting the testimony of a formerly incarcerated Black pastor, his calls for justice, and their connection to Black Liberation Theology

  • Sunday 4/18: Repentance, Reconciliation and Reparations
    Reflection by Rev. Darla DeFrance
    Rewatch this reflection:     Repentance, Reconciliation, and Reparations
    Digging into the biblical themes of repentance, reconciliation, and reparations. While people in dominant culture often want to race to reconciliation, the work of repentance comes first: turning around and going a new direction. Liberation theologies point us towards where we need to go once we turn around.

  • Sunday 4/25: Healing with Disability Liberation Theology
    Reflection by Alex Harding
    Re-watch this reflection: Healing Narratives with Disability Liberation Theology
    Exploring new ways to look at and problematize healing narratives, using the lens of disability liberation theology. We’ll dig into the ways we carry ableism with us to the Biblical stories we read and we’ll explore new ways to frame the texts with the help of the work of disability liberation theology scholar Sharon Betcher, as well as the words of disabled pastors and religious leaders.

  • Sunday 5/2: Resisting Nationalism and Xenophobia
    Reflection by Kasey Shultz
    Re-watch this reflection: Resisting Nationalism and Xenophobia
    Unpacking the intersections and collusions between white christianity, nationalism, and xenophobia in the U.S. How do damaging narratives around who belongs and who has power impact how we view scripture? How do we disrupt those narratives and instead live into an expansive vision of God’s kin-dom?

  • Sunday 5/9: The Witness of Black Lutheran Churches
    Reflection by Rev. Darla DeFrance
    Re-watch this reflection: The Witness of Black Lutheran Churches
    Learning from the history and contemporary ministries in communities of color. How does the Lutheran church repent and repair the harm done to Rev. Jehu Jones -- one of the first Black Lutheran pastors -- whose wages, labor, and land were stolen or never recognized by the local Lutheran synod in his day? How can we learn from, partner with, and support the ministry of Black churches and new mission starts in communities of color in our neighborhoods and our denomination today?

  • Sunday 5/16: Actualizing a Revolutionary Church
    Reflection by Chasity Jones Selenga
    Re-watch this reflection:     Actualizing a Revolutionary Church
    Moving forward: Where and how are we, as Church of Hope, called to be revolutionary church as we work for justice? How will we show up in revolutionary ways?