About | Hope Church

We love Jesus, He is the best thing to ever happen to this planet and we want you to love Him more too. In fact we want everyone to know Him because He is that good. That is why we have a simple mission, to make disciples who make disciples of Jesus.

When people follow Jesus as His disciples they are able to do and be amazing people to this planet and show them how good He really is.

Mission

We are disciples who make disciples

Vision

When we asked God what this looks like for Hope Church, He told us to focus on three key areas:

Be a hub of impartation of all that God has given us
Focus on Families with Children
Do this in multiple locations

These three aspects help us to focus on what we do, which you can read about here.

Values

Alongside this mission and vision, we also have core values which affect what our church looks like and how we do things.

The Cross Has Paid It all

Sin and death were conquered so that I can live forgiven, cleaned, righteous and free.

The Bible is the Final Authority

Therefore, we make Bible based decisions revealed to use through the Holy Spirit and the person of Jesus.

Part of a Family

So we pursue loving relationships to bless one another even if that comes at cost to ourselves.

Royal Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly King

Therefore, we live as people of eternal inheritance with access to the Father and His resources, recognising this in ourselves and in each other.

Always Advancing the Kingdom

Our lives are committed to seeing the Kingdom of God advance through salvation, influence/transformation and sanctification.

People of the Presence of God

We are devoted to intimacy with the Father and pursuing and experiencing His presence.

Supernatural is Our Natural

Nothing was impossible for Jesus; therefore nothing is impossible for us.

Statement of Faith

We believe in:

The one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers—given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit’s gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.

Our Team

At Hope Church, we aim to build church the way they did in the Bible.

There were ‘Elders’ (also called ‘overseers’ or ‘pastors’), men who took the ultimate responsibility for leading, teaching, caring for and protecting the church.

Mark Bullen

Lead Elder

Mark moved to Wymondham in 2009 and was made an Elder in 2013, joining the staff on a four day a week basis in 2016. Mark is married to Charis and they have three wonderful children.

In his other day a week, Mark works as a engineering and management consultant. Mark is responsible for Life Groups and preaching at Hope and loves to see people grow in their relationship with Jesus.

Grantley Watkins

Grantley and Floss met as UEA students and when married they received a calling to expand Gods Kingdom in Norfolk. They were privileged to be part of a team that started Norwich Youth for Christ.

For the last 27 years they have been planting churches throughout Norfolk and beyond. Grantley and Floss have 3 grown up children and 6 grandchildren.

Chris Stevenson

Chris has lived in Norfolk all his life. When he finished school Chris worked in the family haulage company. The business has changed shape over the years but it is still his place of work. Chris married his lovely wife Emma in 1991. They have three great children, Luke born in 1993, Thomas in 1994 and Rachel in 2007.

Chris sees his role to help discern God’s path for Hope Church and facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit as part of the team at Hope for His glory through the Church family.

Kevin Smith

Kevin was brought up in a Christian family but made a personal commitment to the Lord when he was nine years old. Since then Kevin has come to know more and more that through life’s ups and downs there is one thing that remains constant, and that is the goodness, love and faithfulness of Christ Jesus.

Kevin, having lived in Norwich whilst at University, moved back to Norfolk in 2011 with his wife Sarah and two amazing daughters. As a graphic designer, Kevin’s main roles at Hope are to oversee and work closely with the pastoral team, life groups and church publicity.

Ben Watkins

Ben is married to Amy and has three children. He loves good films (especially Star Wars), good books, photography, real Ale, quality crisps, and walking in the woods. He gave his life to Jesus aged 15 during a youth event and he’s been involved in youth work for nearly 18 years. He’s served a number of churches across Norfolk and joined Hope in 2019. Ben’s passion is to see people encountering God, hearing his voice and enabling them to live their lives to advance His kingdom.

To contact Ben, please email him on ben@hopecommunitychurch.co.uk

Deacons were men and women who worked alongside the elders to help them, by running and co-ordinating various aspects of church life. Together, these two groups form our leadership team.

Debbie Rose

Finance & Food Store

Elisabeth Louis

Children & Schools Worker

Fliss Jones

Worship Team Leader

Alice Lynch

Chair of Trustees & Deacon

Matt Heard

Outreach Team Leader

Tim Mellows

Carol Mellows

The Senior Leadership Team is made up of Elders, Deacons and other members of staff.