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Hope Church

Link: https://prodesigner21.wixsite.com/hopechurch

Introduction

Welcome to Hope Community Church website. We have developed wonderful programs tailored towards the needs of the community. Having spent over 20 years in this neighborhood, Hope Church fully understands and appreciates the unique challenges and needs of its congregants, as well as target candidates. We have a laid out a robust plan to reach out to all people in the community, by feeding them the divine word of God, as well as attending to their other non-spiritual needs such as economic empowerment, providing a safe and secure space, and creating meaningful relationships among themselves.

The church has a few income generating activities, such as a café and a small poultry farm. However, a conflict usually arises on whether to fully capitalize on these two entities, or use them to feed hungry members of the community, and the latter always wins, as the number of goal of any caring religious entity is to ensure that its members are fed both physically and spiritually (Schwan, 2016). As a result, almost 100% of the church activities are financed by the proceeds from regular offerings from the members.

Owing to the needs of the community, this website has been designed to address them in an efficient way. The most overarching need is economic empowerment, which the website has extensively addressed through provision of a donations page as well as billable programs. The proceeds gained from these avenues shall go a long way in funding poverty alleviation projects undertaken by the church. Besides, the website has integrated various programs such as community outreach, counselling sessions, drug addiction focused-group discussions that shall be useful in addressing issues of insecurity, lack of sense of belonging, and moral decadence. The church also hopes to maximize its main purpose of evangelism through these ventures, as one of the leaders correctly quotes: “The delicate balance between economics and prayer is what has kept the gates of Hope Church open.”

Mission:

To synergistically use evangelism and economic empowerment to positively transform every aspect of livelihood in our community.

Vision:

The church hopes to provide a meaningful platform for the transformation of Hope congregants, with special focus on the youths. To achieve this, attention is given to economic status of the target audience, their spirituality, morality, and security. The church’s goal is to become a safe haven for all members where they can feel loved, cared for, and find constructive counsel in order to better their lives.

About Us

Hope Church is a Christian organization in Western Sydney. The church is a community-based organization (CBO) that brings together members drawn mostly from a low-income community around Sydney. Being a CBO means that the church has to find a balance between religious issues and other aspects of life of its members and the community at large. Some of the extra services or programs the church is engaged in include:

• Uplifting the spiritual well-being of the community members
• Economic empowerment
• Combating drug abuse and addictions
• Creating a sense of belonging and connectedness among community members
• Offering counselling sessions to couples, youths, and even leaders in various capacities

The church depends on offerings and donations from its members to finance various endeavours in which it is involved. This has become a challenge for us since the community is mostly poor, with over 70% of our members needing help.

This website was designed to address various challenges the church faces in executing its mandate, such as:

1. Poverty – the church has designed programs that can be subscribed to by paying members, such as private prayer sessions, counselling, among others. Additionally, a “Support Us” page has been included, which contains various donations packages for philanthropic members to extend their generosity towards. Magezi (2017), in his study titled “Making community development at grassroots reality: Church-driven development approach in Zimbabwe’s context of severe poverty” opined that the church has an overarching role in uplifting the livelihood of her members, just as the Catholic church has continually done. This is workable by grouping people, and supporting their economic project through a grant. This, coupled with sound financial advice, assures the success of such noble ventures.
2. Security threats – Normally, the church has had a security challenge while executing its community activities,  due to the hostile and poor nature of the surrounding society. As  Pegram, Brunson, and Braga (2016) discourse, the modern church has become a universal place where people from all walks of life meet, and this means untamed behaviors are also welcome.  The website has integrated social media platforms, as well as focussed-group discussions to help combat the insecurity threat robustly. Through social media channels, the community will not only stay connected, but also constantly update security threats around the community to ensure that people are always alert and informed (Squires, 2017).
3. Lack of sense of belonging and poor social life –  this is one of the most worrying challenges the community faces, which is the driving force of most of the criminal activities among the youth, as well as insecurity (Agi & Chinyeaka 2018). The youth, without proper guidance and mentorship as well as solid family structures, are vulnerable to the allures of crime and drug use, due to lack of a sense of belonging. By running tailor-made counselling programs, the church is able to avert this disaster, and      instead, produce fine men and women, for the service of God and the community (Pala’amo, 2019). This site has integrated counselling sessions as well as community outreach programs that shall go a long way in creating a sense of belonging among the community members, training them on financial management, as well as other aspects of social life such as drug abuse, immorality, and crime.

It is important to remember that “The delicate balance between economics and prayer is what has kept the gates of Hope church open.”