OUR STORY
Our Timeline
The Beginnings
1908
Our story has been one of God's faithfulness and work through everyday people. Hope Community Church’s history under that name started in March 2016, but the foundation for it to exist was laid in October of 1908, when Second Baptist Church of Shelby, NC was formed.
Over time, Second Baptist continued to grow and moved into the current facility at 1114 South Lafayette Street on April 4th, 1976 - the site of our Shelby campus.
The Church Plant
2012
The other half of the history started in January of 2012, when Element Church of Forest City, NC, started a Shelby campus in the auditorium of Shelby Middle School.
Element Church- Shelby Campus met at the middle school until February 2015 when they moved to the Dover Foundation YMCA.
1976
Second Baptist Church moves into current Lafayette Street Facility.
The Merger
2016
In October 2015, the Lord began to move the two bodies of Second Baptist Church and Element Church- Shelby Campus together.
Through what started as a vision of what “could be” and “should be” for these two bodies of believers, a new community became a reality in March 2016 when Second Baptist Church of Shelby and Element Shelby came together to form Hope Community Church in an effort to help people far from God find hope in God.
2018
In early 2018, we started to feel God's call to reach more of Cleveland County and out of this began the vision for becoming one church in multiple locations. The Upper Cleveland (UC) campus was launched with the help of countless faithful volunteers on September 23rd, 2018.
Beyond
Since the merger, the Lord has been incredibly faithful in providing for this vision and helping it to grow. We have been blessed to see His faithfulness as we seek to follow Him in our mission: to help those far from God find hope in God.
God has been faithful to show tremendous growth not only in Cleveland County, but around the world as well. Tree of Life Ministries, our international missions partnership, launched in Senegal, Africa in 2015. Since it's beginning, we have seen over tens of thousands new believers in Africa as more and more national partners receive training and go into their own communities across 7 countries with the hope of the Gospel. It has been amazing to see the Lord work all across the world through our partners at HCC.
2015
Element's Shelby campus moves into the Dover Foundation YMCA
The Merger
2022
HCC, has long had a motto of “Launching Never Landing,” and with that, the drive to continue to expand the reach and influence that the Lord allows us to have is constantly pursued. The next step of launching that we want to be able to do, is to plant our first church. Not another campus, but planting a new body with the goal of complete autonomy. Pastor Kenny Hall and his wife have been long anticipating getting into the church planting world and in 2022 that dream has come to fruition in Hickory, NC.