Hope Church Las Vegas: Three Congregations, One Mission Across the Valley

Hope Church has spent more than two decades building one of the largest and most multiplying ministries in southern Nevada. From its main campus at 850 East Cactus Avenue in Las Vegas, the church now gathers three congregations across the valley in Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City, and has helped plant nearly 80 churches in the western United States, with 22 of those new works rooted in Las Vegas itself. The church's simple refrain, It's All About Relationships, frames everything it does. Its mission, we exist to connect people to live the life of a Jesus follower, is pursued through three steady rhythms the church calls Abide, Connect, and Share.

Three Congregations, One Church in the Valley

Hope Church describes itself in unusually clear language: it is one church with multiple congregations. The three locations share the same name, mission, beliefs, and disciple-making approach. They share accounting, human resources, facility maintenance, and mobilization staff behind the scenes. Each congregation has its own pastor and contextual flavor, but the family is one.

• Hope Church Las Vegas gathers at 850 East Cactus Avenue, NV 89183, with three Sunday morning gatherings at 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., and 11:30 a.m., available both in person and online.
• Hope Church Henderson meets at 1305 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, NV 89012, with three in-person Sunday gatherings at 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., and 11:30 a.m.
• Hope Church Boulder City meets at 850 Avenue B, NV 89005, with two Sunday gatherings at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

About 90 percent of the time, all three congregations preach the same text or topic, planned and studied together by a teaching team. Senior Pastor Scott Worthington has the freedom to set the scheduled sermon aside and address the congregation when he senses the moment calls for it, and guest communicators rotate in from the wider teaching team. The arrangement, the church says, gives every congregation the same biblical foundation while still allowing room for local pastoral leadership to shepherd the people in front of them.

From a Woodstock Living Room to a Las Vegas Movement

Hope Church began as a church plant sent out by First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia. In 2000, Vance Pitman and Kristie Pitman, along with several other families, were commissioned to join in what God was doing in Las Vegas. On September 30, 2001, the church was officially born when eighteen adults started meeting in a living room and praying for the city.

The early years were marked by multiplication. In 2002, the first mission team went out from Hope to engage other nations. By 2004, the leadership clarified the mission around The Life of a Jesus Follower, a teaching framework the church still uses. In 2011, Hope Church exceeded its goal of planting ten churches in ten years by sending out its fourteenth church plant. In 2012, the church settled into a permanent gathering place that served as both a teaching home for kingdom life and a sending point for the gospel. By 2017, after two decades of ministry, the leadership sensed it was time to ask, What's next for Hope Church in reaching this generation and the generations to come?

The answer came in stages. In 2020, Hope moved into a new worship center on Cactus Avenue. In 2021, Founding Pastor Vance Pitman accepted a role as Senior Vice President of the North American Mission Board and President of Send Network, the largest church planting network in North America, and the church sent the Pitmans out with gratitude. In August 2022, Scott Worthington, who had been part of the teaching team, was installed as the new Senior Pastor. Hope Church has always been led by a plurality of pastors, and that leadership structure continued through the transition.

Sundays at Hope

Hope Church calls its weekend services Gather Times, and the name is intentional. The gatherings are meant to be a chance for the family to come together to worship, hear Scripture taught, and respond to what God is doing. Each gathering runs about 75 minutes and includes multicultural worship music, prayer, and a Bible-centered sermon.

Visitors are welcomed warmly. Dress is whatever a person would wear going out in Las Vegas: jeans and a t-shirt fit right in, as do slightly nicer outfits. The church describes its tone this way: You don't have to be someone you're not, but be prepared for God to move in your life.

Parking is straightforward. At the Las Vegas campus, visitors follow the Hope Church flags and parking team members to free reserved spaces. At Henderson, parking is available throughout the campus with ADA-accessible spaces on the north side of the Worship Center, and families with preschoolers find the east side easiest because of the children's check-in there. At Boulder City, forty parking spaces are available on site, including accessible spots near the front entrance and along the alleyway, with overflow parking across Avenue B near the park.

The church also provides a Connection Center where first-time guests can ask questions, get a campus map, and pick up a thank-you gift. A digital connection card makes it easy to share visit plans in advance.

Hope Kids: Preschool, Elementary, and a Year-Round Christian Preschool

Hope Church builds its children's ministry around the same mission as the rest of the church: connecting kids to live the life of a Jesus follower. The environments are intentionally age-appropriate and led by background-checked teams.

Hope Kids Preschool welcomes infants through Pre-K. Check-in opens fifteen minutes before the main service. Parents receive a matching registration sticker that is required for pickup; no exceptions are made for safety reasons. First-time guests are walked through the process and given a quick tour. The preschool uses the My Awesome God Bible Storybook curriculum from Discipleland and keeps families connected through memory verses, parent resources, and a regular Baby Dedication milestone celebration.

Hope Kids Elementary serves first through fifth graders with energetic worship, creative Bible teaching, lively games, and thirty minutes of intentional small group time. Every child is matched with a small group that prays together, discusses the Bible story, and processes the lesson with an activity. Each child goes home with a weekly God Time booklet of devotions to use with family during the week. The check-in system uses a three-digit code that is required for pickup.

Beyond the weekend, Hope Christian Preschool & Jr. Kindergarten is a full weekday program offered on the Las Vegas campus. It serves children in PreK-2, PreK-3, PreK-4, and Junior Kindergarten, with classes taught by a dedicated staff under the direction of Crystal McCormick, Hope Christian Prep Director. The preschool is also part of a broader Hope Christian Prep track that extends into the elementary years.

Hope Students: Middle and High School

Hope Students is the ministry for sixth through twelfth graders, and it carries the same Abide, Connect, Share framework as the rest of the church. The atmosphere is described as open: a place where students know they matter, can be honest, can ask hard questions, and can be equipped to live as a light for Christ.

At the Las Vegas and Henderson campuses, Hope Students gather at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings in the West building. At the Boulder City campus, middle and high school students meet on Sunday nights at 5:45 p.m. Each gathering includes live worship, teaching, and small groups. Student Ministry Director Kevin West oversees the ministry alongside associate leaders at each campus.

The ministry's stated goals are shaped around three phrases: students reaching students, students teaching students, and students influencing the world. Students are encouraged to extend the love of Christ to friends, grow in the character of Christ, and serve in the church, the community, and the world. A Hope Students app keeps students connected to weekly content, and student-led worship bands like Hope Eternal Music are part of the rotating worship culture.

Young Adults and the Deep Dive

The Young Adults ministry at Hope Church exists to connect young adults to live the life of a Jesus follower. Its weekly rhythm is built around Young Adults Night on Thursdays at 7 p.m., a worship gathering geared specifically for young adults that mixes worship, teaching, and intentional community.

Beyond Thursday nights, Young Adults are encouraged to join small groups that meet throughout the valley during the week. The ministry's signature interactive teaching environment, Deep Dive, meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 7 p.m. and walks through topics pertinent to the lives of young adults, from vocation and identity to relationships and calling. A Young Professionals Community also gathers for seasonal studies, like the recent five-week Wisdom study through Ecclesiastes.

Community Life: Groups Across the Valley

The heart of life at Hope Church happens in groups. The church organizes them into four streams so newcomers can match a group to their stage of life.

• Connection Groups are multi-week starter groups that meet on a campus. They are designed to help people who are new connect and to help existing groups identify people to add.
• Community Groups meet in homes, businesses, and coffee shops throughout the valley. There are groups for men, women, couples, singles, and young adults.
• Common Interest Groups gather around shared hobbies and activities, from basketball and golf to hiking, games, movies, and meals.
• Community Events are seasonal gatherings designed to grow faith and connect men, women, couples, and singles.

The teaching underneath all of these groups comes from The Connecting Life, a study that walks through the more than forty one another commands in the New Testament. The pastoral team reduced those to five defining marks: Because I belong, I am responsible to love, honor, disciple, serve, and reconcile. Group Leader Development 101 and 201 are offered periodically to equip those who lead groups.

Hope Care Ministry: Walking Through Tough Seasons

Hope Care Ministry is the church's front door for people navigating grief, illness, separation, marriage preparation, hospital stays, and bereavement. The Care team, led by Care Director Elia Curls and Pastor of Care Communities Chris Hannick, describes its calling this way: We walk with people through life's toughest seasons, offering spiritual, emotional, and relational support rooted in God's love.

Three streams make up the work.

• Care Events are welcoming, Christ-centered gatherings that combine teaching and discussion around real-life topics, such as the recent Holding on to Hope evening that equipped participants to recognize and care for those who may be struggling with suicidal thoughts.
• Care Groups are short-term, focused gatherings that meet weekly around a particular need. Long-running ministries include GriefShare, a thirteen-week supportive group for those grieving the loss of a loved one (offered in both a daytime and evening format), and DivorceCare, a thirteen-week Christ-centered program for individuals navigating separation or divorce. A Cancer Support group offers encouragement, prayer, and community for those walking through the disease personally or alongside a loved one.
• Care Support includes one-on-one and couple mentoring, premarital mentoring, hospital visits, funeral support, and wedding coordination.

Hope Care also runs ongoing classes and courses for those who want to grow in their walk with God: Experiencing God, a thirteen-week video-driven discipleship study; Financial Peace University, a nine-week Dave Ramsey course on stewardship; Alpha, a hospitality-oriented introduction to the Christian faith that includes a shared meal, short video teaching, and small group discussion; The Basics Course, a two-week experience designed for newer Jesus followers; and The Multipliers Course, a six-week introduction to making disciples who make disciples.

Share in the Mission: Las Vegas, the West, and the World

The third strand of Hope Church's mission is Share: joining in God's activity locally, regionally, and globally. The church organizes this work under three banners.

• Las Vegas: The Hub is the church's city engagement strategy. Its stated mission is to give everyone in Las Vegas access to a restored life. Racing with Hope, a ministry that mobilizes volunteers during major events like the NASCAR race at Las Vegas Speedway, is one of the ways the church serves and shares the gospel in public spaces.
• The West: Church Planting is the multiplication engine. Hope Church has been a part of planting almost 80 churches in the western United States, 22 of them in Las Vegas itself. The church partners with the North American Mission Board's Send Network and is part of a broader vision to see up to one million people reached with the gospel through 300 new multiplying churches in strategic cities across the region.
• The World: Cross-Cultural involves serving as a PRAYer, SENDer, or GOer on teams serving internationally and locally. Hope Church's Cross-Cultural Mobilization team helps people find a way to participate, from short-term trips to long-term missionary support. The church also walks alongside church planters and their families through Stephanie Martino's Church Planter Care ministry. Hope Church is also home to Iranian Hope Church, a Farsi-speaking congregation pastored by Martin Haghani.

Hope Church is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a recognition the church highlights as assurance of integrity in how dollars are stewarded.

What Hope Church Believes

Hope Church holds to a Baptist confession of faith. The Scriptures are described as the Word of God written by men divinely inspired, wholly without error, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. There is one living and true God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections, who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The doctrinal summary covers the person and work of Christ, including His incarnation as Jesus Christ, His atoning death on the cross, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of God, and His return in power and glory. It describes the Holy Spirit's work of inspiration, illumination, conviction, regeneration, and sanctification, and the Spirit's presence as the guarantee of final redemption.

Humanity is described as created in God's image, marred by sin, and in need of grace. Salvation is described as a gift received through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and is worked out through regeneration, sanctification, and final glorification. There will be a resurrection of all people, the just to everlasting life and the unjust to everlasting condemnation.

The church is described as an autonomous local body of baptized believers, observing baptism and the Lord's Supper, led by pastors and elders and served by deacons. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is a public testimony of faith and a prerequisite to church membership and the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience in which followers of Christ remember His death and anticipate His second coming.

Leadership and the Stewardship Team

Hope Church is led by a Lead Team of pastors who walk together in Christ-like submission. The team includes Senior Pastor Scott Worthington; Executive Pastor of Operations Morne Maritz; Lead Pastor of Mobilization Tom McCormick; Lead Pastor of Care and Community Patrick Detken; Lead Pastor of Next Gen Tony Caniglia; Congregation Pastor of Henderson Jeff Phillips; and Congregation Pastor of Boulder City Eric Shelner.

The Teaching Team includes Scott Worthington, Tom McCormick, Jordan Caro, Jeff Phillips, and Eric Shelner. They plan, study, and teach together weekly, sharing ownership of the preaching ministry across all three congregations.

A Stewardship Team of members serves a three-year rotation providing counsel, wisdom, and accountability to the Lead Pastors in the areas of finance, personnel, and development. Members currently serving include Ashley Hawks, Daniel Griffith, Dondra Pooler, Joe Stubitz, Joel Gregorio, Kody West, Matt Shelton, Mona Hebert, and Paul Lum.

Vance Pitman, the founding pastor, continues to be remembered as the church's pastor emeritus figure, honored at church annual celebrations and referenced throughout the church's story.

The App, Daily Devotionals, and Giving

Hope Church's mobile app, available through Pushpay, is a primary hub for staying connected. Through it, people can find event information, watch sermon videos, take message notes, request prayer, and give. A daily God Time devotional is posted to the app, and a study guide for the current teaching series is posted weekly along with previous weeks' guides. Right Now Media is offered free to the congregation as an additional Bible study and video library.

Giving can be done online through the app, in person at giving stations across each campus, or by mail to the Las Vegas address. Designated offerings like the Hope For The World campaign fund the church's outreach and multiplication work. Hope Church is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Following Jesus at Hope

For those exploring faith, Hope Church offers a number of on-ramps. The Discovering Hope class is designed to answer the questions a newcomer would ask before making a church home: What does the church believe? Where is it going? How will it get there? A Connect Class is offered periodically on campus and covers practical next steps for getting involved. Baptism classes are offered for those ready to take that step of obedience, with baptism celebrated as the immersion of a believer in water. For those ready to follow Jesus for the first time, a simple response form is available.

Hope Church's teaching team is convinced that following Jesus is not a religion but a relationship that results in radical life change. Their phrase for it is short: It's All About Relationships. The relationships the church cares about are three: an abiding relationship with Jesus, a connecting relationship with His family, and a sharing relationship with the people who do not yet know Him. Everything at Hope Church, from the Sunday Gather Time to the small group in a living room to the mission team overseas, is meant to help people live those relationships out.