Life with Jesus on Bickford Avenue
Hope Church meets at 5002 Bickford Avenue in Snohomish, Washington, where a simple promise has shaped everything since 1985: "Life with Jesus." That phrase, painted on the welcome banner and repeated in sermons and small groups, is the church's mission statement and the thread that ties its four decades of ministry together. The Foursquare congregation has grown from a small gathering sent out of New Life Foursquare in Everett into one of the longer-running church homes in the county, with weekend worship, kids and youth programming, weekly food distribution, life groups for men and women, and a deep partnership with a Norwegian aid organization working in Ukraine.
What Sundays Look Like
Hope Church keeps its Sunday morning rhythm uncomplicated. Doors open for a single worship service at 10:00 a.m., and the gathering runs just over an hour. Guests are invited to "come as you are." Jeans and t-shirts are welcome, and parking is plentiful, with guest spaces reserved up close to the entrance. Volunteers wearing "Can I Help You?" badges are stationed around the lobby to guide first-time families toward the children's check-in.
The service itself follows a familiar shape. Three or four musical songs open the time, leading into a giving moment and closing with a roughly thirty-minute message from Scripture. Teaching pastors Andy and Shannon rotate the pulpit, often working through extended series. Recent months have walked through the Sermon on the Mount, the covenants of Scripture, and a verse-by-verse survey of Deuteronomy. The pastors describe their goal plainly as filling the room with the presence of God and letting the Word do its work.
Services are also livestreamed on the church's YouTube page, and an audio archive goes back to 2020 through a podcast feed. Earlier messages live on a Vimeo archive that reaches back into 2018.
Hope Kids and Family Ministry
Children have a dedicated space during every service. Hope Kids serves birth through fifth grade with age-appropriate classrooms, check-in safety procedures, and a teaching style that uses media, storytelling, art, music, crafts, and movement to help children connect with Jesus. Each week parents leave with take-home material designed to reinforce the lesson during the week.
Children's ministry sits within a broader "Family Ministry" umbrella that intentionally brings children, youth, and parents together. The church teaches that spiritually everyone is a mother, father, sister, or brother, and that families grow best when generations serve and disciple one another. Family ministry is shaped around the conviction that healthy family units are the strongest counter to cultural pressures on marriage and children.
Hope Junior High and Young Adults
Middle and high school students gather on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. for Oasis Youth, a place to make friends, do fun things, and dig into following Jesus. The youth ministry is led by Youth Pastors Shannon Stauffer and Markus Johnson.
Young adults, roughly college age and beyond, meet on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. for a relaunching season focused on growing in relationship and diving into the Word. The gatherings are built around learning how to navigate Scripture and knowing Jesus better, while connecting with others along the way.
Hope Harvest Food Pantry
On Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m., the church opens its doors for Hope Harvest, a food pantry that has grown over fifteen-plus years from a small gesture of generosity into a significant ministry. The pantry is now a subsidiary of Salt of the Earth, an organization feeding people across Snohomish County. The pantry runs with dozens of volunteers, and many of the recipients themselves eventually serve. Anyone who could use a little help during a difficult season is invited to come take what they need at no cost.
Men's and Women's Groups
Hope Church builds weekly rhythms around men's and women's ministry. Men meet on Wednesday evenings at 5:30 p.m. for a men's group that runs alongside the women's group, and they gather again on Thursdays at 6:00 a.m. for men's prayer. The women's ministry centers on small groups walking through books of the Bible; a current group is studying the Book of James together.
Both men's and women's life groups are described as always open, meaning newcomers can plug in without waiting for a new quarter to start.
Life Groups Around Snohomish County
Life Groups are the church's small-group engine, designed to help people connect, grow, and contribute. Groups are intentionally kept to ten people or fewer and run on a quarterly schedule, with new groups launching as leaders are trained. The expectation is simple. Attend your group regularly, make new friends, and let personal growth spill over into your home, neighborhood, school, and workplace. Life Groups also serve as one of the main on-ramps into the wider church family, often leading to membership and serving on ministry teams.
What Hope Church Believes
Hope Church is part of the Foursquare family of churches founded by Aimee Semple McPherson, and the congregation embraces the Foursquare Declaration of Faith in full. The church teaches that Jesus Christ is everyone's Savior, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, Healer, and Soon-Coming King, and stands on Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ - the same yesterday, today and forever."
The church is openly charismatic and depends on the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit in everyday life. Sound biblical doctrine, governed and confirmed by the Holy Spirit, is the foundation of teaching. Prayer is treated as the primary means of relationship with Jesus, and worship is understood as a way of life - lived out in song, financial giving, personal devotion, serving the body, obedience, and daily acts of love.
Four values shape the culture. God's presence comes before everything else. Belonging is built through pathways that help people feel connected and purposeful. Being Real creates a safe atmosphere for honesty and truth. Personal Growth expects transformed lives that actively invite others to Jesus.
The mission of the church is summarized in two words: Life with Jesus. Helping people grow in Jesus and become effective in their faith in Him is the work that every ministry points toward.
Worship and Tech Teams
The worship and music team, led by Worship Director Joktan Stone, rehearses weekly and serves in the Sunday gathering. Skilled instrumentalists and vocalists go through an audition process, arrive prepared, and are held to a high level of excellence. The tech and production team runs lights, audio, video, photography, graphics, and social media, with the goal of creating an environment where no technical element distracts from the message. Both teams rehearse together every week and describe themselves as one team united in helping people encounter the presence of God.
Missions: Local, Foreign, and Team GO
Missions at Hope Church are organized into two streams, local and foreign, with simple sign-up pathways for anyone who wants to engage. Local outreach ties closely to Hope Harvest and the surrounding Snohomish County community.
The foreign missions partnership the church is best known for is with John Henry and Lizbeth Nøsen, Norwegian missionaries supported through a dedicated "JH Ukraine" giving fund. The Nøsens have been involved with Youth With A Mission since 1998. After founding home churches in Norway, they shifted their focus when the war in Ukraine began, gathering supplies, recruiting volunteers, and driving a rented bus into the country to deliver aid and bring refugees out.
Their small nonprofit organization, Team GO, has now completed dozens of aid runs into Ukraine, delivering warm winter clothing, food, medical equipment, sleeping bags, blankets, and shoes. They have also worked to relocate refugees into stable housing in Norway, helping them with jobs, medical care, and schooling for their children. Hope Church channels U.S. donations to the Nøsens through its giving platform, which makes the gifts tax-deductible for American givers. The church also maintains a close relationship with the couple and posts regular updates from their work.
Becoming a Member
Membership at Hope Church is framed as biblical obligation to one another rather than a lifelong contract. Members commit to personal growth, unity in the body, participation in the life of the church through serving, and consistent financial giving as they are able. In exchange, members can expect sound doctrine, respectful communication, relational pursuit, and pastoral care for their family as needs arise. A membership class is offered for anyone ready to make that step, and the church invites anyone whose information has changed to keep their record up to date.
Giving and the Building
The current building on Bickford Avenue was finished in 1995 after the congregation purchased the land and constructed the facility over several years. Tithes and offerings cover the church's operating expenses, fund local and foreign missions, support Hope Harvest's food distribution, underwrite community events like Trunk or Treat, and flow back to the Foursquare denomination for its worldwide work.
Giving is available online through the church's giving platform, with ACH bank-to-bank transfers recommended for the lowest fees. Text giving is also available by texting the word "GIVE" to a short number, and recurring gifts can be scheduled weekly, twice per month, or monthly. In-person giving uses envelopes in the chair backs and a secure lockbox behind the sound booth. Checks can be made payable to Hope Church and mailed to P.O. Box 448, Snohomish, WA 98291. Contribution statements are mailed annually, and the church is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Getting Connected
For visitors, the church office is the front door. Phone lines are open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and messages can also be sent through the front desk email. Anyone who has just said yes to Jesus, or who has a testimony to share, is invited to fill out a simple form so a pastor can follow up. Life Groups, family ministry teams, the worship and tech teams, and the food pantry all offer ongoing ways to get involved, whether someone is looking for community, a place to serve, or a doorway into deeper Bible teaching.