Tucked into the neighborhoods east of I-225 in North Aurora, Living Hope Community Church and its Spanish-language sister congregation, Iglesia Esperanza Viviente, share a single Sunday morning worship service at 10:30 AM. The two congregations have grown up together, founded in 1996 by a small group of believers who wanted to serve Jesus Christ in this corner of the city, and united in 2003 when the Spanish-speaking fellowship was added. Together they form one church, worshiping side by side in English and Spanish, sharing one pastor, one set of leaders, and a single story of how God provided five acres of farmland for the future of the work.
Two Congregations, One Sunday Morning
Living Hope Community Church was born in 1996 when a group of believers came together with a shared desire to serve Jesus Christ in North Aurora. Seven years after the English-speaking church began, Iglesia Esperanza Viviente was launched to serve the Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters in the community. The two congregations are incorporated together as one church.
On most Sundays the two congregations worship in the same building but in separate rooms. The English service meets in the North Middle School cafeteria, and the Spanish service meets in the North Middle School auditorium, both at 10:30 AM. The English and Spanish congregations worship together each week with simultaneous interpretation, so anyone is welcome to follow along in either language. On the first Sunday of each month, the two congregations combine for a single bilingual service.
The people who make up the church come from a broad spectrum of social, racial, economic and educational backgrounds. On the surface they may not appear to have much in common. What they share is that they have been forgiven and set free from sin through the love of Jesus Christ. The church often points to Revelation 13, where John describes heaven as a gathering of people from every tribe, nation, people and language, and considers what happens on Sundays in Aurora to be a small taste of that.
What to Expect on Sunday Morning
Visitors can expect a warm and friendly atmosphere conducive to meeting with God both corporately and individually. The greatest desire of the leaders is that those who attend might connect with and respond to God's truth and His touch during the service.
A typical Sunday morning at the church includes four pieces in roughly that order:
- Singing. Music is one of the ways the church expresses love and commitment to God. The musical style ranges from gospel to hymns to worship choruses to other styles, reflecting the diversity of the people. Visitors are welcome to sing along.
- Preaching. All preaching and teaching is based upon what God has said in the Bible. Most weeks the pastor works through a book of the Bible. At other times the church examines topics like marriage, divorce, families, or work in light of what the Bible teaches. Notes are usually provided to help people follow along.
- Sharing. Most weeks there is a time for anyone who wants to briefly share how God has been at work in their life. The same time is set aside to share needs and prayer requests and to pray for one another.
- Prayer. Prayer is a vital part of the worship service.
The service typically runs from 10:30 AM to noon.
The church is a come-as-you-are place. Some dress up and some dress down; God does not mind, so the church does not mind either. There is no dress code for worship.
For families, the church encourages parents to keep children with them during the service. Quality nursery and child care is available for younger ones. Children older than six are sent from the service at about 11:00 AM to attend Sunday School.
The Five Acres and the Farmer's Last Request
The most distinctive piece of Living Hope's story is the five acres of land the church purchased in 2006, and what has grown up on that land since.
The land sits just east of I-225 and Colfax, less than a mile from the developing University of Colorado Medical Center area of Aurora. Before the church bought it, the parcel had been farmed for more than fifty years by Jack Tapping. As Mr. Tapping lay dying, he told his only son that his last wish was to know that his land would one day be used for the preaching of the Gospel. After his father's death, the son chose to sell the family's land to Living Hope Community Church and Iglesia Esperanza Viviente so that the gospel might one day be preached on it.
The church views the purchase as God miraculously opening the door. For years the leaders sought the Lord regarding the future of the property. They believe God will use it, however that far back, to fulfill the dying wish of His servant and that through it the good news of Jesus Christ will go out to the surrounding community.
What stands on the land now is the realization of that vision in a slightly different form than originally imagined. The property has been developed into 137 units of affordable housing, paired with a Cross Purpose job training program for residents. The development opened to the community in partnership with these ministries, and the church continues to point to the project as evidence that God provided not only the land but also the means to use it for the good of the neighborhood around it.
Alongside the housing and job training, the church still hopes to build a worship center on the property, one that would be used to preach the word of God, care for His people, and reach out to those who do not yet know Him with the love of Christ. The leaders trust God to provide the funding for that next step.
What the Church Believes
Living Hope Community Church's confession of faith, in the church's own words and summarized briefly:
The church believes there is one living and true God, an infinite and all-knowing Spirit, perfect in all His attributes. God is one in essence and exists eternally in three Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - each equally deserving worship and obedience.
The Bible is received as God's written revelation to humanity, verbally inspired in every word, without error in the original documents, and affirmed as infallible, sufficient and authoritative.
Human beings were created in the image of God, but rebelled against Him and were alienated from God through disobedience. The entire human race justly deserves God's punishment for rejecting Him.
The church believes in the deity of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who became a man by means of the virgin birth. Jesus lived in perfect union with God and was without sin. He performed miracles and was crucified at Calvary. When Jesus died on the cross, God punished Him for the sins of humanity. Through His sacrificial death, Jesus makes it possible for anyone who believes in Him to be reconciled to God. Jesus rose bodily from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, and will personally return to earth in power and glory at the end of this age.
Salvation is understood as accomplished instantly and solely by the power of God, when any person, enabled by the Holy Spirit, forsakes their sin and believes in the person and work of Jesus. God forgives the repentant sinner based completely on the redeeming work and merit of Jesus Christ and not on the basis of human works or merit. Believers are secure in Christ forever because of His power and will manifest a life that honors God in thought, word and deed.
The Holy Spirit baptizes all believers into the Body of Christ at the moment of salvation. The Spirit regenerates, indwells, instructs, empowers, equips for service, sanctifies and seals believers for the day of redemption. The Spirit-filled life is a reality for all who are in Christ.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The church is one unified spiritual body, the Body of Christ, comprised of all those who are saved from God's wrath through faith in Jesus Christ. Its purpose is to praise God's name, preach God's word, proclaim God's salvation to those without Christ, practice God's love by serving others, and promote community and unity among believers while observing the ordinances of baptism and communion as commanded by Jesus.
Finally, the church believes that both the saved and unsaved will experience bodily resurrection at the consummation of this age. The saved will be raised to experience life forever with Jesus, and the unsaved will be raised to experience God's judgment and eternal hell.
Pastor Scott Kalevik and the Leadership Team
Scott Kalevik has served as pastor of Living Hope Community Church since the inception of the work in 1996. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Colorado and a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary. He is married to his wife Peggy. Together they co-authored Living Hope Today: A Daily Devotional, a tool to strengthen and encourage believers in their daily walk with the Lord.
The church's commitment is to preaching that is short on jokes and stories and long on biblical truth. The leadership structure is built around elders and team leaders. Elders are tasked with overseeing the spiritual health of the church, meeting regularly to pray for the people of Living Hope and to seek the Lord's guidance. They serve the congregation through preaching, teaching, guarding and proclaiming God's word.
Three elders currently serve the church alongside the pastor:
- Glenn French serves as an elder.
- Edwin Vela serves as an elder. He is married to Yolanda and has three sons.
- Leonard Neal serves as an elder. He is married to Nemayian.
Darla Butler serves the church as a board member. Team leaders carry out the necessary tasks to allow the church to operate well, and their work is considered indispensable to the function of the body.
Missions Far Beyond Aurora
Living Hope Community Church has long understood itself as a sending church, supporting missionaries and ministries in several parts of the world.
For many years the church has partnered with Phil and Mariela Legal, who serve Christ by loving the street children of Bogota, Colombia. Most of the children they serve have been abandoned and are doing what they can to survive on the streets. Phil and Mariela share the love of Jesus with them while working to meet their immediate physical needs as well.
The church also partners with David and Lisa, who serve in a part of the world openly hostile to the gospel. For security reasons the couple has asked the church to limit public description of their work, but the church affirms that they are sharing the Father's love and message with people who have never heard.
In West Africa, the church supports the Mae Davies Orphanage in Liberia through Simeon Cheah, who makes sure the assistance Living Hope sends is used to feed, clothe and educate children left without families by years of civil war. A generation of Liberian children has never known what it is like to go to school or have a stable family life, and the church considers helping these children a particular privilege.
Locally, the church has supported the Denver Rescue Mission both financially and through volunteering. Members help in the kitchen and lead the worship service in the chapel on a monthly basis. The church considers this partnership a greater blessing to the congregation than anything it has been able to give.
Children at the Heart of the Church
The Children's Ministry is led by Cassidy and Deb, who nurture the children with love and God's word. The church has framed its ministry to children around the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:14: "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." The Spanish-language version carries the same passage, and the leaders' names appear in both languages.
On Sunday mornings, families are encouraged to worship together for the first portion of the service. After about thirty minutes, children over the age of six are dismissed to attend Sunday School. Younger children may remain with their parents, and nursery care and quality child care are available throughout the service.
Visitation and a House of Prayer
Living Hope considers prayer and pastoral presence to be central to what it means to be the church.
A visitation team is made up of people in the fellowship who have been called by God to share His love with the sick and shut-in. They make sure that those who are in the hospital or shut in at home receive a visit, a card, or a phone call along with the prayers of the church. The team encourages anyone who knows of someone who might want a visit to write to the church.
Prayer is at the heart of the church's identity. The congregation believes Jesus calls His people to strong, vibrant and consistent individual prayer lives, and also to pray together as a group. The church points to Acts 2:42, where the early church devoted itself to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, as a model for its own life.
The congregation meets several times each month to pray together. Following the onset of Covid, the prayer meetings moved to Zoom, and the church invites anyone who would like to participate to write to the pastor for the connection details. Prayer requests may also be submitted through the church's iPray team.
A Closer Walk with Jesus: Ninety Days of Growth
One of the most distinctive things about Living Hope is its discipleship study, A Closer Walk with Jesus, available in both English and Spanish (Caminando Cerca de Jesús). The study is a 90-day journey divided into three 30-day sections, focused on what the church calls The Heart, The Head and The Hands.
The Heart focuses on the relationship with Jesus. The first 30 days are spent looking at how to establish a vibrant and consistent prayer life with the Lord, looking at how Jesus modeled prayer in His own life, how He taught His followers to pray, and the different kinds of prayer mentioned in Scripture. By God's grace, the goal is for each person to become a person of prayer.
The Head focuses on understanding Scripture. The second 30 days answer questions such as who wrote the Bible, when and how it was written, how we know it is true, what to make of those questions, what the Holy Spirit's role is in teaching the word of God, what to look for when interpreting a passage, and how to apply the truth of a passage to daily life.
The Hands focuses on putting faith into action. The third 30 days explore obeying Jesus by serving Him as we serve others, examining what scripture says about people who hear His teaching but refuse to change the way they live. The goal is to teach participants how to put their faith into action by obeying all that Jesus commands.
The study is laid out day by day, and each day's lesson can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word document. The church is clear that it takes more than 90 days to become a mature follower of Jesus, but the purpose of the journey is to provide the understanding needed to develop godly patterns that will continue for a lifetime.
Daily Bible Reading and the Living Hope Today Broadcast
The church also publishes a Daily Bible Reading plan in English and Spanish. The plan walks through the Bible alongside a chronological arrangement of Old and New Testament readings, paired with brief devotional reflections. Each day's passage is linked directly to the text on Bible Gateway.
For those who prefer to listen, the church streams Living Hope Today each weekday morning at 7:00 AM on YouTube and Facebook. The devotional is hosted by the church and grew out of the book Pastor Scott and Peggy Kalevik wrote together, Living Hope Today: A Daily Devotional, which is also available for purchase through Amazon.
Sunday worship services are also livestreamed at 10:30 AM, with recordings available afterward through the church's YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Getting Connected and Giving
Visitors and newcomers are encouraged to begin with the church's livestream. The Livestream carries each day's broadcast. The What It's Like section walks through what to expect, the directions section provides a map to North Middle School, and the daily Bible reading and devotional sections offer ways to grow throughout the week.
Those who want to support the work financially have several methods available. Online donations may be made through PayPal, either through the church's donation option or by following the direct PayPal link. Donations may also be sent through Zelle using the email donate@elivinghope.org. Checks made payable to Living Hope Community Church may be mailed to the church's PO Box at P.O. Box 31951, Aurora, Colorado 80041.
Prayer requests, questions about the building plans, and inquiries about the church's ministries can be sent to Pastor Scott at pastorscott@elivinghope.org. The church can also be reached by phone at 303-632-0241.
For a church that began as a small group meeting in North Aurora nearly thirty years ago, the work has grown in ways that few could have imagined at the start. From a come-as-you-are Sunday morning in a middle school cafeteria to a five-acre property that now houses both the vision for a future worship center and a thriving community of affordable housing, Living Hope Community Church and Iglesia Esperanza Viviente continue to point to the same truth they have pointed to since 1996: that the people of God come from every tribe and nation and language, and that in Aurora, on a quiet Sunday morning, the church is given a small but real taste of what that looks like.