New Hope United Methodist Church

09/06/2026

This week at New Hope UMC, we begin a new sermon series called Pressing On, inspired by the call to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. As we begin that journey, we’re turning up the volume! 🎸🥁🎤

In Psalm 33:1–12, 22, we are invited to praise God with singing, instruments, new melodies, thanksgiving, and joy. Worship is an active response to who God is and what God has done. Then, in Acts 16:25–34, we meet Paul and Silas worshiping in a much different setting. Imprisoned and in chains, they pray and sing praises to God through the night. When an earthquake breaks their chains and opens the prison doors, their worship becomes part of something even greater: an encounter that brings hope, freedom, and new faith to the jailer and his family.

This week’s message, “I’m With the Band,” reminds us that worship doesn’t have to look or sound the same for everyone. Sometimes it is loud and joyful. Sometimes it is quiet and reflective. What matters is that it comes from our hearts as we worship God in spirit and in truth.

Through worship, we connect with God, our faith is renewed, and others may discover the love and grace of Christ. So sing. Pray. Praise. Listen. Worship.

However you worship, keep Pressing On and join us for this week’s online worship at New Hope UMC!

This week at New Hope UMC, we begin a new sermon series called Pressing On, inspired by the call to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. As we begin that journey, we’re turning up the volume! 🎸🥁🎤 In Psalm 33:1–12, 22, we are invited to prai...

09/06/2026

🎶 I’m With the Band! 🎶

Tomorrow is a special Sunday at New Hope United Methodist Church! Join us for ONE contemporary worship service at 10:00 AM, followed by a potluck lunch and time together as a church family.

Tomorrow’s message is “I’m With the Band” 🎸🥁🎤, so we thought we’d give you a little preview of our New Hope Worship Band before Sunday morning!

Come ready to worship, stay for lunch, and enjoy a great morning of faith, music, food, and fellowship.

⏰ Worship: 10:00 AM
🍽️ Potluck Lunch: Following Worship

We hope to see you tomorrow at New Hope!

🎶 I’m With the Band! 🎶 Tomorrow is a special Sunday at New Hope UMC! Join us for ONE contemporary worship service at 10:00 AM, followed by a potluck lunch and time together as a church family. Tomorrow’s message is “I’m With the Band” 🎸🥁🎤, so we thought we’d give you a lit...

09/03/2026

Dear friends and family of New Hope Des Moines UMC,

Before all else, thank you all for the prayers, the prayer shawl, and especially to Patrice who cleaned up a very nasty mess and wouldn't let my very sick self help. Without symptoms beyond nausea, I was hosting a UTI that none of us knew we should be looking for, which led to very high ketones, which was a double whammy of nausea, latent pain, and absolute awfulness. But the labs found the problem, and the antibiotics are definitely working now. I am almost back to my normal.

Maybe it is ideal in a season of frustration and sickness to be planted firmly in the hope of Romans chapter 5 this week. Paul is turning the tide of this narrative in chapter five towards hope. Although he started by listing problems, failures, and outright disasters of both Jews and Gentiles, now Paul says, "But it's okay. We have peace with Christ." All that baggage, the hurt, the brokenness is ok, because of Christ. So, assume the stance of peace.

It wasn't what any of us have done that brings righteousness, but it is what Christ has done on our behalf (vs 6-9). This story isn't about our sin, but rather Christ's forgiveness. Those things we did, the things no one wants to tolerate, the things we hate about ourselves or others, Christ has already forgiven. So, whether they are the worst we can think of or the least of mistakes, be at peace in Christ, who restored our relationship with God (verse 11).

"The result is that grace will rule through God’s righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, just as sin ruled in death." (Verse 21)

You can see the beauty and peace that comes from Paul's unexpected twist. Yes, we have done some stuff. Yes, we deserve the worst. Yes, it was not only Gentile Christians but Jewish Christians, as well who have sinned in spades. But now, we have hope and peace because the result of Christ's work is that grace will now lead to the righteousness we could never have on our own, and that leads to eternal life!

So this week, no matter what the struggle looks like, may you have hope and joy in Christ's act of grace that makes us all one.

Pastor Amy Johnson

08/30/2026

This Sunday, we come to the final chapter of our summer series, Stories of Hope. Throughout the summer, we have returned to familiar stories of Scripture and discovered that, again and again, God meets us with grace, redemption, and hope.

This week, we turn to the conclusion of Job’s story and a message about restored relationships. Job has endured tremendous loss, difficult questions, and painful disagreements with the people around him. Yet the turning point comes not when Job wins an argument or proves his friends wrong, but when he prays for them. Instead of continuing to judge, blame, and argue, Job chooses a different path.

That same invitation is extended to us. Restored relationships do not require perfect people. They require grace. Romans reminds us that God loves us in the midst of our imperfections, and that same love extends to the imperfect people around us. When we remember how deeply we need God’s grace ourselves, we can begin to offer that grace to others.

As we worship together and bring our Stories of Hope series to a close, may we consider the relationships in our own lives that need healing. May God give us the humility to forgive, the courage to pray for one another, and the grace to love others as God has so faithfully loved us.

These stories continue to offer us hope because they remind us that brokenness does not have to be the end of the story. With God, forgiveness is possible, relationships can be restored, and hope can begin again.

This Sunday, we come to the final chapter of our summer series, Stories of Hope. Throughout the summer, we have returned to familiar stories of Scripture and discovered that, again and again, God meets us with grace, redemption, and hope. This week, we turn to the conclusion of Job’s story and a m...

08/27/2026

Dear friends and family of New Hope Des Moines UMC,

"The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." - Romans 4:13

Chapter 4 of Romans can seem a little tricky to those of us who are not as familiar with Old Testament history and culture. This chapter is written for the benefit of the Jewish Christian community who are in the midst a bit of a broil about whether or not Gentil Christians need to be Jewish and Christian or if they can simply be Christians without following the culture of Judaism. That seems for many of us to be an unnecessary chapter that doesn't really apply to us. Only this is important stuff! The real challenge here is can we honor Christians who come into faith from a culture different from ours, from a background that has taught them different rules and different patterns of behavior? That remains an important question even today.

For centuries, for example, Christians have treated missions as conquest. You may have heard this referred to as Colonialism. At the root, it seems like a very noble idea: we will make people better, more civilized and more righteous, by making them like us. Cultures all over the world were taught to give up who they are because to love God faithfully, they must be Western. Missionaries would require from native people's a change of language, a change of clothing, a change of social structure, a change of everything they knew in order to "enlighten" them in the name of God.

The result is that many languages, cultures, arts, and trades were lost forever because missionaries demanded that everyone be like them. Is this the way we should make disciples? Must the Christians be Jewish also, so to speak? That is the question Paul answers in this chapter. Did God wait until Abraham was circumcised to make promises? No! It was not because of the law that had not yet been written that God chose Abraham, Paul concludes; it was because of faith!

But can someone have faith if they don't do it the way we think it must be done? Paul's answer to that is a resounding yes. But is ours today? Are we still, nearly 2000 years after Paul, insisting that others practice faith the way we do or it's not right? Honestly, we don't need to understand another perspective or think it is perfect for it to be faith. Our perspective is far from perfect! All that needs to be, Paul insists, is faith from their point of view. The rest sits between them and God to work out through grace, just like with us. Paul says, it will be reckoned to us who believe, not by us who are perfect in following one certain set of laws. Then our faith will be reckoned to us as righteousness, not our habits and actions.

Does this mean we should ignore the law? Certainly not! But it does mean that we need to understand the law in a new way. The law is just one tool to lead us into faithfulness. If it accomplishes that. We should enjoy using that tool. But if it leads us down a path of unfaithfulness because it restricts our ability to love God and others the best we can, it becomes a stumbling block to our faith, and faith is what is important.

We have learned this and have used this way of thinking with many archaic portions of the law. We wear mixed fabrics, we eat pork, and we do not break our coffee cups if we use them the same day we have had relations with our spouses. Some laws just cause stumbling instead of faith because they are more about who someone before us thinks they should be than who we are, so we have learned to set them aside as long as we are erring on the side of faithfulness. Jesus summed this up better than Paul by saying: love God, love each other--all the other laws hang on that. If it doesn't hang on those pegs, it is just culture, not law. And here in Romans Paul says, you don't have to be Jewish; you have to have faith in God's promises. It is not so much what we do but what we believe God does and will keep doing that makes us righteous. We do the best we can out of love for God and each other; God does the saving out of love for us.

Do with that what you will but know that this scripture passage is explaining that faith is the ultimate fulfillment of the law and the source of righteousness above the dots and tittles of the cultural expectation of ancient Judaism. In other words, Gentiles are Christians, too, if only they have faith in God.

Next week we will dive into chapter 5! I hope you can join us then! It is a doozy!

Blessings to all as you read through Romans with us!

Pastor Amy

08/24/2026

Special Music was a treat Sunday!

08/23/2026

As we continue our summer series, Stories of Hope, those familiar stories of Scripture that continue to reveal God's grace and faithfulness, we turn to a familiar story from Luke’s Gospel and discover one of the greatest gifts God offers us: forgiveness.

In Luke 7, Jesus is sharing a meal in the home of a Pharisee when a woman, known by those around her simply as a sinner, enters the room. While others judge and whisper about her, she comes to Jesus with humility, gratitude, and love. She knows she needs grace, and she knows exactly where to find it.

Jesus uses this encounter to remind us of something we can easily forget. None of us reaches a point where we no longer need God’s forgiveness. When we recognize how much we have been forgiven and how deeply we are loved, our response is not judgment of others, but greater love for God and one another.

This Sunday, we also celebrate new beginnings as we bless the backpacks, bags, students, teachers, school staff, caregivers, and everyone preparing for a new school year. Whether this new season brings excitement, nervousness, uncertainty, or a little of everything, we are reminded that God goes with us.

As we worship together today, may we come before Jesus with open and humble hearts. May we remember our need for grace, receive the hope found in forgiveness, and carry that same grace and love with us into a new school year and wherever God leads us next.

This is "New Hope Service from Sunday, August 23, 2026" by New Hope UMC on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

08/20/2026

I won't give a spoiler peek quite yet, but these items we received today are exquisite! Nan's mom spent hours upon hours crocheting some amazing and delicate surprises for the Fall Auction! They are even boxed and ready to gift! You will love them!

What is your talent or auction idea for this year to share? It is time to start getting ready!

08/20/2026

Dear friends and family of New Hope Des Moines UMC,

"What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin..." -Romans 3:9 NRSVUE

We have made it to chapter 3 of Romans, and now Paul starts to explain why he started off Romans listing various things people think are wrong in the world and those difficult to exegete passages of Chapter 1 & 2. Why did we have to read that? To charge that all, both people who sin like us and those who sin like others are all under the same power of sin.

This is the part so many miss in the book of Romans, when it all turns away from condemnation and finger pointing and moves to the truth: (Verse 22b-23a) "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

This has always been the frustration for many of us who have heard over and over again about how some should be singled out or even kicked out because of their sin that is addressed in the first two chapters of Romans. You see, if we had stopped reading at chapter 2, we might think that Paul condemned us all, or at least the Gentiles (people who are different from us because they grew up with different rules).

On the contrary, here, Romans directs us to notice that while perhaps someone is sinning in some ways we think are unacceptable, so are we. If we find what we think is a fault in someone, that only makes us more alike. Further, Paul writes that God's righteousness comes both with and apart from the Law. We, this is from chapter 3, are made right by grace alone, which speaks not to our righteousness but to God's. In other words, God looks at us all as identical in this one way: without grace, none of us can be righteous. We are not actually different at all.

Paul finishes this chapter explaining that we cannot boast in our works because our righteousness is not about our works. It is only about the righteousness we have through grace.

This is a much different picture than shouting at people who we think are doing something wrong or telling people they cannot hang out with us or be like us if we don't like the works they are doing. Romans 3 is pretty clear that we could very easily be a target of the same because none of us are exempt from sin.

Where will Paul go with this? More to come next week as we move to chapter 4. As for this week, remember that we are all in the same boat, and only grace will save any of us.

Blessings of grace to you this week!

Pastor Amy