User:Thatwhoiswise/newhope church

newhope church is a Wesleyan church founded by Pastor Benji Kelley, it is currently one of the fastest growing churches in America, according to Outreach magazine, and has campuses around the globe including North Carolina, South Carolina, and Kenya.

History
newhope church was founded in 2002 by Benji Kelley, and his wife Amy Lynn Kelley. In 2001, Jim Garlow was working as a senior pastor at the Skyline Wesleyan Church in Southern California. Garlow learned of a recent graduate Pastor Benji Kelley, who had founded a church in Chapel Hill. His congregation was growing rapidly, and he hoped to expand into the Wesleyan denomination. Garlow contacted the Durham Wesleyan District Office about the new church, and along with Pastor Kelley, the two then worked with Chapel Hill District Superintendent, Leon Thompson, to help secure financing for their new church.

On January of 2002 newhope church held its first service at East Chapel Hill High School. There were more than 600 in attendance. Soon newhope moved into its own location. Within six years the church had outgrown its original location as well as three others. In 2010, newhope church sold its original location and used the funds to purchase 36 acres of land that became the church's central campus.

With the creation of a sprawling central campus, as well as other satellite campus', newhope church created a vacation sports school as an alternative to bible study, multiple pre-school programs and both a Web video and television studio to broadcast sermons held by Pastor Benji Kelley.

Today, newhope church continues to be one of the fastest growing churches in North America with over 4,000 in attendance each week. Their newest campus in South Durham had also seen attendance growth from 800 to 1,600 in one week.

Charity Work
newhope church actively encourages members to serve. On ministry fair Sundays, patrons can sign up for service directly after a sermon. The church offers financial counseling to families looking to get back on track with debts, and “Community for Hope Mission” has begun an annual food drive and candy-filled Easter Egg helicopter drop beginning in 2016. Pastor Benji Kelly also spoke at Mother Emanuel African Methodist after the shooting that took place there in June of 2015.

The church also hosts an annual leadership conference known as “InCite”, which brings together more 700 ministry and marketplace professionals to network. The purpose of this conference is to teach pastors how to grow their respective churches, through grassroots outreach. A portion of the fees from InCite are used to fund the Global Leadership Conference to be held in Kenya.