Friday, May 18, 2018

Church of Hope


This is, believe it or not, a "storefront" church located on Ocala's east side. It has an interesting history. The pastor of Church of Hope is Mark Cummins. Cummins, a charismatic and dynamic young man, came to Ocala around 2006-2007 to take over as senior pastor of First Baptist Church, following the retirement of a beloved pastor who had served First Baptist for 20 plus years.

After about a year, all hell broke loose when Cummins fired six popular assistant clerics. First Baptist, a huge operation, became a battle ground, and after a great deal of dissension, split.  Cummins left to start his own church, bringing with him over 300 members from First Baptist.

For a time, the group met in another storefront operation then moved to Westport High School, and finally bought this place from another group that had moved on to build a more traditional church building.

Church of Hope is proudly non-denominational, claiming to preach the Bible and insisting their mission is to serve the community.  One problem as I see it, is the phrase, "preach the Bible," can mean about anything these days.  For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 15, verse 24, Jesus says:  "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel."

I rather doubt they preach that at Church of Hope.

As I recall, this church now has over 750 members.


18 comments:

Francisco Manuel Carrajola Oliveira said...

Gosto da arquitectura simples desta Igreja.
Um abraço e bom fim-de-semana.

Andarilhar
Dedais de Francisco e Idalisa
O prazer dos livros

GreensboroDailyPhoto said...

The non-denominational movement is sweeping the nation, as it the storefront model.

Janis
GDP

silvia de angelis said...

Un luogo di culto che non passa certo inosservato!
Un saluto,silvia

magiceye said...

Interesting history and a lovely capture!

Tom said...

...churches split on a regular basis it seems!

R's Rue said...

Great.

Shammickite said...

Quite a large building, but I suppose it need to be large is all 750 members come to church at the same time.

Kate said...

The history of religion over eons has always confounded me.

RedPat said...

He must have a powerful personality to attract that many members!

Sharon said...

I'd say good for them but, I'm not really sure it is good for anyone.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Ditto what Sharon said.. religion seems to cause many a problem around the world ✨

Marleen said...

I haven't seen or heard from a storefront church before. It's easy accessible for everyone. Interesting history!

William Kendall said...

The odd church here does storefront operations. Others tend to pair up with older churches and run their services perhaps on a Sunday afternoon as opposed to the morning.

I know of one of these churches, which I get the impression might be evangelical or non-denominational, that has an arrangement with a movie theatre to use one of their cinemas Sunday mornings, since no movies begin there before one anyway.

Vicki said...

There are a few storefront churches in my area. I'm moving in a few weeks and will be looking for another church. Luckily there are about 5 within walking distance and many others I could drive to.

Bill said...

I never heard of a storefront church before. I don't do church after spending my younger days in parochial school.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

They do have a way of mushrooming those charismatic-led churches. Must be a lot of lost sheep in Ocala. And yes, I'm sure they pick and choose their messages (whether store-front or traditional (imho). I am the same as Bill Burke in his comment above.

Michelle said...

In my small town area we have churches that spring up in all types of buildings. Might have more churches than businesses, I believe.

Kay said...

This place looks like you should be able to go in and order an enchilada platter #3 to go.
I'd have some concerns about a pastor who's capable of breaking all hell loose when he's hired to do exactly the opposite, that is to keep it contained.

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." — Henri Cartier-Bresson