About Us

Shalom for all.

Our Commitment

We are committed to shalom for all people, and you’re invited to join us on that path.

Shalom. Salaam. Peace. Paz. In Hebrew, Arabic, English and Spanish, we wish you peace. Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace, but it means more than the absence of conflict. Shalom means: God, creation, and all creatures webbed together in right relationship and mutual delight.

We pray for and seek shalom for our neighbors, shalom for strangers, sojourners, and refugees, shalom for creation, shalom for those with broken spirits or mental illness, shalom for families, and shalom for those of other faith traditions. In our experience, Jesus Christ embodies, teaches, and accomplishes God’s will for shalom.

Our Values

We frame our life together around the themes of worship, community, education, and service. Those themes are rooted in Philippians 2:1-11, and serve as the basis for our values which guide us in all that we seek to do.

Worship

We value worship that intentionally awakens us to the presence of God through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments.

We use the voices of the congregation in liturgy, music, prayer, and proclamation.

We expect preaching to be biblically-grounded, thoughtful, engaging, challenging, relevant, and responsive to the movement of the Spirit.

We try to develop well-crafted and participatory liturgies, including music that is thematically of one piece with the liturgy.

We seek a balance of music that represents the best of Christian hymnody while intentionally including new forms of worship music.

We want worship to be authentic to our experience while being hospitable, accessible, and inclusive to a broad sweep of worshippers.

We strive to worship in a manner that inspires, encourages, and sends us out to love and serve God and neighbor.

Community

We value the shared life of community in which we celebrate each other’s joys and bear each other’s burdens.

We symbolically recognize this community in worship through a time of mutual greeting and corporate prayer.

We strive to welcome and embrace people from all walks of life and cherish a wide range of perspectives and positions.

We seek to build relationships that are marked by love, mutual forgiveness, and reconciliation.

We wish to be a harbor or refuge, especially for those who feel battered, marginalized, and forgotten.

We try to gather regularly for shared meals and music, for laughter and conversation, for genuine intimacy and intergenerational fellowship.

We expect our relationships to encourage and challenge us to more closely follow Jesus Christ.

Education

We value education and nurture that equips and challenges us to be better informed, wiser, biblically-grounded, and trained in the mind of Christ.

We celebrate the breadth, depth, and creative joy of learning from life – encouraging questions, curiosity, and the pursuit of all that is true.

We would develop educational experiences that are age appropriate, culturally sensitive, and engaging of mind and heart, while cherishing the mutually beneficial relationship of teacher and student.

We strive to faithfully transmit the biblical and theological traditions of which we are recipients.

We expect our life together to challenge and push back the boundaries of that which is comfortable for the sake of more faithfully loving God and neighbor.

We understand our worship, community life, and service to be opportunities for shaping in us the mind of Christ.

We embrace a variety of venues for educating children, while supporting Christian schooling as an outgrowth of our baptismal vows.

Service

We value a full engagement in the world as a faithful, tangible response to God’s grace.

We affirm and enjoy creation and culture, while working to restore both to God’s intention.

We expect our corporate life to encourage and shape us in our individual vocations.

We expect our individual lives to find cohesion and purpose in our corporate vocation.

We would be faithful stewards of our gifts and resources to pursue peace, seek justice, show compassion, and express the Good News of the Kingdom.

We reach toward others with hospitality and the invitation to join our shared life.

Our Story

Hope Christian Reformed Church, composed of twenty families embracing eighty-one baptized or professing members, was formally organized on June 26, 1962. The original church building was dedicated on March 15, 1964. Since then, the church building has had some major additions and renovations, but that original portion still serves as the fellowship hall in our current space. We’ve grown to over 536 baptized or professing members. We’re on our fourth pastor, Roger Nelson. We’ve been an advocate in allowing women in church office. We’ve tried to build relationships in and around the community, Chicago, and beyond.

1962
Hope CRC officially begins in June of 1962
62
62 years as a church in Oak Forest, IL
536
536 current members (and counting…)
For the old and the new in this place, O God, we thank you.

For all who have gone before us, we offer praise for their faithfulness.

For all gathered here now, we seek renewed commitment.

For all who will follow us, we trust the grace of God’s promises.

Praise God in the sanctuary. 
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.
Litany from 35th Anniversary Service

Our Staff

Roger Nelson

Roger Nelson

Pastor
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Sharon Aardema

Sharon Aardema

Office Manager
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Erin Pacheco

Erin Pacheco

Worship Coordinator
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Have questions? Get in touch.

We’re here to help. Give us a call or contact us if you have any questions or would like additional information.

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