Church #5: newHope Baptist Church

1. Who attended? Bradley & Erica

2. CHURCH HOP RANKINGS:
How was the experience?
1: I was so uncomfortable and/or offended that I did not stay to the end of services.
10: This church was welcoming and thought-provoking. I would recommend that others experience this church.

ERICA: It started off as a 9, but ended up as a 7 or 6.
Brad: Averaged Out-7

3. Picture(s) of the church


4. Name/location of the church:
newHope Baptist Church
1401 Loveland-Madeira Road
Loveland, OH 45140
www.newhopeonthehill.com

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
Nope. We're back to Loveland this week, close to my grandmother.


6. Time/duration of services:
10:45--12:30

7. What type of religion did the church cater to?
Baptist.

8. Who did you meet?
We shook hands with a few people, and the pastor (Bill Hounshell) made a point of coming over to us and greeting us personally.

9. If applicable, scans of handouts, tracts, etc


10. Church Hopper’s personal experience with the church, additional details:

ERICA: This church started out as a 9. It's a big, beautiful church on top of a hill (as the URL would suggest). No stained glass or anything, but comfy chairs, a clear podium at the pulpit, a full band, great A/V, etc. We were greeted right away by the pastor himself, who seemed really friendly. There were songs, of course, and then something I wasn't ready for: the screen rolled up and behind it they had a baptism. Right in the wall. Bradley assures me this is standard protocol but I was not ready to look up and see the pastor and a little girl in a pool of water IN THE WALL.

We inadvertantly sat in the youth section, I guess, because we were surrounded by really, really annoying kids and teens who wouldn't sit still and be quiet. I guess it speaks volumes about the church that they were even there at all, but still. Shut up. Please.

But like I said, for the first hour it was a 9. I was comfortable and actually having a pretty good time-- there was even a skit that the pastor and two older guys (associate pastors?) put on about their Sunday school programs. It was cute and everyone laughed. Great stuff.

For the second hour or so... it slid downhill a little bit. Mostly because of the sermon. It was all about families, tying in the prodigal son story, which was fine for the most part. However, the highlight (lowlight?) for me was the line, "Women have no trouble submitting, once they've found the one worth submitting to." ...What?

There was more than that-- much of the sermon I disagreed with. The pastor was a good speaker but we weren't really on the same frequency. I guess that's to be expected.

All in all, a pleasant experience, even if the sermon knocked a few points off. I got to see my first baptism (in a wall?!), listen to some mostly good music, and be in a beautiful house of God with people who see it as such. A pretty good way to spend a morning.

Brad: The word of choice I would use of this church is "Industrial". It really had to cover a lot of people, because of this church's MASSIVE size. This place was huge! I would say it could (and did) hold around 250 people in it's mass service. When we finally got our seats, we ended up with the side of the teenagers, which was the one bad mistake we made.

The first things that happened were the usuall song and then a baptism. Sis was really freaked out by the little tub in the call above the stage, where they held it. It only took about 5 mintues, and we moved on.

The sermon made me angry. You think that by now I wouldn't get so made at sermons, but he said some weird things, that didn't quite make sense, and I'm pretty sure the preacher hates woman. He seemed cool, but it was just annoying. They did put on a skit with main church people, in which they talked about roping people into there sunday school.

This church started out as a 9 or 8, but during the sermon, it seemed to drop in value by a point every 15 minutes. It went on for longer too, but it gave me time to look at the architecture of the building, and it's sweet olive-drab color. It was a giant dome too. It was a very neat church, so if you're in the area, enjoy!