Hope Chapel Churches

Hope Chapel is a relationship of nearly 2,400 churches born of just 12 people who first met in 1971 in Manhattan Beach, California. The churches thrive on every continent.

As a “movement” we never tried to brand ourselves. Some congregations call themselves Hope Chapel, others do not. It has never mattered. Case in point, Ralph’s son Carl re-named Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii as Anchor Church and one of Ralph’s closest disciples, Mike Kai dubbed Hope Chapel West Ohau, Inspire Church. Both changes are attempts to introduce new disciplemaking streams into Hawaii. This is entirely in keeping with the values of Hope Chapel (Ralph  and Ruby changed the name of an existing church building to Hope Chapel back in 1971).

Hope Chapel churches are a large collaboration of boutique congregations rather than a centrally controlled franchise operation–think movement instead of network.

The “secret sauce” that flows through the Hope Chapel movement is a relentless commitment to disciplemaking coupled with a firm belief that every church should reproduce itself at least one time in its history.

1971 Ralph and Ruby Moore along with their infant son, Carl and Ruby’s brother, Tim, moved to Manhattan Beach, California to plant the first congregation. In 1976 they moved the congregation into its current quarters in Hermosa Beach. When the Moores left for Hawaii they handed off to Zac Nazarian. You can learn more at www.hopechapel.org.

 

1973 Richard and Dianne Agozino planted Branch of Hope from Hope Chapel in Manhattan Beach. It would touch off nearly five decades of church multiplication. The church is still growing strong under the leadership of one of Rich’s disciples, www.branchofhope.org.

 

1983 The Moores, their children Carl and Kelly along with Aaron and Stephanie Suzuki and 23 others moved to Oahu to plant Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay on a beach in Kailua. You’ll learn more about this church and its vision at www.myanchorchurch.com.

 

2013 A year after Carl succeeded his dad at HCKB Ralph and Ruby along with a large group of friends helped the Kaneohe church birth Hope Chapel Honolulu. You can catch these folks at www.hopehonolulu.com.

 

2018 Ralph and Ruby moved to San Diego to be closer to their daughter and son-in-law Kelly and Travis White. This also brought them closer to their new ministry family Exponential. You’ll learn a lot if you access the free resources at www.exponential.org.

 

2018 Ralph and Ruby Moore retired from pastoring a prevailing model church to live in San Diego. They lead a couple of online microchurches and Ralph coaches a group of pastors while running a blog at ralphmoore.net. Their latest is an online digichurch with members spread across the United States. Their biggest kicks come from time spent with their two adult children and their families including a couple of new grandchildren.

From the beginning, the original “Jesus Movement” was about making disciples and multiplying churches.

The apostles in Jerusalem apparently didn’t fully understand this. Jesus told them to make disciples of the nations moving from Jerusalem to Judea through Samaria to the ends of the earth (Hawaii???). By Acts, chapter 5 they got as far as Judea. It took persecution to get someone to hike from Jerusalem to Samaria, a distance of 16 miles—walking time 22 hours or a four day journey.

Those who ran from the persecutions of the extremely religious Saul from Tarsus immediately took the gospel to the far shores of the Mediterranean. Some then found their way back into Syria where the planted a church that included Gentiles rather than limiting itself to Jewish believers. God finally got his way. The way Jesus pointed and which the Holy Spirit underscored on the day of Pentecost—the church is to “go” with the gospel rather than invite people to “come” to our party.

The fruit of the Antioch church grows today in Hope Chapel and movements like it. We’re called to make disciples and multiply churches.

The current world-wide method that seems to work best is for “freelance” leaders to plant “microchurches.” You could think of a person with a career planting a church as a side hustle. A microchurch would be a house-church that might not meet in a house. This is Jesus’ preferred method in poorer nations and those living under persecution, but lately its what he’s doing in Europe, and it is working. Pray for the USA!