Here's Hope Church was founded in 1976 as a mission of the Southern Baptist Church of Ashtabula.  Pastor Fred Billy served as the first pastor of the church and they met in the Red Bird Elementary School and later in a local community center in Madison.  In 1978, with 60 members, the church constituted and purchased 6 acres of land on Chapel Road. 

In 1980, ground was broken on the worship facility and with the help of the Ohio Baptist Builders, was completed in 6 months.  By this time, the church had grown to 100 members.  In December 1983, Pastor Billy accepted a call to serve at a church in Florida, concluding 7 years of effective ministry at Here Hope.

In 1984, Pastor Chris Humphries came as the new pastor at a time when the Perry Nuclear Power Plant was being built.  This construction brought a tremendous growth to the area in economics as well as people.  Over 96 new Christians were baptized during the next 3 years.  In 1989, additional education space was begun which added over 5000 square feet for bible study and fellowship.  This was completed in 1991.

In addition, the church's name was changed from "Madison Southern Baptist Church" to "Here's Hope Baptist Church" in 1991.  During this time, the power plant was completed and there was a significant decline in the population of the area and in the membership.  In May 1991, Pastor Humphries left and by 1992, Pastor Tim Ellis was called to serve the church as the new pastor.  Under Tim's leadership, attendance grew to the mid sixties and the church experienced several significant improvements. 

By 1996, Tim was called to become the Area Mission Director for Ohio  By 1997, Rev. James Obrecht was called to serve as the new pastor.  In August 2000, Rev. Obrecht resigned to take a position as a pastor in Florida.  During the time before the next pastor arrived, the church dedicated itself to becoming debt free. On Sunday November 18, 2001, the church celebrated its 25th anniversary and the paying off of its debt. 

2002

In May 2002, the church extended a call to Rev. Bob Higgins and his family to come as the new pastor.  The church also joined with Painesville Baptist Church to ordain Bob on May 19th, 2002.  In just a short time, Here's Hope grew to over 70 in attendance on Sunday mornings while remaining a family atmosphere that allows strong friendships and relationships to take place in people's lives. 

2003

Spring of 2003 held some exciting new encounters for the church.  We held a Passover Seder with a Messianic Jewish Rabbi at the church on April 6th.  The following week the church participated in the first church-wide retreat (April 11-12) with the theme "Building a Safe Harbor."  Over 40 persons participated in the retreat.  The first Spiritual Awakening Weekend hosted Rev. Bernie Gillespie on June 14-15th of 2003. 

Our Vacation Bible School in July 2003 was one of the most powerful VBS's in our church's history.  We had over 53 children in attendance, coupled with our Youth VBS, and our adult helpers, led our total to exceed 80 people this year.  This was fully triple our previous year's attendance, with 30 first time children in attendance, and 8 decisions for Christ.  There was a strong sensation among all of the adult workers this year that God "was doing something special."  On the closing Sunday, (during which we have a children's program), 133 people were in attendance. 

Fall of 2003 began another change in our congregation in which a Young Women's Class was formed, led by Jennifer Higgins (our pastor's wife).  As these younger women began to find their place in connecting, our Sunday morning bible study attendance nearly doubled.

2004

In January of 2004, God began to do something quite remarkable.  It began with a powerful work of the Holy Spirit in one family's life, and by February, 5 people had come to Christ, and Sunday morning attendance had grown to over 100.  By fall of 2004, we had baptized 19 people in the previous 12 months and for the year of 2004, we had 20 adults take membership along with the 15 children belonging to them.

2005

Our vacation bible school of 2005 was another benchmark as nearly 100 children participated, and over 200 people participated in our closing service on Sunday.

We also began our "Making Room for Others" capital fund raising campaign to expand the parking lot, paving it and connecting into the township sewer.  Engineering drawings were approved in July 2005 and construction should begin in Spring 2006. 

In September of 2005, the church approved a motion by our deacons to form a position of "Interim Worship Minister," a part-time ministerial position geared toward leading our church in the very important task of encountering God each Sunday morning.  This position's funding has been approved in our 2006 budget. 

2006

On February 12, Micah Mills began as our Minister of Worship.  He and his wife Kara, are recent graduates of Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky.  They are pursuing a long-term calling to be career missionaries.  In addition to working with Here's Hope Baptist Church, Micah is also working for Cleveland Hope, assisting churches with their evangelistic efforts.

During the summer of 2006, Here's Hope, in partnership with Cleveland Hope (a strategic city initiative of the North American Mission Board) conducted 5 significant outreach events.  Five different mission teams from across the country partnered with Here's Hope to assist us in reaching our community.  Over 70 professions of faith were recorded as a direct result of these partnerships.  Two of these were very significant:  Vacation Bible School recorded over 100 children in attendance and over 270 in attendance during our closing celebration.  We conducted an Upward Soccer Camp which had over 230 registrants and 170 children attending.  Of these, 35 recorded professions of faith. 

The "Making Room for Others" project got into high gear during the late summer of this year as the sewer tie-in was completed, permitting the expansion of the parking lot after the removal of the septic field.  The original parking lot was paved while an additional 70 parking spaces were formed of packed gravel behind the building. 

Micah Mills resigned his position as Minister of Worship in December to be the worship leader for a church plant in Cleveland Ohio. 

2007

On January 1st, Debbie Stoltz began as our Music Director, facilitating and planning worship as well as leading the Praise Team. 

In March, a collegiate team of 66 students from Arkansas and Alabama canvassed the city of Madison seeking the prayer needs of residents.  They distributed over 1500 door hangers and recorded nearly 200 prayer requests, of which 60 provided information for us to follow up on their prayer concerns. 

During the summer of 2007, Here's Hope, in partnership with Cleveland Hope, conducted 4 outreach events.  Five different mission teams from churches from around the country assisted with a children's Drama Camp, a Vacation Bible School, a Sports Camp, Backyard Bible clubs at Western Reserve, and Construction and Repair for homes in our Pockets of Pain ministry.  There were many professions of faith and many families touched positively for Christ. 

In the fall of 2007, a shift in our worship ministry took place that made it possible for a greater participation in worship by our congregation and greater freedom for the Spirit of God to influence our worship experience.  We are still seeing the effects!

2008

As we began 2008, our church embarked on a lengthy study of the grace of God.  Our 

shared experience during the next few months helped many of us to learn that we are loved unconditionally and irrevocably. This led to a deeper expression of our love for God during corporate and private worship.  

By fall of 2008, God led our church to conduct a church wide day of fasting and prayer that began at noon on Saturday, September 20th and concluded after worship service on the 21st.  We asked the members to pray about God's leading for our church's future and our mission in the year ahead.  Many profound insights and revelations were shared during the service and were incorporated into our church's vision and mission statement.  Coincident with this time, the pastor began a sermon series on "Living the Supernatural Life" as well as our church body began studying "Experiencing God" on Sunday evenings.  We began to see God's purposes dovetail and overlap as we believe God is taking our church family into a new expression of His plan for His Kingdom.