New Hope Church started as a small group led by Bob and Sandie Anderson in their home in 1987…
From its beginning, our church has valued authentic relationships expressed through personal discipleship and purposeful, intimate communities. Bob and Sandie desired for New Hope to be a church that functioned beyond the four walls of a building and where people were equipped to advance the Gospel in the local community and to the ends of the earth.
Bob and Sandie have always had a heart for college students and were the founders of a campus ministry now called Christian Challenge at K-State in 1972. New Hope Church and Christian Challenge have always been closely connected. The value of reaching college students with the Gospel continues to be evident in the life of our church as there have always been a large percentage of students and campus ministers who attend New Hope.
Over the years New Hope has met in various locations on Sunday mornings—from the Anderson’s basement, to a Show Biz Pizza, to a hotel, to our current meeting space in Flint Hills Christian School (and a few spots in between). Out of our desire to pursue relationships over buildings and events, New Hope has continually been committed to meeting as the church outside of Sunday mornings. Small groups have met and continue to meet in people’s homes out in the community throughout the week.
New Hope purchased land on two different occasions with the intent of eventually building a structure for our Central Gathering. However, over the years, it became increasingly clear that the best way to steward that land was to sell it and build a centrally located office and study center. Through an unlikely scenario, God provided the perfect location, strategically located between K-State, Aggieville, and City Park. The Greenhouse was built in 2013 debt free from the sale of the land, which had appreciated significantly. The Greenhouse provides a great space for our church offices, our library, study space, private meeting rooms for discipleship and counseling, and an open basement for medium-sized gatherings.
We still have lots of room to grow. We look forward to better welcoming, equipping and sending people to invest deeply in our city and throughout the world wherever God takes them.
Our Unique Opportunity
During the school year, the greater Manhattan community is over 54,000 people strong. During breaks at Kansas State University, that number can drop below 30,000. In addition to the built-in turnover from the university, a strong contingent of Fort Riley families choose to live in Manhattan during their assignment.
Wild population swings and the highly transient nature of the Manhattan community could be viewed as obstacles for building a healthy church. However, New Hope chooses to embrace these characteristics as a God-given opportunity to share the Gospel and multiply our reach. By pursuing healthy, Gospel-centered relationships, engaging in disciplemaking, and developing servant leaders, New Hope believes that we are equipping and enabling saints to have a reproducible and sustainable impact for the Gospel not only in Manhattan, but wherever God leads them next. This is the essence of our “Greenhouse” vision -- to nurture and grow Christ-followers with the goal of planting them out in their world.