In 1979, a group of Sioux Center residents gathered in a pizza parlor and talked about
starting a Lutheran church. At the time, the community was mostly various Reformed
churches. This church would be one of the first non-Reformed churches in town. After
many discussions over the next couple of years, the Hope Lutheran Church held its first
organized worship service on June 7, 1981, Pentecost Sunday.
The four couples and their families began meeting at the Upper Crust Pizza place,
(roughly where Late Harvest Brewery is now located).
In 1982 it was officially recognized as an organized church by the American Lutheran
Church. As more people joined the church, they moved their meetings to the basement
of the Sioux Center Library. From 1983 to 1987 this little Lutheran congregation met in
the library basement. Also in 1983 the church also purchased two lots of land on the
south end of Sioux Center, a hopeful vision for what the future might bring. In 1987, the
church built its first building on those lots, and Hope Lutheran Church had a permanent
home.
As time passed, the church became a landing place for people who were new to the
community and without family connections to the area churches. The congregation
became peppered with educators and grocery store managers, people who simply
wanted to be part of a Lutheran Church and families who found Hope to be a good
middle ground.
As the church grew, so did the need for space, and in 2004 Hope began to build again,
adding onto that first building. On April 17, 2005, Hope had a dedication for the “new
addition” part of the church. Over its 45 years, Hope has been home to more than 450
members—full of people who did not grow up in the community but spent a portion of
their lives investing in it.