Hope Presbyterian Church began as a church planting effort of Grace Presbyterian Church, Hanover Park, Illinois, in 1992. At that time, Rev. Dennis L. Disselkoen was serving as a Teaching Elder at Grace Presbyterian Church. He began a weekly Sunday evening Bible study in Lake County, Illinois. Initially the Bible study started with Rev. Disselkoen, his wife and two other individuals meeting at a Lutheran Church in Grayslake, Illinois. As God’s Word was faithfully taught, other individuals began to attend.
In 1995, the group started holding an evening worship service once a month, with Bible studies continuing on the other weeks. In 1996, the group moved to two worship services a month. For the majority of these services Rev. Disselkoen preached the Word, with other ordained individuals preaching in the remaining services.
In 1997, the group moved out of the Lutheran Church and rented a local Park District building in order to begin weekly morning worship services. Rev. Disselkoen continued to serve as a Teaching Elder under the oversight of Grace Presbyterian Church. With the permission of the Session of Grace Presbyterian Church, Randy Lee, an ordained elder in the PCA worked with Rev. Disselkoen and Rev. Jim Bosgraf, Regional Home Missionary of the Presbytery of the Midwest, to provide leadership to the group.
As the group grew in size, there was a need for additional space, not only for worship, but in order to conduct various Sunday school classes for different age groups and in 1998 the group moved to Antioch High School to accommodate these needs. In April 1999, with a charter membership of eighteen individuals, the congregation established a Presbyterian and Reformed witness in Lake County Illinois, to advance the Kingdom of Christ through the public, corporate worship of God; the nurture of God’s people in the Word of God; and, the proclamation of God’s gospel to the unsaved. The congregation unanimously called Rev. Disselkoen to be the organizing pastor, and with three elders elected from and by the congregation, the congregation was accepted as a particular congregation in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Presbytery of the Midwest.
The church corporation had purchased property in the geographic center of Lake County, and made a decision to meet in a location in Grayslake near that property. So in 1999 the congregation leased a unit in an office park where it could meet both for morning and evening worship, Sunday school and mid-week Bible studies. While in this facility the congregation purchased 100 pew chairs, audio/recording equipment, children’s Sunday school and nursery furniture and a grand piano—all with a view towards having a permanent facility on the property.
The congregation started ministering to others in need by contributing to various foreign and home mission works (a practice that continues to this day) and also by ministering to the elderly by conducting a hymn-sing and worship service on a monthly basis at a local assisted living center. The congregation has also reached out to the local community through door-to-door canvassing.
In 2004, in order to save more money toward a building fund, the congregation moved into the Westlake Christian Academy facility (Grayslake, Illinois) for weekly worship and mid-week Bible study. At this time the Sunday school program expanded to provide more age-appropriate instruction. Contributions to mission works increased as well as the ministry at the assisted living center.
In 2008, the church undertook the oversight of a mission work in the neighboring county (McHenry) to the west. The leadership and the congregation of Hope were excited about the opportunity to mentor and encourage this group to be a faithful witness to Christ in their community.
In March of 2009, the congregation broke ground for its church building. The Lord had blessed the congregation financially, and additional funds were obtained through the Orthodox Presbyterian Church Loan Fund. In March of 2010, the congregation, with thankfulness to God, moved into its new facility to continue and to expand its ministry. Not many years later, the Lord graciously and abundantly blessed us with the means to pay the balance of the loan much sooner than anticipated.
In the spring of 2012, Pastor Disselkoen retired as pastor of the congregation, and we soon formed a pastoral search committee to look for our next pastor. In December 2012, we voted to call Camden Bucey, and on April 26, 2013, he was ordained and installed as pastor. We then called Rev. Bucey to serve as an evangelist on July 1, 2019. We then called Rev. Adam York to serve as pastor, and he was installed on November 8, 2019.
In 2020, our church plant, Christ Covenant, became a particular congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church with its own church officers and building on Illinois Rt. 176 in Crystal Lake. We continue to partner with Christ Covenant in the work of the kingdom and desire to be faithful to the work which God has laid before us in northern Illinois, and particularly, Lake County.