In 1995, the Leake family left Maryland for California where Tom would attend The Master’s Seminary, not knowing where God would lead them afterwards and having no expectation of planting a church. However, while he was in seminary, God gave him a growing burden for church planting, and the need seemed particularly evident back home in Maryland. Not having any support from other churches or organizations, Tom shared his burden with Dr. Alan Plumley, whom he eventually convinced to help him plant a church. Before returning to Maryland, Tom communicated his vision to many friends and ministry contacts, challenging them to help with the church plant. Although many were encouraging, only the Leakes, Plumleys, and three other families committed to the church plant by January 1997. During the six months prior to the Leakes’ return from California, Tom and Alan led this core group of five families (using taped or written messages from Tom and other forms of communication) in planning for the formal start of the church. Newly-ordained Pastor Tom Leake and his family returned to Maryland in early July of 1997, and the inaugural service of the new church was held on July 13th.

In the beginning, our name was Grace Discipleship Church. We met in a small commercial space on Main Street in Laurel, which was owned by and graciously made available to us by Robin Zeender’s dad, Elmer Williams, who also had a heart for church planting.

Membership and attendance grew very slowly for the first few years. Although the Lord added five more families in the first year, we were still very small. We focused on the basics: worship, preaching and teaching the Word, fellowship, and evangelism. For the first several years, we shared a fellowship lunch together every Sunday as we built strong relationships. In October 1999, the Baltimore area was experiencing fierce thunderstorms virtually every day. On a Friday evening, just two days prior to our next Lord’s Day, one member driving by the building noticed some fluorescent stickers on the windows. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the Laurel City Hall had deemed the building unsafe for occupation and we were, in essence, “evicted.”

Without a place to worship, the church body was relegated to meeting in the Zeender’s backyard for three consecutive Sundays. By God’s grace, although the storms persisted from Monday through Saturday, He provided three beautiful sunny Sundays for us to meet. We were in awe.

During this three-week period, the Lord made Fulton Elementary School available, and so we began our “short stay” there on the fourth Sunday after we were forced to vacate our previous location. It was at Fulton Elementary School that we began setting up and tearing down our entire worship environment each and every Sunday by unloading and reloading our donated truck, everything from pulpits to platforms to sound equipment to decorations. We were incredibly blessed by the faithfulness of many of our members who would arrive early and stay late so that we could hear the exposited Word and worship God “in spirit and in truth.” At about this same time, we changed our name to Hope Bible Church.

Slowly, more and more people from all walks of life, ages and ethnicities came, being attracted to the small church with strong Bible teaching and a caring family atmosphere. The church grew and ministries expanded more steadily in the ensuing years. Although we anticipated a 2-year stay at Fulton Elementary School, the Lord, in His perfect timing, had us there for 10 years before He provided a 7-day a week location on Oakland Mills Road in Columbia in January 2010.

Still desiring to own instead of lease, our Building Search Committee continued looking for a church home. For years, everything that would work for our future expansion, parking, and the like, was out of our price range.  One building in particular (our current home) was so expensive, that our people didn’t even bother to consider it. Additionally, we were locked into two leases that were binding until 2023.  The Lord moved mountains for us, however, by finding two organizations to assume our leases, providing a local bank that desired to work with us, and dropping the price of the building by almost 29%, thereby making it affordable enough for us to pursue it! When all was said and done, Hope Bible Church was able to move into its current 55,000 square foot home on Guilford Road in 2017 which now allows us to create a permanent and meaningful presence to and for the people in and around Columbia, MD who are desiring strong expositional teaching of God’s Word as well as meaningful fellowship with hundreds of other Christ-lovers.

With about 450 people gathering weekly, it has become clear that God is building Hope Bible Church in His own sovereign way for His own glory. We are actively preparing for what we believe will be a dynamic, God-honoring, Bible-centered ministry for many years to come. We are delighted that you have already or are considering joining with us in this great work!