Life together with Christ.
We are a community rooted in the Great Tradition of the Church, seeking to know Jesus more through worship, study, and shared life.
Our Story
Christ Our Hope is part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church and…our story begins in Rwanda, flows through the ancient church and continues with expectancy. Here it is:
Begins in Rwanda
In 2000, the Province de L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda, or PEAR (Anglican Church of Rwanda) gathered a group of Anglican churches and Anglican missionary priests for a sustained mission in North America.
The witness of the Episcopal Church USA had failed. PEAR gathered this group of missionaries to birth mission-oriented churches within the Anglican tradition – churches that encouraged bold gospel proclamation and clear-minded exposition of Scripture to both Christians and those not believing in Jesus.
In 2008, as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was formed and commissioned in Jerusalem at an event called GAFCON, this movement of PEAR joined in partnership with this new province in America, the ACNA.
Finally, in June of 2016, the Church of Rwanda released its American churches fully into the ACNA Province. While the organization and composition of the mission has shifted through the past fifteen years, our mission in America has remained constant.
We embrace the reality that the center of global Christianity has shifted to the Global South. Churches like Christ Our Hope embody this shift: infused by the evangelical spirit of the East African Revival, tangibly connected to the burgeoning global church, for local ministry in the places where our God has called us as his witnesses (1 Peter 1.1-2).
Pastor Dave was drawn into this stream as a future indigenous missionary to America when he was ordained as a priest in January 2013, in Boise, ID. His wife Amy spent years on staff at a mission church in Chattanooga, TN. After their marriage, they moved back to their home town, Sioux Falls, to see this work continue to bring renewal and healing here. Christ Our Hope stands as an inheritor of this story and maintains strong relational connections to our brothers and sisters in Rwanda.
Our Beliefs
We hold fast to the ancient gospel as delivered by Jesus Christ, contained in the Holy Scriptures, passed on by the Apostles, and safeguarded by the church filled with the Holy Spirit. This faith is affirmed in the historic creeds of the church:
Our Anglican Heritage
As an Anglican church in the ancient tradition, we follow Jesus through whole-life discipleship under the authority of Scripture and within the sacramental life of the Church. Within the larger Anglican Communion, Christ Our Hope merges Three Streams of our Christian heritage: Evangelical, meaning we are committed to the authority of Scripture and the proclamation of the Gospel; Ancient, meaning we are rooted in the historic creeds and worship of the Church; and Charismatic, meaning we expect the Holy Spirit to continue renewing and transforming God’s people.
Worship with us
Sunday mornings at Empower Sioux Falls
9:15 AM – Coffee
10:00 AM – Worship
Our worship follows the historic Anglican liturgy, centered on Scripture, prayer, and the celebration of Holy Communion. We meet each Sunday to seek Christ and grow together as His people.
Our Clergy
Dave Abels
LEAD PASTOR, PRIEST — dave@605hope.orgDave wanted to be a pastor from an early age. He studied at the Moody Bible Institute (Chicago, IL) and Regent College (Vancouver, BC) where he was drawn into the Anglican tradition. After church-planting in West Los Angeles, CA, he was ordained as a missionary priest of the Church of Rwanda in 2011, and pastored in Boise, ID, for five years. Dave married Amy in 2017 and they moved back to their hometown of Sioux Falls to start a family and plant a church.
Justin Richardson
DEACON — Jrich601@gmail.com___
Ken Ross
BISHOPBishop Ken lives in Colorado Springs and serves Christ Our Hope as well as our sister parishes in the Diocese of the Rocky Mountains by praying for, pastoring, and caring for the clergy and overseeing the local church. When Bishop Ken is not traveling to one of the churches in his care, he's likely out enjoying the beauty of Colorado.