In celebration of five decades of spiritual guidance and service to the community, Living Hope Baptist Church is hosting a series of special events throughout the year mark its golden 50th anniversary.

“We are excited to celebrate 50 years of God’s faithfulness of leading Living Hope to care for our city and world,” said Jason Pettus, senior pastor at Living Hope Baptist. “It’s kind of hard to believe, but we’ve got the pictures to prove it.”

Each Sunday, Living Hope will highlight The Heart of Living Hope, a year-long series exploring the many parables Jesus taught in the New Testament. In addition, the church is planning to host a variety of special “LH50” events.

From now until Feb. 18, church leaders and members of the congregation are reading through the Bible out loud and spending time in prayer.

“It’s just such a beautiful picture of what we are about as a Christian faith family,” Pettus said. “We are the people of the Word and who pray, trusting in the God of the Scriptures and what He says, and what He’s promised.”

Then on March 29, the church will plant their “Jubilee Tree” to follow the traditions of the Old Testament in celebrating “the liberation of others from any kind of bondage so that everyone could begin again.”

“We are going to plant our Jubilee Tree in the front of the church and celebrate God’s faithfulness for 50 years,” said Pettus, “and really to speak to the fact that He’s not done, this is a new beginning and we are excited about our future.”

July 5 will mark Living Hope’s official birthday party celebration. The church held its first service on July 4, 1976, with members meeting either in a funeral home or at a picnic shelter in the park, learning of each week’s location for Sunday service the night before through a chain of phone calls amongst members.

“One family would call the next family who called the next family, so that’s how they knew where they were going meet on any given Sunday, and it’s so crazy for me to think that that’s where this place began.”

The church’s birthday will also mark a personal milestone for Pettus.

“When the church celebrates its 50th, I’ll actually celebrate my 25th, so I will have been the pastor for half of the church’s life come this summer,” he said. “God has been very gracious and kind to me to let me be here. I never dreamed that I would get to stay here this long and to be a part of so many miracles of changed lives…To get to be a part of the story of what God is doing at Living Hope, it just thrills my heart that that God has allowed me to get to be a part of this.”

Festivities will continue on Sept. 20 when the entire body of Living Hope Baptist of around 3,000 souls will gather for a church picnic at Jackson’s Orchard. Pettus said he is excited for the picnic since it will bring together the whole congregation, which is usually split into multiple services each Sunday.

“I love being with all of our people at the same time,” he said. “We don’t see everybody all together very often just because of space constraints and so I think I’m most looking forward to that.”

On Nov. 20 and 21, the church will host its Ignite Missions Conference. The president of the International Mission Board, Dr. Paul Chitwood, is set to be the keynote speaker and Living Hope plans to fly in most of its missionaries from all over the country and the world to be home for the celebration.

Pettus noted all events are open to the public.

“We want to invite others to come and be a part of it,” he said. “But I want to make it very clear that what what we’re celebrating is not what we have done because we’re so smart. We’re celebrating what God has done to be gracious to sinners, and to transform our lives for His glory and our good, and it really is a humble happy celebration.”

To learn more about the LH50 events, visit livehopeful.com/lh50.