Meet the Team

Pastor

Ben Claypool

Ben believes that the Christian life is about more than simply knowing about Jesus—it is about becoming more like Him. His passion is helping people know Jesus, grow in their faith, and become disciples who make disciples. He loves teaching God's Word in a way that is both faithful to Scripture and practical for everyday life, believing that life transformation happens as people learn to love Jesus, learn from Jesus, and live for Jesus.

Ben earned his undergraduate degree in Student Ministry from Geneva College and later completed his Master of Divinity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He has served in pastoral ministry for many years and is grateful for the opportunity to shepherd the New Hope family. He is excited to serve alongside the church as together they help people discover new hope, new life, new family, and new purpose through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ben and his wife, Stephanie, have a son and a daughter. When he isn't at church, you'll usually find him golfing, fishing, hunting, reading a good book, or cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'll gladly tell you that the Penguins won their first Stanley Cup on his birthday in 1991—a fact he considers one of life's greatest trivia answers! He also enjoys great stories, from C.S. Lewis to Star Wars, because he believes every good story ultimately points to the greatest story ever told.

Administrative Assistant

Marcia Kramer

Marcia keeps things running at New Hope, and handles our finances and administrative tasks. She has a very diverse work experience, including working in the candy department at GC Murphy, overseeing payment intake at SB McWreath, serving as a nurse's aide at Washington Hospital, in-home senior care, dog-sitting, and in-home childcare. She has three grown daughters, and four grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys reading (sometimes up to a book a day), cooking and baking (her peanut butter meltaways are famous), and spending time with her kids and grandkids.

Facilities Manager

Tom Bennett

Tom spent the first 23 years of his career as the exclusive ice maker and supplier for the Washington County area. The last 20 years of his career, he worked for a pigments and glass enamel manufacturer, making the glass enamel that surrounds windshields. In his free time, Tom enjoys caring for his 3.5 acre property, dabbling in home repairs, and putzing around the church fixing things and making people feel loved and welcomed.

Worship Leader

Susan Patz

Susan is a lifelong musician, learning the guitar at 5 years old and then adding saxophone and piano. She never sang as a child, but learned as an adult when she started writing music. She grew up singing old hymns with her mom around the house, then discovered contemporary Christian music. She sees music as a bridge to connect us to God in a special way, and loves leading our congregation into a joyful experience of God.

WHAT WE'RE ABOUT...

OUR VISION

Our vision is to be a Christ-centered community devoted to discipleship, spiritual growth, glorifying God, and serving others.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to connect people to Jesus, nurture spiritual growth, and serve our community in Christ’s love.

OUR VALUES

Biblically Centered: We trust and teach God’s Word as our authority, comfort and guide for daily living.

Christlike Living: We seek to honor Jesus in all we do, grounding our lives and ministry in the Word and prayer.

Genuine Community: We foster a loving church family where people are encouraged, supported, and connected across generations.

Gospel Outreach: We are passionate about sharing the hope, truth, and love of Jesus locally and beyond through word and action.

Worship and Prayer: We value heartfelt worship and a lifestyle of prayer as essential to spiritual growth and our relationship with God.

Strong Generations: We strive to equip every generation to follow Christ faithfully and contagiously.

Spirit-Filled Living: We seek to honor Jesus in all we do, living lives that are empowered and led by God’s Spirit.

OUR THEOLOGICAL BELIEFS

We believe in and worship the only true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who is both one essence and three persons, being both co-eternal, and co-equal. God is the source of all goodness, all truth and all beauty, of all love and all life, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

We believe in God the Father, revealed to us as the principle of the Godhead, The Holy and Hallowed name from whom are all things and for whom we exist. The Father designed and organized how mankind would be redeemed. He set into motion a complex set of events, actions, and prophecies that culminated in the life and death of a Savior.

We believe in Jesus Christ, who is both truly God and truly human. Jesus is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, being of one substance with the Father; He is eternally begotten of the Father. Jesus, who for us, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, died, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; from where He will come again to judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son as our comforter and advocate. We are able to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and God only through the work of the Holy Spirit. He comes to us as He came to the gathered disciples at Pentecost: to dwell in all believers, to kindle our faith, to embolden our witness, and to accompany us in mission.

We believe in the Bible as the very Word of God, the clearest declaration of God’s glory. The Scripture of the Old and New Testament is our infallible guide to reveal our disobedient nature, our tutor to lead us to Christ, and our rule of faith and life. We affirm that the Holy Spirit inspired the writing and preservation of the infallible Scriptures. The Holy Spirit testifies to the authority of God’s Word and illumines our hearts and minds to receive the wisdom and knowledge of God’s revelation to humanity.

We believe in God’s grace in Christ so that those who are united through faith in Jesus Christ are fully forgiven from all our sin, so that there is indeed a new creation. We are declared justified, not because of any good that we have done, but only because of God’s grace extended to us in Jesus Christ.

We believe in the Covenant life in the church where we are elect in Christ to become members of the community of the new covenant. This covenant, which God Himself guarantees, unites us to God and to one another. In Christ, we are adopted into the family of God and find our new identity as brothers and sisters of one another, since we now share one Father.

We believe in the sanctity of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman as established by God at the creation. As unmarried believers we are to embrace a celibate life as established by Jesus in the new covenant.

We believe in the sanctity of life which begins at conception and recognize and honor the image of God in every human being from conception to natural death.

We believe in the desire to live in obedience to the Word of God. Our journey together to progress in holiness is an expected response of gratitude to the grace of God, which is initiated, sustained, and fulfilled by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The mark of the Christian life is love; to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.

We believe… in Jesus Christ we see the perfect expression of God’s holy will for human beings offered to God in our place. His holy life must now become our holy life. In Christ, God’s will is now written on our hearts, and we look forward to the day when we will be so confirmed in holiness that we will no longer be able to sin. As the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, Jesus leads us along the path of life toward that goal, bringing us into ever deeper intimacy with the Triune God, in whose presence is fullness of joy.