There is Hope for Sin City, USA. Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Church in Woodstock, reasoned that the burgeoning city of Las Vegas, known for its gambling casinos and sexually provocative stage shows, was the perfect setting for a new church start. Hunt’s vision has now found expression in a supercharged body of believers who have moved into their first church facility at 180 East Pebble Road in Las Vegas, Nevada. In fact, Hope Baptist Church had the grand opening for its new facilities in anticipation of 1,200 worshipers June 26-27.

Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in North America. Projections have its population doubling in 15 years to 3.5 million people. Within a 4-mile radius of the new church facility there are 250,000 people and Hope is the only evangelical church that has a building within that section of the city. There are one million people who live in the Las Vegas valley who profess no religious preference whatsoever. However, Hope Church and pastor Vance Pitman have taken on the city as their spiritual project.

 

Called to Vegas

In early 2000 Hunt was speaking at a men’s conference at Kirbywood Church in Memphis when he met Pitman, a church staff member and son of the pastor, Bob Pitman. Near the end of the conference, Hunt approached Pitman and said, “Vance, First Baptist of Woodstock is going to plant a church in Las Vegas. I believe you are the man God wants to use to fulfill that vision.”

Pitman’s response was positive from the beginning. He explained, “Months before Johnny came to our church, God had been at work in my heart. I had read Luke 4:43 where Jesus said, ‘I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also.’ I didn’t know where God would send us or when we would leave Memphis, but we had put our ‘yes’ on the table and were ready to go wherever God led.”

Pitman added, “We were surprised that Las Vegas would become our mission field. Initially, I thought this city was just one step from hell – maybe not hell itself, but close enough to smell it.”

However, after living in Las Vegas for 3 1/2 years, Pitman has changed his attitude about the city. He remarked, “This is a family-friendly city. If I could choose to live anywhere, I would choose to live right here.”

Pitman continued, “If you were to ask Kristie (Pitman’s wife) if she would want to leave Las Vegas she would say, ‘It would kill us to leave this city.’ I’d like to remain here for my entire ministry.”

 

Beginning a church

The Pitman family moved to Las Vegas just before Christmas of 2000. Mike Laughrun, the small groups pastor, and Jeff Riley, the worship pastor, soon joined Pitman to help in the start-up of the new church.

The first gathering was February 3, 2001 at the Pitman home with 19 in attendance. Even in that very first gathering, it was obvious that God was beginning a work in Las Vegas that was going to bring glory to Him. How could people that evening from Atlanta to Alaska, from the Virgin Islands to the Philippines, from East Coast to West Coast have met so precisely in time with such a common goal and spirit?

Reflecting upon that first meeting, Pitman recalls, “Every eye filled with tears at the realization of being involved in what had begun long ago in the heart of God. What had been a mere vision was becoming reality.”

Hope quickly grew in attendance at the Pitman home. Soon it was necessary to find a larger facility to accommodate the growing church. For a brief period of time the church met in a dance/recording studio owned by former NFL quarterback and UNLV star Randall Cunningham, a strong Christian and friend of Pitman.

 

Birthing other churches

Pitman proclaims, “It was never about growing a church but about expanding the Kingdom. In fact, we really didn’t come here to plant a church, but to plant a church that would multiply itself through the planting of other churches. We wanted to church a city.”

Already the church has planted Life Church in west Las Vegas and has plans to begin another church on the north side of the city within the next few months. “But,” Pitman declares, “it’s got to be a church with a heart for the nation.”

First Church in Woodstock and the North American Mission Board, along with several other churches, helped Hope financially during the early stages of the church’s development, but Pitman points to prayer as the key to all the blessings the church has experienced. He exclaimed, “We don’t pray before we work. Prayer is the work; then God works.”

 

“Hope” stories

Jan Lamb, the pastor’s assistant, remarked, “Just about everyone here has their own “Hope” story. My husband and I, along with our 14-year-old daughter, Layne, were happy in our church in Shelbyville, Tennessee, but pastor Vance came to our church to talk about the starting of this church; and each of us independently knew that God wanted us to leave our home, our work, our family and our church to help him start the church here in Las Vegas. It has been an awesome experience.”

Chip Riggs, who had one of the most strategic church staff positions in the nation at First Baptist in Woodstock, is now Pitman’s right hand man as pastor of missions and administration at Hope. Riggs had helped Pitman with some of the initial planning of the Las Vegas church from his vantage point in Woodstock. When asked how Pitman managed to get Riggs to become a part of Hope Church, he explained, “He just got too close and fell in.”

Pitman describes the church worship experiences as contemporary in style, but at the same time he is committed to preaching expository sermons as he goes through books of the Bible. He has been preaching through the Gospel of John for 2 1/2 years and is presently on chapter 12. He explains, “The only thing that gives me authority is the Word of God.”

Pitman recalled, “The first week we were in Las Vegas I got a call from Letty, a woman from the Philippines. She had moved to Hong Kong to serve an American family. That family moved to Woodstock for a brief period of time and then on to Las Vegas. Letty continued to move with the family from place to place. While they were in Woodstock, she had attended First Baptist about six times.”

Letty and the family she served could find no church in Las Vegas like the one they had come to love in Georgia. In Letty’s call to Pitman she said, “I have been praying that First Baptist in Woodstock would start a church in Las Vegas.”

Pitman remarked, “We did not come out here to start anything. We just came to get in on what God had already started. The fields are white unto harvest and God has already done much. But we have not yet begun to see what He is going to do.”