Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. These features on members of our NAB family also provide great opportunities to pray for them as we get to know more of their story. This week, we hear from John Cassidy, the lead pastor at Hope Community Church in Antelope, California.
What’s your story?
I was born in Sacramento, California, and raised in Citrus Heights. As a young adult, I moved all over the greater Sacramento area—living in fourteen different places over five years. That season made me love this area even more and helped shape my heart for the communities that call it home.
I grew up in a Christian family. After witnessing a miracle, my parents moved from a Catholic background into a Pentecostal church, and I was brought along. Early on, my understanding of faith was more fear than grace. I was terrified of hell and repeatedly asked Jesus into my heart, hoping I could somehow stay out of trouble with God. As a teenager, I walked away from Jesus altogether. I didn’t understand grace—only failure—and I lived for years believing God was done with me.
When I was 20, something finally clicked. I realized that even though I had walked away from God, he hadn’t walked away from me. For the first time, I began to understand grace—not something I earned, but something freely given. That realization changed everything. I turned back to Jesus, and I’ve been following him ever since.
A few years later, while attending a prayer retreat, I sensed a clear call from God into full-time ministry. I was so certain that I went home and put in my two weeks’ notice at my job—young, unprepared, and without a clear plan. God used that season to teach me dependence and obedience. I served wherever I could, volunteering in youth ministry and prayer gatherings. Three months later, I was hired part time at a Christian school, and shortly after that, the church I was serving stepped out in faith and hired me full time as the Middle School ministry director. That season taught me that God doesn’t wait until you feel ready—he teaches you on the way.
What’s ministry like for you?
My wife Sara and I planted Hope Community Church in 2019 in our living room with twelve people. We serve the community of Antelope in Northern California—a diverse and rapidly growing area where many families have little or no church background. Our heartbeat is simple: we love Jesus and have a passion to share the Gospel with our neighbors.
One of the main reasons we planted in Antelope is the spiritual need. Antelope is home to about 60,000 people, yet only four evangelical churches serve it. Over the past three years, more than 500 new homes have been built, with an additional 450 planned for completion by the end of 2027. Antelope is growing fast, and we need more Gospel presence here—more disciple-makers, more people reaching their neighbors, and more churches rooted in the community.
Over the years, God has transformed lives in ways I couldn’t make up. One story that captures this is the story of Jesse Hall. I first met Jesse while he was kickboxing in his garage, and I invited him to a chili cook-off our church was hosting. He didn’t come—but that invitation sat on his refrigerator for nearly three months. Eventually, Jesse and his wife Erika walked through our doors after being de-churched for years. God grabbed hold of their lives in powerful ways. Today, after several years of discipleship, Jesse serves as one of our elders. He’s a gifted teacher and a bold witness in our community, and he is currently discipling two men who are emerging as future leaders.
Right now, one of our biggest challenges is discerning our future facility and meeting space. The cost of renting the high school where we meet has increased significantly and is no longer sustainable. We’re praying for a permanent home—not just a building, but a home base for ministry where we can put down deep roots and serve this season with an eye and our heart on the next generation.
What are you learning?
In this season, God is teaching me to wait on him and to trust him. Waiting does not come naturally to me, but I’m learning there is real beauty in it. God often gives us more than we can handle—not to overwhelm us but so we learn to depend on him more fully.
A few months ago, I was on an NAB coaching call with a group of church multipliers. One pastor asked for prayer about purchasing a building that cost $350,000. Internally, I almost laughed. I remember thinking, “That’s it? Raise the money and watch what God can do.” In California, that number didn’t feel overwhelming to me at all. Almost immediately, God convicted me. I realized I have a number that feels just as paralyzing. For us, a church building will likely cost closer to $2 million—and that number feels overwhelming. In that moment, it was as if God gently repeated my own words back to me: “Raise the money. Watch what I can do.”
That experience reminded me that what feels impossible to me is never a problem for God. I’m learning to trust him with numbers, timing, and outcomes—and to keep taking faithful steps even when the path forward feels bigger than I am.
In this season, I’m learning to hold both faith and responsibility together—to take faithful steps while trusting God with what I cannot control. More than anything, I want to remain dependent on Jesus and open to whatever he wants to do through our church in the days ahead.
What a blessing it is to be part of the great North American Baptist Conference community. Would you please take a moment to pray for John and Sara Cassidy, as well as Hope Community Church?