Hope Baptist's History

Hope Baptist Church had its first church service on May 19, 2019. It is a church plant out of the First Baptist Bible Church (FBBC) of Glendale, AZ (located near 83rd Ave and Camelback). First Baptist Bible Church's pastor, Scott Naill, has a history of helping begin many church plants in other states around the U.S and has been a church planter himself. First Baptist Bible Church believes that churches birth other churches and the Biblical way of starting a church is by one church sending out a man to start a new church. Right now, Hope Baptist Church members are "officially" members of FBBC until the church is organized and chartered into its own individual church in the future. 

Johnathan Illsley, Pastor

Pastor Illsley is a native of North Phoenix, graduating from Barry Goldwater High School and attending Cornerstone Baptist Church most of his childhood. After graduating from Heartland Baptist Bible College with a pastoral degree in 2009, he worked on the pastoral staff of a church in Rio Rancho, NM for over 5 years.  His ministry experience has included leading the music and choir, leading Master Clubs, being a police chaplain, and teaching children and adults in various classes.  Moving back to the valley in 2015, he  and his family assisted Pastor Scott Naill to start Pleasant Valley Baptist Church (PVBC) in north Phoenix and gained some experience for planting Hope Baptist. In August of 2017, Pastor Naill and the rest of PVBC merged with First Baptist Bible Church (FBBC) in Glendale and Johnathan became the music director shortly thereafter.

During the time in PVBC and FBBC, he worked in the Sunnyslope neighborhood and began to become burdened for the community's need for the gospel. In March of 2018, God burdened his heart to begin preparing to start Hope Baptist Church. On March 26, 2019 he was ordained and sent by FBBC to begin this new work with his family.

​Johnathan and Erica were married in September of 2004 and have been married for 16 years.  They have six children and have been homeschooling for many years.  They serve the Lord together especially in music ministry and singing as a family. 

Our Goals | What we plan to do in Sunnyslope

​Our goal is to establish Hope Baptist Church to be a self-supporting Body of Christ by:
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1. Reaching people with the Gospel of Christ.
2. Baptizing people that have trusted in Christ.
3. Discipling people to become like Christ and helping mature Christians continue to grow and develop their walk with the Lord.