Seven people established the Mount Hope Baptist Church on August 24, 1835, at Red Hill (near present day Arcola). Thaddeus Herndon was chosen as their first pastor. Services were held in homes until 1854, when a sanctuary was finished where "Gumspring Road crosses Old Church Road." Three months after the building was completed, the building debt of $250.00 was liquidated.

In 1878 G.W. Popkins was called as pastor and served until his death in 1931, 53 years in all. Pastor Popkins also preached at Calvary Church and Guilford Church on the weekends, while serving as a tour guide at the Capitol during the week.

 In January 1898 the church voted unanimously to build a new building (our present building), which was completed in time for services to be held in January of 1899. The pews and other furnishings came from a church building being torn down in Washington, DC. Not until 1935 did the electric line reach the church, at which time the church was wired and enjoyed the convenience of electric lighting for the first time. Pastors continued to serve two or three churches at a time, including Calvary Church and a mission church in Sterling.

 The first VBS was held in the early 40's and the Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting was established in 1948. In 1955 Calvary and Mount Hope were both able to afford a full time pastor and so became independent of each other for the first time. In 1956 the church voted to build a parsonage on Waxpool Road, which was completed in 1957. The church voted to build a new educational building in 1960, which was completed in 1962. Newly called Pastor John Gindlesperger cut the ribbon for the new building dedication on April 29th, 1962; he continued to serve as pastor for 31 years until his retirement in December of 1992.

The church went through a couple of years of turmoil beginning in 1994, which led to a decline of its membership, but the situation was restored in 1995, and in September of 1996 the church called Rev. John Farrar to a one-year interim pastorate.  Then, in October 1997, the church called Rev. John Zoller to be its new bi-vocational pastor, with the aim of making the position full time when possible.  Pastor John was then hired full-time in 2000.

This brief history gives only the barest hint of the way in which God worked through the people of Mount Hope over the last hundred and sixty plus years, but it does remind us that there have been faithful men and women who served the Lord here continuously from that day to this. Today Mount Hope stands at the beginning of a new era of potential growth and service, as we follow our Lord and His vision into the twenty-first century.