When Pastor Clayton Paull picked up the phone in December 2024, he knew his congregation needed drastic change.
Hope Kingsburg (California) had seen a slow decline in attendance for a few years, never fully recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic, the resignation of a few youth pastors and the exodus of families with children that followed. Even before, trends in the previous 12 years had shown church demographics to be older in age and smaller in number, with fewer children, youth and young families.
It wasn’t for lack of effort or heart, Paull says. The congregation simply lacked energy and boots on the ground to do the work.
When average attendance dropped from 90 to 50, church elders met with Pacific District Conference minister Jordan Ringhofer to process, pray and discuss options for a path forward.
As former lead pastor of Hope Kingsburg from 2014-20, Ringhofer brought a unique perspective to the table. Ringhofer knew that even the church’s three-year vision project and corresponding name change in 2018—from Kingsburg MB Church to Hope Kingsburg: A Mennonite Brethren Church, or Hope Kingsburg for short—was a call to action, he says.
Now, Ringhofer presented a new option—merging with another MB church.
A proposal
So, that day in December, on the other end of Paull’s phone call was Forrest Jenan, lead pastor of Neighborhood Church, an MB congregation of 2,000 about 20 miles down the road in Visalia. Would Neighborhood be interested in expanding its reach with a second campus in Kingsburg, Paull asked?
For Jenan, the idea of expansion had not been a serious consideration. Neighborhood had other irons in the fire with a nonprofit organization, efforts aimed at tackling generational poverty and assisting children through school, and a new community center project.
But a few key pieces seemed to line up—Hope Kingsburg was not only within the MB family, it was also within the ideal geographic radius of a campus location, and numerous Neighborhood attendees already drove from the Kingsburg area to Visalia for church—so Jenan entertained the idea.
Conversations continued as leaders explored the proposal and eventually presented it to the Hope Kingsburg congregation, who spent months discerning and praying. Jenan hosted town hall meetings to listen and answer questions and invited Hope Kingsburg members to come to Visalia to check out the church.
Jenan says he was honest about what the change would mean.
“We talked about death,” he says. “We talked about grief. And we tried to cast vision.”
It was, for some, a hard reality to stomach that Hope Kingsburg would close and reopen as a Neighborhood campus. For all their commonalities—both birthed from Dinuba MB Church, both community-focused—the differences in leadership structure and decision-making methods loomed large. This wouldn’t be a partnership as much as an absorption, merging two faith communities of people into one.
In the end, the opportunities outweighed the cost, and on April 28, 2025, the Hope Kingsburg congregation voted with 92% support to become a campus of Neighborhood Church. Kathy Heinrichs Wiest, chair of the Hope Kingsburg worship ministries team, speaks to the tension between anticipation and grief.
“When I see all the baptisms and testimonies Neighborhood Church highlights on their Instagram, I love envisioning those things happening in our facility,” she says. “We’re handing over to Neighborhood a lot of resources. To think about that being used by the Lord to further ministry in Kingsburg is hopeful, but at the same time, it’s a huge loss. It’s a death of something we’ve loved.”
Ringhofer, too, acknowledges that change is hard.
“As the (district minister), I grieve with our church for the loss,” he says. “But also, I’m so grateful that God’s provided a way for us to move forward in something that is appearing to be bigger and better than we could have ever imagined.”
Looking back, looking ahead
With a plan in place, Neighborhood invited Kingsburg attendees to connection events over the summer, including a bowling activity and a worship and prayer night with catered dinner.
Hope Kingsburg, meanwhile, held a series of Legacy Sundays attended by former pastors and spouses. At the Sept. 21 Homecoming Sunday, everyone who has been part of the church celebrated and remembered all God has done since the church formally organized in 1962.
Ministries throughout the years have included starting the Happy Days preschool, Wednesday evening programs, a community garden, a live nativity walk-through and partnering with the Kingsburg Community Assistance Program.
“The greatest successes of Hope Kingsburg’s history and legacy have been when it has done things that are strictly for the community,” Ringhofer says. “And that’s the connection with Neighborhood Church. ‘FOR Visalia’ is their short tagline. That’s why this connection fits so well.”
Hope’s final, forward-looking Vision Sunday service on Sept. 28 passed the baton to Neighborhood in anticipation of what God has yet to do.
Finding new life
Starting in October, the Kingsburg campus closed for two months for upgrades and renovations. Two large projects include turning one wing into a kids’ ministry space and creating a patio area outside the worship center, Jenan says. Neighborhood invited Hope Kingsburg attendees to Visalia in the interim before the church reopens on Dec. 7 as a campus, almost a year to the day after Paull’s initial phone call.
Jordan Brokaw, Neighborhood Church growth pastor, will serve as campus pastor in Kingsburg, while others have been hired to lead worship and oversee kids’ ministry. Paull will join the Neighborhood staff in a yet-to-be-determined capacity.
The Kingsburg campus seats 150 and will launch with two services. Jenan anticipates attendees to be a mix of three groups, including Neighborhood attendees who live near Kingsburg, Hope Kingsburg attendees and unchurched people from the region.
For Neighborhood, it’s an opportunity to expand its reach to a new city, and leaders have already reached out to the superintendent of schools and city manager offering to help.
“We are extending what God is already doing right here,” Jenan said in a May 18 sermon announcing the new opportunity to the Visalia congregation. “I’m convinced that every community deserves to have at least one church like ours, that’s outward-facing, that’s committed to adding value to their city and a place where unchurched people love to attend.”
For Hope Kingsburg, this is not the end of the story, Paull says, just as Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end, but rather the beginning of new life. Paull likens it to the story in John 12 about the kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, producing many seeds.
“We can choose to allow ourselves to die in such a way that God can birth something new from within it,” Paull says. “It will look different moving forward, but this is not the end of the church.”
Ringhofer is hopeful this might be a model for other churches to consider.
“Ultimately, if a church closes but then is replaced by a church that has a vibrant, active, evangelical, Anabaptist ministry and witness that’s seeing people come to know Jesus and changes the community, that’s not a church closing,” Ringhofer says. “That’s a church finding new life.”
To learn more about this new campus and watch a short video, visit HelloKingsburg.com.
SPECIAL FEATURE: Experience the story of Hope Kingsburg’s transition through the eyes of Aliya Ayers, a student at Biola University.
A history of Hope Kingsburg
1962
Sunday services begin in Kingsburg with 45 charter members. Kingsburg MB Church is formally organized.
1963
Groundbreaking ceremony on five acres of land at current location purchased for $15,000.
1979
Happy Days School begins, offering a daycare, a morning preschool program and an after-school program.
1995
Bethlehem Experience live nativity walk-through begins.
1997
Membership hits a high of 264.
2003
Iglesia Agua Viva, a Spanish-speaking MB congregation, begins meeting at the facility.
2017
A community garden is developed on church property with 24 plots for rent.
2018
Church name changes to Hope Kingsburg: A Mennonite Brethren Church.
2025
Hope Kingsburg closes and reopens as a campus of Neighborhood Church.
Photos from Hope Kingsburg
Click on the images below to view larger files.
Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor. She joined the CL staff in September 2017 with six years of experience as a professional journalist. Shafer is an award-winning writer, having received three 2016 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence and two Evangelical Press Association Higher Goals awards in 2022 and 2025. Shafer graduated from Tabor College in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in Communications/Journalism and Biblical/Religious Studies. She and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.
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