About | One Ancient Hope Presbyterian Church

Our Staff

Will Bankston

Pastor

Will was called by One Ancient Hope to pastor the congregation in April of 2021. He is originally from Indianapolis, and he became a Christian during his freshman year at Purdue University. He holds a Master of Divinity and a PhD in Theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he previously ministered in both Vietnam and the Chicago area. He is married to Kristin, and they have five kids (from oldest to youngest): Ezra, Oren, Maxwell, Lucy, and Margot. The whole family loves living in Iowa City and participating in the local culture and community. Will enjoys reading, running, camping, Cubs baseball, and gathering friends and family around a good book, meal, or cup of coffee.

Matthew Penning

Director of Worship Arts and Discipleship

Matthew Penning is a Minnesota native and grew up in the Lutheran church where his faith began to be formed. He holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in church music from Luther College (Decorah, IA) and a Master of Sacred Music degree from Luther Seminary (St. Paul, MN). Since high school, he has served churches in Minnesota, Oregon, and Iowa. Matthew and his wife, Tamera, came to Iowa City in 2001 when he was called to serve as Director of Music Ministries at St. Andrew Presbyterian to work with all ages, equipping and discipling people through music and worship. Matthew and Tamera have two daughters, Margaret and Helen, who were born in Iowa City.

Matthew became involved with One Ancient Hope in 2009 while on a sabbatical leave. Since then he has served in multiple capacities, mainly behind-the-scenes. He is excited to devote his full-time attention to the people and ministries of One Ancient Hope and to continue to love and serve the Iowa City community.

Our Elders

One Ancient Hope is an elder led congregation (we call that group a “session”). In addition to our pastoral staff (known as teaching elders), our ruling elders are nominated and elected by the congregation to shepherd and lead our community.

Josh Super is a Supported Living Coordinator at Systems Unlimited, helping people who live with disabilities and mental health needs. His wife Rachel is a 4th grade teacher at Heritage Christian School in North Liberty. The Supers have two daughters and enjoy hosting people for supper, playing games, and gardening.

Chris Sutton and his wife March live in Solon with their four children. March is a librarian who works in the Solon school district. Chris is a software developer. He grew up in Brazil and enjoys soccer, planting, stories, hiking, hunting and snowshoeing.

Scott Whitmore and his wife Laura live in Iowa City with their four children. Scott works for the University of Iowa as a researcher.

Our Beliefs

We are a member church of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which is a confessional, reformed denomination.

We hold fast to the great Christian tradition by confessing the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed. We hold fast to the Presbyterian tradition by confessing the Westminster Standards (the Westminster Confession, the Westminster Larger Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism).

To summarize our core commitments, we believe:

There is one, only living and true God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

God has revealed himself in both creation and scripture; yet only in scripture, the infallible and inerrant word of God, do we find the revelation necessary for salvation.

God is the creator of everyone and everything; God created the world, and he made all things very good.

God created humans with an ultimate end, a purpose, a telos: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

As summarized in the law of God, to be fully human is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Humanity was created good, but unperfected (like an acorn that must grow into an oak tree). When God created humanity, he intended us to mature into the fullness of human perfection and flourishing (the human version of the oak tree) by following God’s law of love.

In Adam, humanity sinned by rejecting God and his good purposes, leaving us in a state of original sin whereby we bear sin’s guilt and corruption.

After the fall of humanity, God provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, who is God-the-Son-become-human, both in human body and soul.

In our place, Christ lived the perfect human life before God and neighbor (according to God’s perfect law); then, on the cross, Christ died the death that we deserve for our sin.

Christ rose again from the dead, and, in his resurrection, Christ was raised to the fully perfected, wholly flourishing, and incorruptible humanity that God intended for us when we were created (our human telos).

Having fallen in Adam, we believe that it is Christ’s obedience, and not our own, that restores us to our human telos (to the human version of the oak tree), as the grace of Christ purges our sin and perfects our nature.

When we place our faith in Christ, the Spirit unites us to Christ, making us partakers of all the benefits of Christ’s salvation; these benefits include justification, which heals the guilt of sin by covering us with Christ’s righteousness, and sanctification, which heals the corruption of sin by conforming us to Christ’s righteousness.

Christ is the head of the church, and it is through the church, the bride of Christ, that we receive Christ and rejoice in him; we do this by way of Christ’s word, his sacraments, and the discipleship of his covenant community whereby he conforms us to himself.

Upon the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead, Christ will raise his church into the fullness of human flourishing, as we glorify and enjoy God forever, as we love our neighbor as ourselves, and as we steward a restored and perfected creation.

Our City

Iowa City is often named one of the best places to live, and with good reason. A community of just over 100,000 people, this strategic Midwestern city has a lot to boast about. Best in the nation schools, excellent health care, and plenty of high paying jobs are just the start. Lots of owner-operated restaurants and shops populate the downtown area. Each summer brings the Iowa Summer of the Arts: featuring the Shakespeare Festival, an Arts Festival, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, the Landlocked International Film Festival, and Uptown Movie and Music nights.

The University of Iowa also affects the culture of the town in many ways. It includes top tier business, law, medical, and dental schools. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is considered to be the best writing program in the country, and one of the best in the world! Iowa City has been designated by the United Nations Council on Education, Science, and Culture as one of a select number “Creative Cities of Literature”. It is also home to the Iowa Hawkeyes, and their first class sports programs.

In short, Iowa City is a great place to live!

In Iowa City, post-Christian thought and progressive ideology meet “American apple-pie” values. Iowa City is a center for progressive thinking and politics that prides itself on its “open and affirming” stance on a variety of social issues. Iowa City is one of the most educated cities in the United States with over 47% of residents holding a Bachelor’s degree, and over 27% holding a graduate degree. Iowa City, in many ways, is the head of the culture-creating stream! And since the gospel speaks to all of life…One Ancient Hope seeks the flourishing of our city through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Our History

Just as Michael and Tess Langer were starting a church plant in Iowa City, eastern Iowa experienced severe flooding. So, in the summer of 2008 One Ancient Hope began as a relief work to help flood victims by cleaning out and restoring damaged homes. PCA church teams from across the U. S. worked alongside a few local volunteers associated with the new church plant. With One Ancient Hope’s focus on “Seeking the Welfare of the City,” it was a providential beginning.

The church body began to form in August 2008 with a Sunday afternoon Bible study. As more people joined, it outgrew all available homes, and by November it moved north of Iowa City to Preucil School of Music’s Northgate location. Regular Sunday morning services began in August 2009. In November 2010 the church moved to the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, a more centrally-located building that is easily accessible by foot to university students and the homeless community. The story of One Ancient Hope, then, is about the Lord calling together committed, praying, gifted, hard-working brothers and sisters in Christ to plant a church that strives to meet the needs of its members and the Iowa City community.

As a church planter, Pastor Michael worked with a “session on loan” from the Iowa Presbytery, referred to as the Commission. It included two elders from outside One Ancient Hope - Larry Hoop, a teaching elder, and Tim Hall, a ruling elder. Two members of the church also served on the Commission and met frequently with Pastor Michael, Josh Vahle (RUF pastor to the University of Iowa) and Fred Skiff who came to the church as an ordained PCA elder. In August 2011 Ian Hard came on board as the Assistant Church Planter, along with his wife Rebecca. Then on April 7, 2013 One Ancient Hope particularized and formed its first session when members voted in Cary Covington, Fred Skiff, Josh Super, and Chris Sutton as ruling elders. That day the congregation elected Pastor Michael to the position of Lead Pastor, and Pastor Ian as Associate Pastor. Pastor Michael currently serves as Director of Faithful Presence in Washington D.C. and Pastor Ian serves as pastor to Christ Church PCA in Pembroke, New Hampshire.

In June of 2016, the congregation welcomed Rev. Didi Wong as their Pastor. In his four years here, he got to know the beautiful college town of Iowa City and faithfully shepherded the congregation of One Ancient Hope. Didi helped the congregation transition from leadership under the original church planters and into a more established congregation. He led the church to work collaboratively in creating a new vision statement and implementing that vision in the community.

In addition, Didi led the effort to purchase the beautiful building we now minister through at 500 N Clinton St. and began to lay the groundwork of ministering to neighbors in that location. He also led One Ancient Hope in building a relationship of trust with Inside Out Re-entry Community. OAH inherited Inside Out as non-profit that serves the community through the church building. They are a non-profit that supports the formerly incarcerated to re-enter society meaningfully. Didi and his family moved to Durham, North Carolina, in July of 2020 to plant a multi-ethnic church, Missio Church, in his wife’s hometown.