Our Pastor

Pastor Rick Sallee

Pastor Sallee was saved at the age of 14, while attending Cozaddale Baptist Temple. His family had recently moved from Elmwood Place to Goshen. It was at Cozaddale that the Lord put within his heart a desire to become a preacher.

He went to Baptist Bible College in 1977 where he met his wife, Lydia, and they were married May 26th of 1980. The Lord blessed them with two children, Crystal, and Rick.

After serving in churches in Texas and Ohio, his heart's desire was to serve in his home church, Cozaddale Baptist Temple. In 1987, he returned home, worked a secular job, worked with Junior Church, a bus route, and a Sunday School class, as well as helping in other areas.

On April 1, 1990, Cozaddale asked him to become full time on the Pastoral staff and the Lord fulfilled his heart's greatest desire. Years later, Pastor Travis Burke (Cozaddale Baptist Temple) desired to start a church in the Cincinnati-area and began visiting in Elmwood Place where Pastor Sallee had been raised. The out-reach mission was located on the corner of Vine and Linden Street. We spent 9 years there, and a lot of decisions for Christ had been made. Most of the people, because of the area, had moved on to other locations or had died early deaths. We, therefore, decided to pray about moving to another location that would be close enough that we could maintain a van route for those who wanted to move with us. A church, about 8 minutes away in Arlington Heights, called and gave us our current facilities, after we had been offered several locations outside of the area where the Lord had called us. We moved here with 10 people and organized as an independent Baptist Church in September of 2020. The Lord led Pastor Sallee to be Pastor of Hope Baptist Church.

The Lord has blessed these last two years, despite covid and the deaths of several of our members we have seen our attendance grow to an average of 25 with a high of 42. We are excited to see what the Lord has for us in 2023 and beyond.