September is Hunger Action Month – Support the Hillcrest Church Food Pantry
Hillcrest Church is one of 260 local Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano partner agencies to help address food insecurity in our community. Nearly half of the food distributed through the Food Bank is through partner agencies, which include soup kitchens, church pantries, transitional housing services and child-care centers. Many Hillcrest members and friends…
Friday, September 6th is National “Thank a Food Bank Volunteer” Day!
While food insecurity rates increase, communities nationwide are rising to meet it. Dedicated volunteers and staff work tirelessly alongside families to run food banks and meal programs. They’re sharing food, building gardens, and calling for changes that make healthy food easier to find for everyone. Hillcrest Church thanks our Food Room volunteers for all they…
Join Us for Worship – Sunday, September 1st at 10:30 a.m.
Worship Theme: “Do Unto Others: Kindness” In worship, we are beginning a new series on the theme of “Do Unto Others.” The first Sunday we will talk about kindness. There is always space for kindness. I am reminded of these words from Poet Laureate Joy Harjo: We see you, see ourselves and knowThat we must take…
Join Us for Worship – Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 10:30 a.m.
All Are Welcome! Dearly beloved! We are talking about listening in these weeks and if you’ve had a chance to hear my speak, you will understand that I think about listening broadly. It is really about being deeply perceptive. We contemplated listening to God the last two. In the next two weeks we’ll consider listening to…
Hillcrest Pastor Joins Clergy for Reproductive Freedom Team
Pastor Niels Teunis has joined other clergy in Northern California’s Clergy for Reproductive Freedom team–a volunteer group of community leaders from diverse faith traditions who support and advocate for the mission and vision of Planned Parenthood Northern California. The Three Pillars include: 1. Enhance and elevate faith voices that are pro-reproductive freedom, and counter the…
Join Us for Worship – Sunday, July 21 at 10:30 a.m. – All Are Welcome!
“Love listens. It is the first task, to listen” – Paul Tillich
Join Us for Worship – June 30th at 10:30 a.m.
All are Welcome! We are at the end of Pride Month and I know that we willcontinue to celebrate the inclusive love of God throughout theentire year. Last week we saw that Jesus went to the other side“just as he was.” And just as you are you are a child of God.This week we will…
Join Us for Worship – Sunday, June 23, 2024 at 10:30 a.m.
All Are Welcome! Beloved!We are going to gain a new understanding of creation thisweek. You read that right, a new understanding of creation. And we’re going to need it becausewe have some places to go as a church. Where we are, we’ve probably done what we can so we may have to pick up and…
Join Us for Sunday Worship – All Are Welcome
Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. God Looks Upon the Heart.Beloved!This Sunday we will celebrate Father’s Day. I am deeplygrateful for all who play a father’s role in our lives, andall the unique gifts they offer.For some, this day brings painful feelings, or memoriesand if that is you, please know that I am holding…
Book Group: June 23rd
The book we are reading this month is The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences by John Wood Sweet. Based on rigorous historical detective work, this book takes us from a chance encounter in the street into the sanctuaries of the city’s elite, the shadows of its brothels, and the despair of its…
Outreach Program Updates
Layette Program Food Room Thanks to generous Hillcrest members, friends and community partners, our Food, Clothing and Layette programs continue our 55 year+ mission of feeding and clothing those in need in our community. We want to thank Lamorinda Presbyterian Church’s “Chicks with Sticks” who held their hugely successful Mother’s Day baby shower. We are…
Welcome, Rev. Niels Teunis!
Join us for worship with rev. teunis, our new settled senior minister – 10:30 a.m. Sunday, June 9, Rev. Niels Teunis will lead our worship for the first time as our Settled Senior Minister. We hope you will be able to attend worship on this special Sunday to welcome Revs. Niels and Angela to our…
Join Us for Worship at 10:30 a.m. – Sunday, May 26, 2024
Pastor Kim’s Final Sunday preaching at Hillcrest Church – Potluck Lunch & Reception to Follow Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside everyweight and the sin that clings so closely,[a] and let us run with perseverance the race that is setbefore us. ~ Hebrews 12:1…
Bible Detective: Who Wrote the Bible?
New Adult Education Class Begins Sunday, June 2nd at 9:30 a.m. in the Parlor Did you ever wonder who wrote the Bible? It’s not as easya question as you might think. While God may be theultimate author, it was humans across a span of over athousand years who actually put ink to parchment. Whowere these…
“We Cry Justice” Wednesday 6:30pm Bible Study via Zoom
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible proclaims justice and abundance for the poor. Yet these powerful passages about poverty are frequently overlooked and misinterpreted. How is our faith formed and informed by the God of justice? How does the God of justice shape our lives? We begin an online Bible Study at 6:30 pm on…
Pre-Post Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
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Pre-Post Racial America
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Message from Rev. Fred
Senior Minister
Stones in the Temple of God
As I write, MLK Day has just passed and it is the afternoon of Inauguration Day. Many things are in my heart and mind. I want to share one image, or set of images, having to do with building.
Just a little over 1,900 centuries before Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher named Ignatius wrote a letter from jail. He was the bishop of Syria within the still-new Christian church and had been imprisoned by the empire for his faith. In his letter, Ignatius pictured the people of God as ones defined and “kindled” by “love.” And he continues, “You are as stones of the temple of [God].” What’s more, “You are then all fellow travelers, and carry with you God, and the temple.”
Along with the love that is so core to our Christian faith and that Ignatius knew so well, the imagery of building and buildings was clearly important and dear to him. He had been arrested, taken away from his people and ministry, and carted off to the imperial city for trial. He was concerned for the future of his church and for all churches. And yet he knew and felt and prayed that the love and caring to which he had been called would not stop. And not only that it would not stop, but that it would continue to build. And it would…through people. People are the stones that build God’s temple, house God’s presence, and share God’s love in the world!
Just about 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood in front of the not-yet-completed capitol dome in our nation’s capitol building and used similar language to that of Ignatius. The building must continue and it must ever go on. When we stop building with and for love and peace, then who and what are we?
Sisters and brothers of Hillcrest—here’s to the Spirit of love alive among us and alive among anyone and everyone of any faith and no faith. Let us at Hillcrest ever be about leading the way in showing people what love alive in the world looks like. Like Ignatius says, we are living stones in the temple of God.
Let it be so, O God, let it be so.
Blessings,
Rev. Fred