OUR VISION
City on a Hill Church exists to glorify god through loving jesus, living in community, and serving the city.
We are a body of believers who seek to follow Jesus with our entire lives. We gather weekly for public worship on Sundays and throughout the week in homes scattered throughout the city. The church is not a building - in fact we don't own the building where we worship. The church is not a social club. The church
Our hope is to participate in a network of gospel-centered churches reaching the city in such a way where we see the percentage of Christians grow in Boston by 1% in the next 5 years.
We are Gospel-Centered.
At the center of every thing we do, we want the gospel to shine through. The gospel is the message of good news that we have in Jesus Christ. In his book, Center Church, Timothy Keller defines the gospel as this:
The gospel is the good news that God has accomplished our salvation for us through Christ in order to bring us into a right relationship with him and eventually to destroy all the results of sin in the world.
Our hope is that everything we do as a church has a gospel-motivation. Every conversation between members. Every ministry event. Every small group. We all want it to be centered on the good news that we have in Jesus Christ.
We are Multi-Cultural.
We believe that heaven is going to be filled with people from all nations and backgrounds worshipping a man (Jesus) of Middle-Eastern decent. Because of this, we strive to be a place that is welcoming to people of all backgrounds and cultures. Our goal is for our church to look as much like heaven as we possibly can. We believe that the gospel makes people family where there is no family. We recognize that we have a long way to grow in order to truly be multi-cultural, but we also rejoice the Lord has blessed us in many ways as well.
We are Seeker/Skeptic Intelligible.
By "intelligible" we mean that one of our primary goals is to make ourselves understandable to those who are not Christians while not watering down our message. We hold to the historic confessions of the Christian faith, and while we recognize that sometimes Christians can seem odd, we hope that you can at least understand what we believe and why we believe it. We strive to be a place where questions are taken seriously, and where people can find true faith in God.
CORE VALUES
Everything we do as a body of believers falls into these categories: gospel, community, and mission.
Gospel
At the center of who we are as a church is a firm belief in the good news of Jesus Christ. We believe that God created the world good, but brokenness, hatred, and hurt has invaded God's good creation. Jesus entered into this broken creation, fully God and fully man, in order to take on the brokenness himself and restore all things. Now we as the church join God in the renewal of all things as we await Jesus's triumphant return over sin and death.
Community
We believe that God has not only made us community, but he has made us family. At City on a Hill we strive to be an authentic community who truly lives out what we believe not just in word but also in deed. Through the work of God's redeeming power, he has knit us together, and now we enjoy God together and follow after him.
Mission
As we join God in the renewal of all things, we do this through serving the city and reaching out to others. We desire for every member of our church to openly share about their faith with the family and friends, and we pray that God brings many of them to salvation. But we also participate in ministries of justice and mercy, church planting, and international missions in order to bring many to know the salvation that we have in Christ.
Join Us Sunday Mornings for Worship Gatherings at 9AM + 11AM
Worship Gatherings are held at The Driscoll School, 721 Washington Street, Brookline MA 02446
HISTORY OF CITY ON A HILL
City on a Hill Church started in the fall of 2009 with a core group of thirty people meeting in Temple Sinai in Coolidge Corner on Sunday evenings. The group was led by Bland Mason and adopted the name City on a Hill Church based on Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” In June 2010, CoaH had its first official membership meeting with 23 people becoming charter, covenant members of the new church.
A month later CoaH launched a Sunday morning worship gathering and changed locations to the Michael Driscoll School in Washington Square in order to connect with more families in the community. As the morning worship gathering began nearly everyone was involved with one of the five community groups that met around the Brookline/Brighton area. These groups provided the relational backbone of the life and mission of the church.
In February 2011, CoaH bought a three floor residential building in Brookline Village from the Greek Apostolic Church of Brookline. The Greek church generously sold the building to CoaH for roughly one-third of the market value. Though the space is too small for CoaH to worship in, it serves as a ministry hub, office space and housing for staff and teams.
God has continued to show his faithfulness to CoaH as a new church. Over the past few years we have seen dozens of people baptized, approximately 100% of our average worship attendance involved in Community Groups, and mission/justice partnerships develop locally and globally. In addition, CoaH has also launched two church plants: Hub Church, lead by Charlie Dunn, in South Boston, and Renewal Church, led by Jared Kirk, in South End.
As City on a Hill presses into the future, we desire to be a church that is truly for the glory of God and the good of the city. We hope to continue to grow in generosity, service, and love for our community.