Hillside Community Church

Ever read the Bible and walked away feeling worse? In Nehemiah 8, God’s people gather to hear His Word read aloud from sunrise to noon. As they listen, they realize how far they’ve drifted, and they start to weep. But Nehemiah stops them: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” In Week 6 of Nehemiah and the 7 Cs, Pastor Aaron McRae explores what it means to be Christ-centered. T...

Most of us don’t struggle to know what matters. We struggle to choose it. You want to be a present parent, but your phone keeps winning. You want to grow spiritually, but prayer is the first thing to go when life gets busy. In Week 5 of Nehemiah and the 7 Cs, Pastor Aaron McRae names the conflict zone: the space between our commitments and our choices, where things usually go wrong. After the wall...

What if the community around you is missing something, and it's you? Most of us know we're supposed to belong somewhere. But after enough letdowns, it's easier to build a wall, trust only yourself, and keep people at a safe distance. You can show up for years and never actually be known. In Week 3 of Nehemiah & the 7 C's, Pastor Jayden Zwerner looks at Nehemiah 4. The peopl...

Ever wanted deeper community but couldn't figure out why it wasn't happening? You can build a church without building a community. You can have the walls, the chairs, and the programs and still feel alone in the room. In Week 3 of Nehemiah and the 7 Cs , Pastor Aaron McRae shows how God rebuilt more than Jerusalem's wall. He rebuilt His people. The big idea: community is a work God...

Afraid of the conversation you need to have? The decision you can't avoid? The step you know God is asking you to take? Most of us picture courage as loud and heroic. Biblical courage is usually quieter. It's telling the truth when it costs you. It's loving someone when you don't feel like it. It's refusing to compromise when everyone around you does. In Nehemiah 2, a cupb...

You can feel heartbroken by the news and still never do anything about it. Catastrophizing. Doomscrolling. Compassion fatigue. Comfort-zone syndrome. We have a dozen ways to feel deeply about suffering in the world — and still keep it at arm's length. This week kicks off a new series through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, and it starts in an unexpected place: not with a plan, but with a...

What if the goal isn't a different season — it's deeper roots? Everybody is trusting something to hold their life together: control, approval, success, another person, themselves. It works fine until the heat comes — a diagnosis, a closed door, a kid who won't choose right, a prayer that isn't answered on your timeline. Suddenly you find out what your roots were really in. In J...

What if the hardest season of your life isn't a sign God has abandoned you — but proof you're right in the middle of His story? In Exodus, God's people are rescued from slavery in Egypt... only to land in a wilderness with no food, no water, and no map. It's easy to judge them for grumbling. It's harder to admit we'd do the same. This week, Sean Murphy walks through t...

What if the plateau you're feeling isn't failure — it's just one stage of a much longer road? In the final week of our "What We Believe" series, Pastor Aaron McRae maps out the real stages of a life of faith — from first discovering God, to the busyness of serving, to a harder inward season many people never talk about, and finally into a life marked less by striving and m...

What if the thing holding you back isn't a lack of effort, but a wrong starting point? In Ephesians 4, Paul describes two very different ways to live — one marked by exhausted striving, and one that starts somewhere completely different: belonging. Pastor Aaron McRae opens our new series on Scripture and the Christian Life by asking a strange question — what does your life actually smell like...

What's your relationship with your Bible actually look like right now? For some of us, it's a stack of good intentions — worn in some places, untouched in others. In this message, Pastor Woody walks through a personal journey with Scripture — from childhood to now — anchored by a surprising Old Testament command: even Israel's future kings were told to personally write out and read...

You already know the Bible is good for you. So why is it so hard to stay consistent? Drawing from 2 Timothy 3, Pastor Aaron McRae makes the case that Scripture isn't just useful — it's doing something in you every time you engage with it. Teaching. Rebuking. Correcting. Training. Four words that sound simple but carry the weight of a life being shaped from the inside out. This is week tw...

Most people who read the Bible are reading it for the wrong thing. For information. For answers. For a checklist. And when it doesn't deliver, they close it and walk away disappointed. But what if the Bible was never meant to be read like a search engine — or a self-help book — or an instruction manual? Drawing from Luke 24 and the Road to Emmaus, Pastor Aaron unpacks what Scripture is actual...

What if the thing you're most proud of is the exact thing standing between you and real life? A successful, "good" young man comes to Jesus with a resume most of us would envy — wealthy, respected, morally upright. He's kept every commandment. He's checked every box. So why does he walk away from Jesus sad? Pastor Aaron McRae walks through Matthew 19:16-26, where Jesus mee...

What if you're in the middle of a dust storm right now — and you don't even know it? When visibility drops to near zero, when you feel disoriented and alone, it's easy to miss what God is actually doing. In Luke 24, two disciples walk seven miles with the risen Jesus — and don't recognize him. Not because he's hidden. Because they're downcast. Drawing from the Road to...

Most of us spend our lives trying to prove we're strong enough. Strong enough to hold the marriage together. Strong enough to handle the bad news. Strong enough to carry the pressure. But what if that's exactly the wrong thing to pack? Drawing from Exodus 6 and the rescue story of Israel, Pastor Karl Romeus unpacks one of the most practical questions scripture asks us: what are you carry...

Most people think freedom means doing whatever you want. But what if that's exactly what keeps you stuck? In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul writes to a group of churches that had already encountered the gospel — and were drifting away from it. Sound familiar? The freedoms they were chasing — self-sufficiency, religious performance, personal desire — were quietly becoming the very things that e...

What if the stories you tell your kids reveal more about your values than you realize? In Psalm 145, David — a king with real power — does something surprising. He refuses to take credit. Instead, he points upward and says: you are the real King. And then he passes that posture on. Pastor Aaron unpacks what it looks like to build a life of praise — not as a Sunday activity, but as a daily practice...

What makes someone a great father? Biology is just the beginning. On Father's Day, Pastor Aaron McRae explores one of the most surprising ideas in Scripture — that spiritual fatherhood isn't reserved for dads. It's a calling for anyone willing to lead someone toward Jesus and walk alongside them. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 4, this message unpacks what it looks like to warn without s...

What Actually Happens When You Get Baptized? Most of us have watched a baptism. The water, the moment, the applause. But what if there's something happening beneath the surface that most people never stop to think about? Here's something worth sitting with: repentance is the first word of the gospel. The first word out of John the Baptist's mouth. The first word of Jesus' publi...

Summer is the season we're most tempted to make everything about us. Our plans. Our rest. Our best life. But what if God had something better in mind? In this stand-alone message, Pastor Woody Morwood opens Micah 6:8 — one of the most quoted verses in all of Scripture — and asks a harder question: are we actually living it, or just knowing it? "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. A...

Most of us have some version of church we've settled for. Show up. Sit down. Go home. But what if that's nowhere near what the church was actually designed to be? In Acts 2, the earliest followers of Jesus didn't just attend something — they were devoted to something. Devoted to each other. Devoted to prayer, Scripture, meals, and radical generosity. And the result? People noticed....

On Pentecost Sunday — the 50th day after Passover — something extraordinary happened that changed everything. God wasn't just receiving offerings that day. He was giving the ultimate gift: His Holy Spirit. In this message, we explore Acts 2 and unpack how the Holy Spirit doesn't just help the church — He is the very engine that starts and sustains it. Without Him, we simply cannot do wha...

What if the exhaustion you feel isn’t just physical? In this message, Pastor D.A. Horton walks through Matthew 11:25–30 and Jesus’ invitation to weary people carrying heavy burdens: “Come to me… and I will give you rest.” In a culture obsessed with hustle, productivity, and self-reliance, Jesus offers something radically different — rest for the soul. This sermon explores how true peace is not fou...

This Mother’s Day message takes us into one of the most personal and powerful encounters in the Bible—Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. A woman hiding from people. A life marked by shame, brokenness, and disappointment. A conversation that changes everything. In this teaching, we explore how Jesus breaks through cultural barriers, personal pain, religious confusion, and spiritual emptines...