By Rachel White, Pastor of Next Steps It hit me recently, somewhere between Evelyn’s birthday and getting Ezra ready for his first year of middle school, that we don’t have an elementary schooler in the house anymore. Evelyn just turned 13, so we are newly, officially parents of teenagers, and Ezra is right behind her. […]
Category: Weekly Blog
Put Sunday on Your Calendar First
By J.J. Bland, Director of Chapel Hill Preschool As summer begins to wind down, I always reach that moment when reality settles in. The slower pace, spontaneous backyard barbecues, late-night teen gatherings around the fire pit, and unhurried evenings are coming to an end. Our preschool teachers are already stopping by their classrooms, decorating bulletin […]
When Grief Changes Everything
By Katie Nelson, Director of Care Ministries I can easily recall the day my sister called me with the news. It was August 7, 2024, the day after Adelaide died. I heard something different in her voice…heaviness, crisis mode, shock. I walked outside to the back lawn. “Adelaide died,” she said. As the weight of […]
Coming This Year to Chapel Hill…
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor I got to be gone for an entire month this summer, and I don’t take that lightly. Thank you to Pastor Julie and Steve Maxwell, our COO, for leading our staff while I was away. Thank you to Pastor Julie, Caleb Bagdanov, and our guest preacher, Pastor Mike Moses, for […]
When the Plan Changes
By Julie Hawkins, Associate Pastor of Ministry Summer changes the rhythm. For some of us the school year ends and the whole household reorganizes around weekly camps and planned time away. For others the calendar may not shift, but something in the air feels different anyway from longer days to a slower pace, the sense […]
Pulling Up a Chair
By Rachel White, Pastor of Next Steps “We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:8) Investing Time in Communities That Don’t Yet Know Christ It’s tempting to think of Christian witness as something that […]
Celebrating Cara and Looking Ahead
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor There are seasons in the life of a church that invite us to pause and give thanks. Today is one of those moments. For the past 10 years, Cara Taylor has faithfully served Chapel Hill in countless ways. During that time, many of you have watched her not only lead […]
Who’s In Your Neighborhood This Summer?
By Julie Hawkins, Pastor of Ministry The garage doors are open. The sprinklers are running next door. The mountain is out! This is summer in the Pacific Northwest, and for a few warm months, the walls between our lives come down just a little. We’re outside. Our neighbors are outside. Kids appear from houses you […]
250 Years of Freedom—and One Very Teary Brit
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor I must have been seven or eight years old, standing in a playground in England, talking with some friends about the United States. I don’t remember exactly what was said. But I remember the feeling—this quiet, almost inexplicable sense that one day I would live there. Thirty-something years later, I […]
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Something Is Happening Here
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor A mom—not a churchgoer herself—recently texted another parent and said something that stopped me in my tracks when I heard it. “I don’t know what happens at that student ministry, but it has completely changed my daughter’s life.” Her daughter had been invited to Easter last year by a friend. […]