Our History
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 February 2011, CoaH bought a three floor residential building in Brookline Village from the Greek Apostolic Church of Brookline. 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. In the Spring of 2019, after a year of praying and pursuing a new space, CoaH moved into the Coolidge Corner School and has been gathering to worship there since.
Church Planting is built into the DNA of who we are. We believe it is one of the most effective ways to reach the Boston area and beyond and have planted many churches in pursuit of this goal. Hub Church in South Boston, Renewal Church in Bay Village, Indian Community Church in Waltham, and Milestone Church in Natick were all planted out of City on a Hill Brookline. In 2018 we joined forces with a young church plant called Redeemer Church to start City on a Hill Somerville and became a network of neighborhood churches, with more CoaH congregations being planted in the coming years.
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.
Our Core Values
Gospel
The gospel is the message of God redeeming for Himself an eternal family and Kingdom from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth by atoning for their sins through the sinless life, substitutionary death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. In short, the gospel is about Jesus and Jesus is the reason that we exist as a church.
Community
The gospel creates family where there is no family. This family is a new community, different from anything on earth, made up of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and personalities, who wouldn’t normally be sharing life together, but are united together as part of God’s family. We work relentlessly to build a strong sense of community in the church where love, grace, hope and truth characterize life relationships as people live together on mission.
Mission
The beauty of the gospel is that it does not just unite people together in powerful community, but gives that community a mission as well. After his death and resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, “…As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21 ESV). Christians are “sent” (from the Latin word missio where we get “mission” from) to the world to proclaim the gospel of Jesus in word and deed.