What We Believe
We want everyone, everywhere to experience the gospel.
At the heart of what we believe is the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus. We believe that Jesus (as the second person of the Trinity) came into the world to inaugurate the kingdom of God. We believe that he lived a sinless life and died the death of a sinner on our behalf. Through our trust in Christ, we are made right with God and formed into a community to follow him.
We exist to help religious and irreligious people become gospel people.
Religion and irreligion are the two default modes of the human heart. Each of us oscillate between religion and irreligion, sometimes on a daily basis. And we each need to be reminded of the gospel and made new by the gospel. This mission is both inwardly focused and outwardly focused.
Think of all the people you know who think Jesus is not for them – or they think religion is foolishness or hateful. Or they simply want nothing to do with any faith system. We want those “irreligious” friends to not just come to church or become moral, but to know and love Jesus through the Gospel.
Think of all the people you know that are “religious” in the sense that they think they are superior to other or acceptable because of their goodness, social activism, or their self-made spirituality. We want these “religious” friends to know the transforming salvation of Jesus in the gospel.
Lastly, think about yourself and your need for God to uproot both the performance-equals-favor disposition in your heart (“religiousness”) as well as your disposition to minimize God in your life (“irreligion”). Our mission is that Christians at CoaH Somerville would also grow as gospel people—spiritually mature disciples of Christ.
Irreligion says, “I don’t care what God thinks, I’m going to live my way.”
Religion says, “I obey, therefore God loves me.”
The gospel says, “God loves me through Christ, therefore I obey.”
We have 3 values that we try to emphasize in every one of our ministries:
Sound Doctrine - We want everything we do to be scripturally sound and theologically informed. You can see our statement of belief for a more detailed look at our theology.
Gospel Culture - Your culture as a church is almost as important as your doctrine. We want our doctrine to create a “gospel culture” where we live out the good news of Jesus with one another. Our gospel culture is defined by our community commitments that you can find below.
Multi-Ethnicity - We want to intentionally reach people from different ethnicities in the Somerville area. Our church is made up of people from all over the world and we want to be place where people from different backgrounds can live in community together.
Our strategy describes what we do in order to accomplish our vision:
We seek the presence of God in worship.
We are shaped into the image of Christ through discipleship.
We are sent out by the Holy Spirit on mission.
If you want a deeper dive into our doctrine, feel free to check out our statement of faith:
Our Story
2010 – City on a Hill Church Launches in Brookline
In 2008, Hope Fellowship Church started a small worship gathering in Brookline called, “Hope Fellowship Brookline.” This small group would later charter their own church in 2010 called “City on a Hill Church,” led by Bland Mason.
2014 – Redeemer Church Launches in Somerville
In 2013, this same Hope Fellowship Church again started a new church in a neighboring town. Redeemer Church in Somerville was planted by Claude Atcho and a dedicated group of believers from Hope Fellowship and his sending church in the Pacific Northwest.
2018 – Redeemer Becomes City on a Hill Somerville
After two years of close collaboration between City on a Hill Brookline and Redeemer, the latter changed its name to become “City on a Hill Church Somerville” on Easter 2018. This was the beginning of the City on a Hill Network of Churches in Boston. Shortly after this transition, Pastor Claude accepted a pastoral position at a church in Memphis, TN. He is currently the pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Charlottesville, VA. After spending 6 years as the Executive Pastor at City on a Hill Brookline, Fletcher Lang started as the lead pastor of City on a Hill Somerville in August 2018.
2018-Present Day – Slow Growth into Maturity
Over the past 5 years, the church has seen slow and steady growth in numbers and health. Each year we have the privilege of adding several new believers to our church family. Our church leadership has grown, ordaining a plurality of elders in 2021 and deacons in 2023. Our current average attendance is just over 100 adults with a thriving kids ministry, while our official membership is around 80. God has been good to us over the years, and we’re excited about what he has in store!
All CoaH Churches are local and autonomous churches that network together to advance the gospel in Boston and beyond. We are financially independent but supportive of each other and collaborate wherever we can do best serve each other and the city.